The Mad Man Of Wall Street

Before the market opens on a gloomy mid-October Friday, the hyperkinetic, red-faced Jim Cramer is pacing the floor of TheStreet.com Inc.'s headquarters at 14 Wall Street. He's obsesssing over news reports: The Food and Drug Administration has seized thousands of allegedly faulty drug-infusion pumps made by Baxter International Inc. The company says it's trying to fix the problems as fast as possible. But Cramer is shaking down his "brain trust" of five twentysomethings for leads on which competitors stand to steal a march on Baxter.

"Oh no. Come on!" bellows Cramer, 50, pulling up stock data on the panoply of Bloomberg screens that wallpaper his workstation. "We've gotta get on this!" he barks, launching out of his chair, sleeves rolled up, demanding research reports and calls to Wall Street trading desks and relevant executives. It's barely 9 a.m, but you already know that James J. Cramer will be talking, instant-messaging, writing, and fixating on this pump thing all day long.