If the US Securities and Exchange Commission won’t ban ultra-short exchange-traded funds, Cramer said Wednesday, then brokerages have a duty to stop selling them. He took some time during Mad Money to applaud Edward Jones & Co. for doing just that.
“If only every company in the financial services business had that level of integrity,” Cramer said Wednesday, “Edward Jones should be the model for all the other firms…but instead it’s the exception.”
Cramer has long railed against these leveraged ETFs for the damage they’ve caused the markets. Hedge funds and other big-money investors have used the funds to hammer down struggling stocks, and sometimes whole sectors.
What’s worse, they don’t even work as many smaller investors think. ETFs like the UltraShort Financial ProShares rebalance each day, so they only work for day traders. Anyone holding shares longer than that won’t see the returns they might expect. In fact, investors who held the SKF for all of 2008 actually lost money, even though the banks had a terrible year.
That’s why Cramer called on other brokerages to follow Edward Jones’ lead and stop selling the ultra-short ETFs. And he urged investors to do business only with firms that hold that same sense of responsibility.
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC
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