Investing

Jim Cramer's Take on Index Investing and His Lightning Round Picks

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Like clockwork, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday, despite dipping to negative briefly on the day. Although the markets have only been moving modestly and edging higher, the economic backdrop appears to be firming up as the pandemic seems to be waning. Separately, Bitcoin has come rocketing back from its lows last week, and oil is holding above $73 a barrel. All this makes for a stock picker’s market, and who better to pick these stocks than CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

Cramer has been a force in the market for years, dishing out advice and analysis to savvy investors. He makes no bones about how he encounters the market with well-founded technical and fundamental analysis at a level to which many a trader and investor aspire.

It is no secret that Cramer has not just been a fount of breaking news surrounding everyone’s favorite stocks and companies, but he also actively engages and encourages more people to get their money to work for them via smart investing. With the recent surge in meme stocks and interest in cryptocurrencies, Cramer has shifted and grown with the times. He even has investment strategies on the cutting edge.

Cramer has maintained a popular show on CNBC for years now. Many people watch “Mad Money” to make sense of the daily market moves. He also runs the popular finance website TheStreet.com. Furthermore, you can see him make cameos on other shows over the course of the trading day on CNBC. When not on the air, you can find him on Twitter, dishing out even more knowledge.

24/7 Wall St. has compiled and distilled some of Cramer’s top picks and analysis here:

Cramer started out “Mad Money” by saying that there’s a lot more to investing than just owning broad index funds. While there’s a place for index funds in everyone’s portfolio, picking individual stocks can be just as valuable, if not more, but it requires some homework.

Jimmy Chill was quick to point out a problem with owning index funds is that not all stocks are worth owning, so gains from a few big winners may be hampered, but at the same time some major losses are mitigated by the winners. So what’s worth owning today?

Some stocks that Cramer has highlighted are Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Paychex Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX), Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA). All of these stocks have been hiding in plain sight and each one of these has seen massive gains over the years.

There were a few big names in the Lightning Round. Cramer started with Reinvent Technology Partners (NYSE: RTP): “It’s a SPAC and this is the hippo, which people like for insurance, and I’m not going to fight it because it’s under $10.”

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU): Cramer had a lot to say about this one: “Baidu is my second favorite after Alibaba. I mean, for people who don’t like Alibaba Baidu is making a real comeback here. Those are the only two that I’ve really been talking about, other than JD. I don’t like a lot of the Chinese stocks. Didi is pricing tonight. That is one I do like. That’s the Uber of China.”

Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) was another big name that came out. While this was a staple during the pandemic, Cramer had this to say, “I am betting right now that Linda Rendle is going to make you money if you buy the stock of Clorox under $180. I want to bank with her, right here. I think it makes sense, 2.5% yield, good company. Buy the stock of Clorox.”

Jimmy Chill ended the round with 23andme Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ME): “That’s Anne Wojcicki. She’s bankable … this is a really good company.”

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