Bill King: Even Cramer's small hedge fund could manipulate market

Cramer's Big Mouth:
Clip Could Run Afoul of CNBC

By Roddy Boyd
New York Post
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03212007/business/cramers_big_mouth_business...

CNBC host Jim Cramer's candor in a now-infamous video clip that has circulated on YouTube may have run afoul of the terms of his broadcast contract, sources told the Post.

The clip, which had Wall Street tongues wagging this week after Cramer admitted in it to manipulating stock prices during his hedge fund days, may have also violated CNBC rules about disparaging on-air talent.

During the controversial 10-minute clip, Cramer described a variety of tactics that hedge fund managers use to affect a stock's price. To keep a stock's price down, Cramer said, one strategy is to spread rumors to reporters he described as "the Pisanis of the world."

The comment was a reference to CNBC correspondent Bob Pisani, who reports from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

"You have to use these guys," said Cramer, whose track record managing $450 million at his hedge fund, Cramer Berkowitz, was a robust 24 percent average annual return.

Shortly after mentioning Pisani, he also discussed giving information to "the bozo reporter from The Wall Street Journal" to get an article published.

According to people familiar with the network's practices, most CNBC employment contracts have a "disparagement clause," which prohibits employees or contractors from publicly insulting or criticizing on-air talent. The language is considered boilerplate and most networks regularly insert similar language into their broadcasters' contracts, sources told The Post.

Pisani did not return an e-mail seeking comment. CNBC executives did not reply to repeated phone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Cramer also has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

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From The King Report
by Bill King
M. Ramsey King Securities Inc.
http://www.mramseyking.com/thekingreport.html
Thursday, March 22, 2007

With Jim Cramer admitting that manipulating stocks is easy and done often, it's worth noting that he ran a relatively small fund. One can just imagine what funds that have billions of dollars and very, very important connections are capable of doing.

We wonder if all those financial journalists, pundits, and analysts, most of whom are bereft of any meaningful trading experience but who have asserted that there is no manipulation of the markets and that the markets are too big for anyone to manipulate, will admit the error of their ways and reasoning. They won't.

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