My mission is simple, to make you money. I'm here to level the playing field for all investors.

There's always a homework at summer, and I promise to help you find it. Mad Money starts now.

Hey, I'm Kramer. Welcome to Mad Money. Welcome to Kramer. Other people want to make friends, I'm just trying to make you some money. My job is not just to entertain you, but to educate you. So call me at 1-800-743 CBC or tweet me at Jim Kramer.

I'm constantly telling you that discipline always trumps conviction. I say it over and over and over again.

In other words, no matter how much you may love a stock,

no matter how enthralled you are with the underlying company,

if the rules say sell it, sell, sell, sell, sell it.

You sell it.

One thing I've learned in my investing career,

no matter how much you might believe in something, you violate the rules of the road at your own peril.

But where the heck do these rules come from?

It's not like they were handed down from one high and carved into stone tablets.

They're not like the laws of physics.

You can't just deduce them from observing the way the market works, the way you can do, say, gravity.

No, the rules come from experience, in particular my experience. I've spent nearly 40 years in this business.

And in that time, you better believe I've learned some powerful lessons. In many cases, I learned them the hard way.

And because I don't want you to repeat my mistakes, because I do want you to have the benefit of my whole career,

tonight I want to lay out some of my most important rules for investing, the stuff I really live by.

Now, some of this stuff may seem basic, but again,

you forget the rules at your own peril. Back up my old hedge fund, where I labored for a long

time, I'd occasionally convinced myself that it was okay to make an exception, to have a cheat

day, to ignore my discipline, just as once for some reason that seemed compelling at the time.

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