2011 Update: Video got pulled, reposted.

soupsoup via brooklynmutt:

Jim Cramer Shorting Stocks, Manipulating Markets, Saying The SEC Doesn’t Understand

In light of the current economic crisis, and with the hullabaloo ignited recently by Jon Stewart over the accuracy of CNBC’s reporting, we thought it might be useful to revisit this shocking 2006 interview Jim Cramer gave to TheStreet.com’s Aaron Task.

In it, the host of Mad Money says he regularly manipulated the market when he ran his hedge fund. He calls it “a fun game, and it’s a lucrative game.” He suggests all hedge fund managers do the same. “No one else in the world would ever admit that, but I could care. I am not going to say it on TV,” he quips in the video.

He also calls Wall Street Journal reporters “bozos” and says behaving illegally is okay because the SEC doesn’t understand it anyway.

Huff Post

This is completely accurate, standard practice, and also why I was so happy to see Jon Stewart rag on CNBC last week. These guys operate on a security through obscurity method or more specifically, the massive knowledge gap between the “average public,” “average CNBC viewer,” and “average institutional trader” is enough that it’s not market manipulation at all, it merely is how it is.

Or, as one of my favorite sales traders used to say, “Blue Horseshoe loves Anacot Steel.”