Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer 7/17/26

**Robert** (0:00)
The board recommends approving...

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
Regarding that seat on the committee, we're promoting...

**Ann** (0:02)
To most quarterly earnings...

**SPEAKER_4** (0:04)
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**Jim Cramer** (1:01)
My mission is simple, to make you money.
I'm here to level the playing field for all investors. There's always a bull market somewhere, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now.

**Jim Cramer** (1:17)
Hey, I'm Cramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Cramerica. If you want to make friends, I'm just trying to make a little money. My job is not just entertaining, to put it all in context, so call me at 1-800-743-HCBC or tweet me at Jim Cramer. I am constantly on this show telling you that discipline always trumps conviction. I tell it to you over and over and over again. In other words, no matter how much you may love a stock, no matter how enthralled you are with the underlying story, if the rules say sell, sell, sell, sell, you sell it. One thing I've learned from my investing career, no matter how much you might believe in something, you violate the rules of the road at your own peril.
That's why we obey them religiously with the channel trust, and they become our core guide for this CNBC investing club, which I want you to be in. But where the heck do these rules come from? It's not like they were handed down from on high and carved into stone tablets. Hey, they're not the lowest five commanders for the history of the world, part one. They're not like the laws of physics. You can't just deduce them from observing the way markets works that you can deduce a gravity. No, the rules come from my experience. That's right, from my experience. I spent over 40 years in this business, and in that time, you better believe I've learned some powerful lessons. In many cases, I did have to learn them the hard way. And because I don't want you to repeat my mistakes, because I want you to have the benefit of my whole career, tonight I'm going to lay out some of the most important rules for investing, and they are indeed timeless. Some of this stuff may seem basic, but again, you forget the rules in your own peril. Back in my old hedge fund, I occasionally convinced myself that it was OK to make exceptions, to have a cheat day, so to speak, to ignore my discipline just this once. For some reason, this seemed compelling at the time. And whenever I broke my own rules, I almost always got burned.
It's like that old joke about the doctor, the guy who goes to the doctor and he says, hey doc, doc, listen to me. It hurts when I stretch out and shake my hand around, to which the doctor replies, don't do that anymore.
So, what exactly should you be doing or not doing is the case maybe? All right, let's tick down my most important rules from best. We're going to start with the first one, which is bulls make money, bears make money, pigs, well, they get slaughtered.
Look, I say this all the time because that's because so often in my business, I've seen moments where stocks went up and up and up so much that people were intoxicated with their gains. They were geniuses. However, it's precisely at that point of intoxication that you need to remind yourself that you don't want to act like a pig.
I first heard this phrase in the old trading desk, the legendary Steiner Partners, an amazing old hedge fund. I've been having a big run in some stock and the brilliant Michael Starrant would tell me that I've made a lot of money, perhaps too much money, and maybe I was being a pig. I had no idea what he was talking about. How do you make too much money? I was just grateful I caught a major gain. Of course, not that long ago, not that long after, we got a vicious sell off and I gave back everything I made and then some.