‘Mad Money’ host pens more on investing

In his previous book, “Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World,” the host of CNBC’s financial show, told readers about the disciplines and insights he had developed during his career as a money manager. But Cramer writes that since then, it’s harder for middle-class investors to make the right investments. In his new book, “Mad Money,” he tells them how to invest in a more global economy. Cramer was invited on “Today” to discuss his book. Read an excerpt:

Introduction
Investing well isn't easy, but it is possible. My goal in life is to make it easier for you to make money. I want to help out regular people with paying a mortgage, or college tuition, or hey, if we really do well, maybe buying a boat. Picking the right stocks is one of the hardest parts of investing, and every night on Mad Money, I try to take some of that burden off your shoulders. If you watch the show, I can give you good stocks. I can help you understand where the market's going. My last book, Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World, gave you the disciplines and insights I had developed over the course of my long career as a money manager. Since I wrote Real Money, it's gotten harder to be a regular investor. We live in a more dynamic, more economically integrated world, and that means it takes more effort to know all the facts you need to invest wisely. In this book, I'll show you how you can best use Mad Money to make money in this new, more complex global economy, and I'll also teach you the many new lessons about investing that I've learned from putting the show together every weekday for more than a year. I hope Mad Money, and this Mad Money book, can give you a life that's richer in wealth if not necessarily in spirit.

But if you think just watching Mad Money alone can make you rich, you're dead wrong. If you think that watching the show and maybe doing a little research on the side can make you money, I'd bet you're off the mark there too. It's not enough just to process what I say on the show. You need to know what to do with it. And that, my friends, is what this book is all about.

I want to help you take the advice I give out on Mad Money and show you how you can turn that advice into money in your pocket. That's what I'm all about: helping everybody get rich. There's a method you need to use, there are protocols to follow. Sometimes you'll need a translator to understand what I'm saying on the show, because I get a little caught up with the idea of being on TV and start making lots of incomprehensible references to things only a few hundred people have ever heard of. But if you watch the show, and if you use this book to turn my advice on the show into real investment strategies, I think you'll be able to make yourself some serious dough. I don't want to knock the show — it's fun to watch — but there's more to investing than I can convey in an hour a night of TV, especially when I have to keep from being too didactic in order to hold everybody's attention.

NBC VIDEO Jim Cramer shares holiday stock picks Dec. 5: The "Today" show's Ann Curry talks with the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" about his new book on investing in a global economy, "Mad Money," and his stock picks. Today Show Money

This book is about maximizing what you can do with the market advice I freely distribute on the show — advice that comes out of two decades of experience playing the market, and playing to win. This book is the necessary complement to Mad Money, and the even more necessary sequel to Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World. In Real Money I wanted to help individual investors make money in the stock market. I wrote that book before I had Mad Money, and in the last year and a half, things have changed. I learned more in the first year of making my show than I learned in any five years I spent running my hedge fund. Now I've got a new approach to stocks. It's pretty simple: there's no such thing as the market. Whenever people talk about "the market," they're really talking about a very small group of large institutions: hedge funds and mutual funds. Because these funds control so much of the money in the market, they're the ones who determine stock prices. A stock is only worth what the big institutions are willing to pay for it. Mad Money and this book are both meant to help you, the individual investor, understand what these big players are doing and to help you try to beat them at their own game. In this book, I'll tell you how to make the best use of my show in light of my new philosophy, and I'll teach you the important new lessons I've learned since I wrote Real Money. The market's changed; my new rules will help you capitalize on my most recent experience with stocks, and they'll help you deal with a stock market that's gotten harder.

Now, sometimes I've got to toot my own horn just so you guys will listen to me. I have a few talents: I am a pretty good stock picker and a successful investor. Just so you don't think I'm conceited, I'm also not the most considerate guy on earth, and I'm a bad sport when playing Monopoly. The point is, I know how to make money in the market, and I want to help you make as much money as possible. I'm not doing it to be famous, and I'm not doing it for the pay, because I've already got more money than I feel comfortable having, and I say that as an incredibly greedy capitalist. I need to make you rich. I don't know why, maybe it's out of a pervasive sense of guilt, maybe I'm a nice guy — it doesn't matter. You will need more than just Mad Money if you're going to make the money I want you to make.

MORE FROM TODAY

Today Section Front

Amanda Knox’s sister: ‘I feel more confident’ Jackson’s ex changes mind, won’t attend service Ruling disappoints MySpace victim's mom Palin's resignation stuns father-in-law Jackie O, RFK had steamy affair, book claims   No sweat! Look suave for a summer wedding Serious note in holiday night at White House Jermaine Jackson: ‘I wish it was me’ Michelle Obama bringing glamour to Moscow To-die-for pie is testing Obama’s discipline Today Section Front   Add Today headlines to your news reader: