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So, is Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS subscription worth the money?

What are you really getting from the Action Alerts PLUS subscription?

Access to Action Alerts PLUS, Real Money, Real Money Pro, Top Stocks, Trifecta Stocks, Quant Ratings and Stocks Under $10 Private Chairman’s Club Concierge Service Get Started for Free.
Considering signing up for Motley Fool's Stock Advisor or Jim Cramer's Action Alerts Plus? Read our in-depth comparison so you can find out which one is better.

Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS is a compelling offering. As the star of CNBC’s Mad Money, Jim Cramer has won the attention and the hearts of investors of all ages. His expertise in the market is hard to ignore, and Action Alerts PLUS gives you access to that expertise and more, at a highly competitive cost. May 10, 2019 Action Alerts PLUS: Its 2019, and Jim Cramer still SUCKS. Jim Cramer is a public nuisance. He claims to be have graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law (Magna Cum Laude) but apparently nobody has ever seen his diploma. Nor is he registered as a lawyer, or ever practiced law. Apparently, TradingSchools.Org is the first to ever ‘call him out.

Can you achieve market-beating returns by following the stock picks inside the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio?

Are there any better stock picking services than Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS?

In this detailed review, I will help you answer all these questions and also share my first hand experience after trying Action Alerts PLUS monthly subscription.

Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio

So, what is Action Alerts PLUS?

And what can you actually get from it?

Action Alerts PLUS is basically Jim Cramer’s members-only investing club, providing real-time trade alerts and investment advice from Jim Cramer and his research team.

Action Alerts Plus Subscription Price

A bit of back story first.

Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS portfolio was created in August 2001 and sold on TheStreet.com.

Later on, the fund was converted into a charitable trust in 2005 with a stated mandate to donate any resulting dividends and distributions to nonprofit organizations.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what exactly you are getting.

As an Action Alerts PLUS member, you get full access to Jim Cramer’s $2,500,000 charitable trust portfolio which consists of 32 stocks as of today’s writing (Feb 2021).

On top of that, you get a real-time notification on every buy or sell trade that Jim Cramer and his team are about to make, together with their trading analysis.

So, what is the current holding of Action Alerts PLUS portfolio?

I am not legally allowed to disclose the current holding of the portfolio, so below is the public information taken from CNCB website about the current portfolio holdings.

It is made up of tech names like Apple, software firms like Salesforce, defensive plays such as PepsiCo and health-care stocks like CVS Health.

Inside the portfolio, the stocks will be given a rating:

“1” means stocks they would buy right now
“2” means stocks they would add on a pullback
“3” means stocks they would sell on strength
“4” means stocks they want to unload

Also, there are about 15 stocks out of the 32 stocks that are so called “Core Holding”.

These “Core Holding” are companies that Cramer thinks that should be held for the long term because on a financial level, they have high return on equity, strong margins and low debt.

However, based on the historical trades of Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, you can see there are also frequent buy and sell activities on these so called “Core Holdings”.

For one particular “Core Holding” stock, I saw that some shares were bought in Oct 2019 and then were sold just a few months later.

For the portfolio as a whole, they are constantly analyzing their holdings (technically and fundamentally) on a daily basis and take action as necessary—take a little off the table, add to positions and trim losers.

Personally, I feel that there is too much short-term trading taking place in the portfolio, and I believe in investing in great companies and hold them for the long term.

The hard truth about trading?

Majority of the traders lose money in the long term.

So, if you are looking for stock recommendations for the long term growth and appreciation, then Motley Fool Stock Advisor would be a much better alternative.

Now, let’s move on to other features of Action Alerts PLUS subscription.

Inside Action Alerts PLUS, you will also find four types of dynamic indices to fit different investment styles:

Growth
Value
Income
Blend

It actually sounded very sophisticated and useful before I signed up for the monthly subscription trial.

But, I was quite disappointed when I saw what “Dynamic Indices” really were.

So, basically, what they did was that they categorize the 32 stocks inside the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio by “Growth”, “Value”, “Income” and “Blend”.

Currently, there are 8 stocks in the “Value Index”, 12 stocks in the “Growth Index”, 3 stocks in the “Income Index” and 9 stocks in the “Blend Index”.

If you don’t want to buy every stock in the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, you can choose the individual stocks that match your investment style.

There is another interesting feature inside Action Alerts PLUS.

It is called “Bullpen”.

Basically, the bullpen are stocks that they are watching along with the stocks within the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio.

By the way, it’s not a specific buy recommendation with entry price.

It’s merely opportunities that they find intriguing.

Also, it’s not guaranteed that they would add these stocks to the portfolio because sometimes they will also place stocks in the bullpen that are either too small for the portfolio or carry a lot of risk.

Lastly, Action Alerts PLUS members can join the monthly call with Jim Cramer where you can either watch it on a live video feed on any web browser or dial in to listen.

If you have questions for Jim Cramer, you can submit them in advance for him to answer during the live monthly call.

But, you can ONLY ask him questions regarding the current portfolio holdings or broader macro trends.

Basically, during the live call, Jim Cramer would talk about what has happened in the market and also briefly go through the individual stocks in the portfolio.

So, do I think the monthly call is valuable?

From what I’ve heard so far, I think you could get these latest market developments as well as individual stock news on any major financial news website for free.

To sum up, the biggest selling points of this investment subscription service is the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio and its real-time trade alerts.

So, will it really help you make money from the stock market?

That depends on the track record of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio as well as the performance of the individual stocks inside the portfolio.

Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio Returns Vs S&P 500

So, what is the past performance of Jim Cramer’s charitable trust portfolio over the years?

Did it manage to beat the market every year?

As of 31st Dec 2020, the returns of Action Alerts PLUS portfolio is 189.97% while the returns of the S&P 500 index is 349.57%.

That means Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS portfolio has been underperforming the S&P 500 index over the years.

If you have invested $10,000 in Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS portfolio since 2001, your investment would be worth $28,997.

On the other hand, if you had invested $1,000 in S&P 500 index, your investment would be worth $44,957.

That’s a huge difference!

Now, let’s look at the performance comparison between Action Alerts PLUS portfolio and S&P 500 every single year since 2001.

Action Alerts PLUS	S&P 500
8/1/2001 -12/31/2001	-2.67%	-4.64%
2002	-19.79%	-21.97%
2003	34.46%	28.36%
2004	5.25%	10.74%
2005	5.19%	4.83%
2006	7.05%	15

Real Money Vs Action Alerts Plus