Karen Backfisch is a professional stock market expert who was made famous worldwide via her marriage to famous business television anchor Jim Cramer. Together, the couple made a name for themselves by being successful in the stock market. However, the couple separated after a long lasting twenty year marriage.
Don't Miss: Bernard Mcguirk
Early years
Karen Backfisch was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her father was a football coach and her mother was a professional flower seller. She is of white ethnicity and her citizenship is American. She has brown eyes and blonde hair. In her early childhood, she was interested in playing badminton and basketball and was a part of her college basketball team. As well at being good in athletics, she also loved dance and music, especially hip hop. She was a die-hard fan of the television star Matthew Perry and her favorite singer was Michael Jackson. . She completed high school and attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Career
She began her career in stock market as an employee in Michael Steinhardt’s hedge fund. Working as an employee she met her husband, Jim Cramer. Cramer says of her early years; “You see, she hadn't always been a trader. She'd come in as a secretary to a portfolio manager; she was a kid who had just left home in Elmont, Long Island, and taken an apartment in the big bad city, in Brooklyn Heights. When her portfolio manager, after one month, exited Steinhardt, she found herself in a dilemma. If she lost the job, she was moving back home with her folks. So she begged to stay on and Steinhardt said, OK, she could land on the trading desk and if she could make money she could stay, but if she lost money she would have to leave. And she could take on no risk. My wife became a day trader by force. She wasn't allowed to hold positions overnight.” In his first book “Confessions of a Street Addict” Cramer says his wife was “within a few months…making $20,000 a day, day in and day out, becoming one of the original day traders.” Karen seemed to understand the stock market, calling the bottom in 1987, “We crash on Monday, we crash huge.” The market fell 508 points, at the time, the worst loss in history. Thanks to Karen’s feel for the market, Jim Cramer was 100% in cash.
After Steinhardt, Karen Backfisch, along with her husband, Jim Cramer, started their own company named Cramer and Company. Prior to working for Cramer's company, Karen used to work as an assistant vice president at Lehman, helping portfolio managers. In “Confessions of a Street Addict”, Cramer recalls the day Backfisch, whom her refers to as The Trading Goddess, saved their firm by calling the 1998 bottom. Cramer had capitulated and was selling everything but luckily, Karen changed his mind. Jim wanted to know how she could be so sure. “Simple,” she whispered in his ear, “Because at the bottom, even the coolest, most hard bitten pros blink. At the bottom the last bulls throw in the towel. At the bottom there is the final capitulation. At the bottom, Jimmy, you capitulated. At the bottom, you gave up. That’s how I know it is the bottom.”
[page-break]
The market rallied from then on for the rest of the year in one of the greatest comebacks in history. Jim and Karen made back one hundred and twenty million dollars in almost a straight line. Cramer says that Karen didn’t care much for the technical underpinnings of the stock market but, rather, cared about what made people buy and sell stocks. He said that she understands the market viscerally. “If you could tell her what made people feel better, what put them in a better mood, she would tell you where the market was headed.” Because she had worked at big money firms, Karen Backfisch knew that even big money was human.
Personal life
Karen first met Jim at her first job, where Jim was manager and she was an employee. Soon they started dating each other. After dating for five years, they got married in 1988.They stayed together for twenty years and started their own company, Cramer and Company. Karen was very supportive of Jim’s career and he credits her for always motivating him to do better in every step of his life. The couple have two beautiful children; daughters, Emma and Cece Kramer. After being together in a marriage that lasted nearly twenty one years the couple decided to call it quits. Nothing much is known about their divorce and neither of the two has given any statement regarding the divorce. Jim later started dating Lisa Detwiler, another trader, and married her in 2015. After her divorce from Jim, Karen decided to keep a low profile and she is not too much in the media.
Current
As of now, Karen is single and is currently not dating anyone. Even after their divorce the two never said any bad things about each other. Karen was quoted in one of her interviews saying that Jim was always supportive and she couldn't have reached the heights of her career without him. Karen’s current net worth is estimated at six million US dollars which she earned as a stock market analyst and through divorce proceedings. She also has her own stock market exchange company which is doing quite well. She is not much active on social media. Although she is on facebook and twitter, she is not much active on social media. Her facebook user name is @karenbackfisch and her twitter handle is @real karen backfisch. Karen seldom uploads pictures on social media; she stays away from the limelight and tries to avoid controversies as much as possible. As for trading advice? Karen says “It’s good to be good, but it’s better to be lucky.”
Last Modified: Mar 7, 2020
Related Biographies
