Confessions of a Street Addict (Hardcover)

~ James J. Cramer (Author) "When other nine-year-old kids bothered to look at a newspaper back in 1964, they turned to the comic strips, or maybe the ball scores..." (more)
Key Phrases: other hedge funds, departing partners, fund model, Wall Street, Dow Jones, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's hard to think of anyone more intense or opinionated, or who wears as many hats as James Cramer. In Confessions of a Street Addict, the man who first made a name for himself on Wall Street successfully managing his hedge fund--and then became famous on Main Street with his manic appearances on CNBC--tells the improbable story of his career as journalist, Wall Street pundit, Internet entrepreneur, and television commentator. For the most part, Cramer manages to avoid the self-congratulatory hype that mars so many books of this ilk; in fact, what makes Confessions so compelling are the shots that Cramer takes at himself, be it his now infamous capitulation during the stock market panic of October 1998, when he wrote a piece for TheStreet.com advising readers of an impending crash just as the market began to rebound, or the callous way he treated so many around him in pursuit of the next trade. Here's an informative, honest, and rollicking read for fans of CNBC, TheStreet.com, or anyone who has ever lost sleep thinking about their portfolios. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

Cramer, famous for appearing on CNBC as the "wild excitable guy [with]... a big mouth and lots of passion talking authoritatively about how you could make money by getting on the Net," recounts his turbulent dual career as hedge fund manager and media pundit. Cramer tells of his lifelong obsession with the market, beginning with childhood scenes of poring over daily stock listings. The story kicks into high gear once he starts juggling his law school course load so he can spend as much time as possible trading (over the phone, in the pre-Internet '80s). After that, the narrative's pace never relents from depictions of Cramer's early days at Goldman Sachs through the launch of his own fund, which led to magazine columns, a near-constant presence on TV, and TheStreet.com. Cramer's description of the financial news Web site's launch is ruthless, not just toward the executives whose scheming and mismanagement, he says, undermined TheStreet.com's success, but toward himself for hiring them and temporarily destroying his long-standing friendship with publishing fixture Marty Peretz. Cramer is equally self-recriminating about the effect his fanatical trading had on his personal life, but clearly still loves to linger over every major deal of his career (and a lot of the minor ones), even perhaps especially if they blew up in his face. This is a lively, informative portrait of the highest levels of finance and media in the last decade.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743224876
• ISBN-13: 978-0743224871
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (171 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #235,204 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cramer vs. Maier, Trading with an Ego, September 26, 2002

By	R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I read this book after reading Maier's account of working at Cramer's hedge fund, "Trading with the Enemy". While Maier's book is not an in-depth detailed book, it projects Cramer as an egotistical tyrannical trader. Reading this book for a comparison, you can believe both sides of the story. Cramer recounts many of the same stories and they are remarkably similar but from different perspectives. For example, they both wrote about the birthday party where Cramer became extremely intoxicated and puked on the guests. Maier describes this as another example of Cramer's poor manners and ego. Cramer describes the bad day he had had and where he was mentally that had him over drink and embarrass his family. If anything, I was surprised that an egomaniac like Cramer could admit to any shortcomings. Many "Masters of the Universe" can't.

Cramer doesn't strike me as a charismatic guy. But you have to be impressed with where he started and where he ended up. Maybe his tactics were questionable. But to compete in the money arena with the fortunes at stake, it is impressive that he was able to even be on the field and favorably compete at least for a few years.

There are two significant relationships in the book I feel compelled to mention. First the investor who Cramer met who not only invested but recommended investors. This also turned out to be the relationship that Maier knew to get his job. A partnership was formed to set up TheStreet.com and somehow in the personnel problems of the venture, Cramer had a falling out with his favored investor that appeared to eventually leading to the shutdown of the hedge fund. You can sense from hearing Cramer's side that there is another side to the story. Cramer doesn't place blame but you can sense that he probably upset many people in his new business venture. It is an interesting case study listening to the different CEOs that are hired and how in Cramer's opinion they ruined the business.

Also, Cramer talks extensively about the relationship with his wife. She was also a stock trader and at different points in his career, she comes back to assist with trading. This part of the book shows just how emotional and psychological trading can be. Cramer would be a tough guy to live with and being married to another trader who understood the environment and the egos involved would make for a volatile relationship. I'd like to know more of the dynamics of that relationship but I suspect she is a real saint, as it appears to work well.

In summary, this book gives some background on what it is like in the rough and tumble world of Wall Street during a very unique trading period. Cramer is a self-promoter who successfully promoted himself into a high profile media job and therefore has some celebrity status. But the real story is the egos of people in this business and what they have to do to be successful and how they can live with some of their egotistical tendencies

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brutally honest self-portrait, January 6, 2003

By	Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jim Cramer is not a saint. He is impatient, domineering, egotistical, and almost certainly there are other unflattering things you could say about him. Yet he is a true rarity in my mind because he tells you he is all of those things repeatedly in his own autobiography. He does a fantastic job of honestly outlining the major events of his life. He acknowledges the things he has done well but spends far more time detailing his excesses and failings as well as being generous in giving credit for his success to others.

What makes this book so interesting is that it is neither a tearful apology nor a chest-thumping self congratulation. Cramer matter of factly details his journey to success as well as the toll it took on his personal life including his utter insensitivity in dealing with his family.

The passages dealing with His wife alone are worth the price of the book. The woman is nothing short of amazing both as the "Trading Goddess" that truly lives up to her name as well as the woman who puts up with a workaholic husband that is virtually never around when she needs him.

All in all, this is a fascinating book that anyone would do well to read.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly perfect, part memoir, part love story and part confessional, March 18, 2006

By	K. Corn "reviewer" (Indianapolis,, IN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Confessions of a Street Addict (Paperback)

I wrote a review of this before and it disappeared so hopefully this one will appear. My husband and I took turns reading this book aloud to each other, which meant we spent basically a day in front of a roaring fireplace, snowed in and riveted by the memoirs of a guy who defied normal human behavior.

First off, how many kids start off in life fascinated by the financial section of the newspaper, let alone making pretty shrewd jusdgments of which stocks would be wise investments? How many try to get their fellow students to play "the stock market game" (he didn't succeed in getting them to do so in spite of his game attempts). How many grow up and get a Harvard law degree and chuck it to work on Wall Street, grueling by most people's standards, high stress, high risk, etc?

What struck me about this book were several things:

1. Cramer is a far different person within the confines of a book than he may appear on tv. Yeah, he admits to craxy behavior, workaholism, talking business while on vacation and even during the delivery of one child...but at least he isn't there shouting and sweating and leaving the impression he is about to have a heart attack, right there, on air. Yes, he admits to having tantrums, trashing keyboards, throwing bottled water at people, etc. But hey, he is at least admitting this!

2. His wife is the woman behind hin and perhaps the major reason for his success, since she pulled him out of a major tailspin..according to his account. Either he is a very savvy husband or he is wise enough to give credit where it is due.

3. He finally wakes up and realizes the costs of his behavior, after alienating a good friend (they make peace afterwards), talking business during a funeral, etc.

If you are buying this book to learn the details of trading and Cramer's "method" you'll have to read between the lines. But this didn't matter to us. Take one excellent writer, some superb anecdotes, tons of humor and some moments that give a whole new meaning to the words "risk tolerance"...and you have a wonderful book, perfect for even those who think they'd never want to read about a guy in the financial/ hedge fund business.

And yes, we have started perusing the financial sections of the papers more closely. So there's that, too.