Cramer's picks still underperforming

Bill Alpert of Barron’s, which has long been a critic of “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer, takes a look at his recent picks again in its Saturday issue and determines that they’re still underperforming when compared to the overall market.

Alpert writes, “Cramer’s recommendations underperform the market by most measures. From May to December of last year, for example, the market lost about 30%. Heeding Cramer’s Buys and Sells would have added another five percentage points to that loss, according to our latest tally.

“To his credit, Cramer’s Sells ‘made money’ by outperforming the market on the downside by as much as five percentage points (depending on the holding period and benchmark). His Buys, however, lost up to 10 percentage points more than the market.

“These batting averages represent his stock-picking over a stretch of time, but Cramer is wildly inconsistent, and the performance of individual picks varies widely. So widely, in fact, that it is impossible to know with confidence that any sample of Cramer’s recommendations will enable you to outperform the market.

“These facts don’t mean that viewers should avoid his informative and entertaining show — they should just be wary of his stock picks.”

Read more here.