Jim Cramer's Confession On The Street.Com TV

My partner emailed me this YouTube video clip from The Street.com TV's interview with Jim Cramer. Judging by the comments in the beginning of the clip, it took place sometime in December, before the MacWorld announcements of the iPhone and AppleTV.

I think Cramer speaks quite clearly about both his view of, and actions in support of that view of equity markets. According to him, you really need to be wary of any sort of very short term, especially intra-day, stock price trends.

Cramer dismisses various analysts, Wall Street Journal writers, and CNBC's Bob Pisani as mere pawns who will immediately broadcast whatever lies, rumors or tips they are fed by hedge fund managers like Cramer used to be. According to Cramer's view of equity markets, short-term prices are more likely to be manipulated by large hedge funds with the willingness to create false information and the money to create momentum in their desired direction than to be a function of simple supply and demand forces.

After viewing this clip, I think even less of on-air, real-time "reporting" of breaking stories on CNBC. Far from being only entertainment, they may, instead, be a part of a carefully orchestrated market manipulation.

The manner in which Cramer candidly and off-handedly discusses market manipulation, via false rumors and price manipulations, makes me wonder how anyone else can make money day trading, or even trading with timeframes as long as only a week or two. If Cramer is even remotely correct in his description of how the daily equity markets in the US trade, it's ample reason to have a much longer holding period, such as several months. Like the six-month holding period my equity portfolio management strategy uses. Over such a long timeframe, it's unlikely that an equity's total return will be totally a function of market manipulation.