Following Cramer's stock picks

USA Today financial markets reporter Matt Krantz said he recently asked the producers of Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” show for a list of Cramer’s stock picks so he could review their performance.

Krantz writes, “CNBC, after considerable prodding, provided a spreadsheet with Cramer’s picks from two of the five segments of each show, excluding the lightning round, in which he answers questions from viewers.

“Based on this incomplete list, Cramer’s picks have gained 16.2%, on average, from the show’s launch March 14, 2005, through March 27, 2006. That makes the Standard & Poor’s 500 gain of 7.3% look pretty sad. Cramer says he’s made his viewers lots of money. ‘I’m very proud of my record,’ he says.

“I provided CNBC’s list to third-party research firm Investars.com, which said, based on the incomplete list provided by CNBC, that the S&P 500 stocks picked by Cramer have performed much better than the S&P 500 at large and his picks of stocks in the small-cap Russell 2000 index have outperformed that index. Investars also found that small-cap stocks recommended by Cramer soar after being mentioned on Mad Money.”

Krantz also writes that Cramer’s performance should be judged against other benchmarks and should consider the commissions that would have been paid.

Read his analysis here.