Mad Money Machine

Blodget vs. Cramer

I guess it is my duty to report to you that there is a war of words going on between Henry Blodget (Guru #49) and Jim Cramer (Guru #17).

More than you’d ever want to know about it you can read here.
And it has links to the original articles and stuff…

Bottom line: Blodget thinks Cramer is giving out bad advice. Cramer thinks Blodget shouldn’t be allowed to speak.

MMM-052: Deep People

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but, if you just can’t possibly deal with that then go ahead and
Play show 52, right now 

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I’m proud to be sponsored by Index Funds Advisors at ifa.com. I’m going to help you go through each of the 12 Steps for Active Investors with snippets of the author Mark Hebner’s own podcast.

The 2nd Annual Mad Money Machine Match Play Golf Classic from the lovely Cotswolds-Hertfordshire New Wellisham, England. Buffet Warrenton and Graham Benjaminson bring you the action from the third hole.

Our Guru was born May 15th, 1915 and is still alive.

The Answer: What is the difference between an ETF and a Mutual Fund? I compare VTSMX vs. VTI.

Cramer and Bogle agree on something? ETFs are bad for you!

Our Tool helps you become Deep People.

Mark Hebner of IFA.com helps answer Rob’s question: “I am wondering if I should wait to enter with my buy and hold portfolio of index funds.” Mark says go to Step 4 on the web, read it over and over, and call him in the morning. 🙂

More Deep People: I play a snippet from Mark’s podcast, Step 2: Nobel Laureates.

Frank Barnako calculates Cramer’s return incorrectly.

Coming up on the next show, Show 53: I tell you all the secrets that Jim Cramer doesn’t want you to know as I review the book, Trading with the Enemy by Nicholas Maier.

66% of you want the MMM weekly or more frequently. Wow. Thanks for your support. Now what am I going to do?

Email me, or comment, or Call me on the Mad Money Machine voicemail line at 206-734-4763

The 2007 Portfolio Smackdown MMM Board of Directors game. We’re looking purely at returns and not risk, remember.

Please Digg Me! Please?

Download the show directly MMM-052.mp3

Music from music.podshow.com

Trees – Matthew Ebel

The Answer – Eric Vardeman

Money – Theory in Motion

Voltage Clamp,
Naked Under Leather – Rubber Band Banjo

Take Me Over feat Jodie – Don Taylor

My Woman in Tokyo – Deep Purple

Surprising Results so far in the Portfolio Smackdown

I gotta tell ya, even I’m surprised at the way the Portfolio Smackdown is shaping up so far this year. Is IFA Indexfolio 100 really that good? Or are all you guys (including me!) really that bad?

As of today and for the first time this year so far, the IFA Indexfolio 100 has taken the lead in the Portfolio Smackdown competition. No, I’m not just talking about beating the AVERAGE of the portfolios. It’s beating EVERY portfolio! I find this somewhat shocking. I mean, surely one out of 24 of us could pick the Cramer-influenced stocks that would have some nice gains! But it is not the case. The Indexfolio 100 is up 2.85% and the person in second place is mojojojo103 who is up 2.63%. The average of all portfolios is actually DOWN: -0.54% Obviously this is a short-term look at the thing, but it is something even I did not expect — even while I expected the Indexfolio 200 to do well.

So… why? Why is it winning?

Let’s break it down… 5% of it is in REITS, which is up a whopping 9.44% so far YTD.
12% is in International Small and Value indexes which are up about 3.5% YTD.
And 20% of it is in a US small cap value fund which is also up almost 3 and a half percent YTD.
And none of the other indexes are negative. In fact they are all up over 1% in just a month and a half into the year.
And this is net of all fees.

Anyone out there still picking stocks?

Cramer Stocks of the Year so far…

Frank Barnako has beaten me to the punch and has started evaluating Cramer’s Stocks of the Year already.

Weirdly though, Frank calculates the performance of Cramer’s picks including several days BEFORE Jim even mentioned the stock. Heck, I can pick stocks that have already gone up too.

Anyway, Frank calculates that Jim’s three speculative picks are up an average of 23%. But that is from the beginning of the year including time prior to when Jim mentioned them. I calculate they’re up 12.6% since the morning after his mention.

I also calculate that all nine of Cramer’s stocks of the year are up on average 4.7% compared to IFA.com Indexfolio 100 which is up 3.2%. I’ll dive deeper into all of this on show 52.

MMM-051: Something Fishy

I ENCOURAGE you toDownload this show thru iTunes!

but, if you just can’t possibly deal with that then go ahead and
Play show 51, right now 

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Mr. Haney complains to Mr. Douglas on Green Acres that he wasn’t able to buy his dream stock from his broker: Fishberger, Fishberger, Fishberger, Fishberger, & Frye. Plunger: speculator: someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains. Check it out in Season Three:

Can you believe it? Half of all children are of below-average intelligence. (wsj subscription required)

The American Investment Banker and the Mexican Fisherman.

The Answer: If Value stocks are shown to beat Growth stocks, shouldn’t I just buy Value stocks?

I review Chapter 2 of Cramer’s Book. Take the Risk Capacity Survey!

How frequently do you want me to put out a show? Take the poll on the home page.

Shows 31 and 32 are back online.

Been getting some wrong numbers on the Voicemail line.
Email me, or comment, or Call me on the Mad Money Machine voicemail line at 206-734-4763

So what is the ULTIMATE LAZY PORTFOLIO? Definitely, the IFA portfolios!

Our Tool helps you seek your Wii.

The 2007 Portfolio Smackdown MMM Board of Directors game. We’re looking purely at returns and not risk, remember.

Money Girl says to write down your financial goals and you’ll be richer. Something is fishy about the use of statistics.

I’m proud to be sponsored by Index Funds Advisors at ifa.com. I’m going to help you go through each of the 12 Steps for Active Investors with snippets of the author Mark Hebner’s own podcast. Next show: Step 2.

Our Guru , a fisher himself, says you should know something that others don’t in order to make money.

Please Digg Me! Please?

Remember, those Rollerblades I got for a late Christmas present? Remember my wife’s iPod that I use? The two don’t mix well. BTW: On my new iPod I protected it with ShieldZone scratch-proof covering. It is amazing.

Download the show directly MMM-051.mp3

Music from music.podshow.com

Fist – The Groove Mine

Play Time – Soulseeker

The Answer – Eric Vardeman

Money – Theory in Motion

Runaway Train – Under Feather

Day Break is online

On show 50, I said ABC’s Day Break show was gone. Now I see that it is available online. Sheeh, more stuff to consume. What are we do to with all this media? Day Break, Prison Break, 24, Heroes, American Idol, Netflix, podcasts, RSS feeds, XBOX 360 and PGR 3, FIFA 07, Madden 07, Gears of War, Zuma, Wall Street Journal, email, Mad Money, and of course Mad Money Machine.

Really now, this is getting out of control. Way out of control and there is no sign it will get any better any time soon if ever.

Oh yeah I almost forgot: Also an hour of homework per stock per week.

A three-full-page ad in WSJ today for Microsoft Windows Vista says:

The digital world is a beautiful thing.

There is an endless supply of more.
More music. More videos. More...stuff.

It's exciting (and a little overwhelming).

The thing is, managing all this stuff is
getting more complicated.

Music and pictures. E-mail and blog feeds.
JPEGs and PDFs everywhere.

We want all this stuff, but we want it simplified.

So. What if everything could become
instantly streamlined, easy to navigate,
and who knows, even more fun?

To which I way, yeah, but when would we ever have the time to consume it all? What we need is a way to do it faster.

Own it all

Now you can own everything in two simple steps: CWI and TMW. The CWI is the SPDR® MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) ex-US ETF (AMEX: CWI) which includes developed and emerging markets stocks outside the United States. The CWI ETF is the first of its kind to offer comprehensive international exposure to both of these markets. More detail at TheStreet.com.

The TMW is the SPDR® DJ Wilshire Total Market ETF (AMEX: TMW) which would be your US stock portion.

CWI + TMW. Set it and forget it.

Update 3/13/07: Check out Vanguards new FTSE ALL-WORLD EX-US ETF (ticker symbol VEU) instead of the CWI. It’s expense ratio is cheaper.

See the new poll?

I have a new poll for you to answer. How often do you want a new Mad Money Machine podcast? Click your answer then press the “Vote” button. Choose carefully and wisely because I may respect your wishes.

Cramer on Colbert

Just like I can never get enough monkeys picking stocks, I can never get enough Cramer or Colbert…

More Monkeys Picking Stocks

I just can’t ever get enough of monkeys picking stocks.

In the four years since Mr. Monk, wearing an NFL shirt in support of the Bears, has chaired and inspired the Sun-Times stock-picking contest, his stocks have posted annual returns that beat the major indexes each time.

Russell Indexes the Entire Globe

Russell Investment Group, of Russell 2000 index fame, announced yesterday the creation of several global indices including THE Global index. It will contain 10,000 stocks and will cover 98% of the equity investing universe.

I looked around to see if I could find out what the VALUE of this index is currently, but no joy. I searched MSN, finance.yahoo, Google, and even my broker without success. Lots of other Russell indices, but not the Global index.

I’m eager to follow this index as it seems like it could be the ULTIMATE diversification play. An article in the 18 December 2006 issue of Business week was entitled, “In Search of a Global Index Fund” and said that sometime in the next year or two, Wall Street’s index mavens may well come up with the Holy Grail of investing — a single-purchase, low-cost, indexed global portfolio. They referred to the MSCI Global Capital Markets index as a possible foundation for a fund to track. Now there is a new candidate.

I like this idea. I think comparing performance to a portfolio like the S&P 500 index is dumb. We should be much more diversified than that in our portfolios so why compare it to an index that is not as diversified?

I can’t wait to put the Russell Global index in my portfolio tracking tools. Where is it?