Cramer is calming down

Alex Markels of U.S. News & World Report profiles “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer in the latest issue, and he writes that Cramer seems to be slowing down and spending more time with his two daughters. Cramer also recently separated with his wife.

Markels wrote, “But Cramer continues not only to eyeball the ticker but to move it as well. The ‘Cramer effect,’ as it’s known, can lift a stock’s shares 15 percent or more in the days following his ‘buy’ calls. His daily picks—often a dozen or more suggested both in scripted segments and in a 10-minute ‘Lightning Round’ that answers viewers’ calls on the fly—receive close scrutiny.

“Take his recent ‘buy’ recommendation on Syneron Medical, maker of a new line of dental laser drills. His sleeves rolled up to his elbows as the Steadicam operator pulls in for a close-up, Cramer mugs a teeth-gnashing grimace, then grabs his electric drill and drives the bit into the mouth of a balding bobblehead doll made in his image.

“‘Symbol E! L! O! S!’ he calls out like a cheerleader. ‘EEEEEELOS!’

“‘Oh, we liked it once. We actually hit it out of the park!’ he yells, grabbing a baseball bat and beheading the doll with one swing. ‘And now I think it’s time to nail elos again!’

“Over the next 10 minutes he lays out the case for why Syneron’s dental lasers are the next big thing. And sure enough, by the end of the next day, the company’s share price has risen more than 17 percent on unusually high volume—despite no news other than Cramer’s pick.”

Read more here.