I admit it. I love the show Mad Money hosted by Jim Cramer. Cramer is high energy, takes definitive positions on stocks, is tough in interviews of CEOs, reveals his strategies and logic on stock picking with disarming candor, and admits to his winners and losers (although we do not get a total). He also is genuine in his efforts to "make you money."

Here's the rub. The show undoubtly will encourage the home stock pickers to become day traders and lose their shirts. Empricial research by Terrance Odean at the Haas Business School has shown what pros in the brokerage business all know -- individual traders are suckers. ("All that Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors") They inevitably lose money to the pros. The best play for home traders is holding some form of investment indexed to a major market index -- an indexed mutual fund or an exchange traded fund (ETF). They minimize trading costs and hold a diversified claim on the market itself.