We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round: 9 Stocks in Spotlight. In this article, we are going to take a look at where MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) stands against the other stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round.

Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed a market trend that’s been generating impressive gains, especially when investors target heavily shorted stocks. He explained the phenomenon as he said that investors find success by betting that these companies are in better shape than short sellers expect. According to Cramer, this approach has led to some significant wins in recent times. He pointed out the behavior of short sellers, noting that when things go wrong for them, they panic.

“The shorts always panic when their trades fall apart because, unlike longs, if you’re a short seller, you can lose a lot more than a hundred percent of your investment if the stock goes up too much.”

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Cramer also highlighted that while short sellers can profit when a company fails, it’s a risky game with significant asymmetry. He explained that while a stock’s price can only fall to zero, it has the potential to rise indefinitely. Cramer cautioned that although short sellers might be hoping for a stock’s downfall, they are equally vulnerable to the nightmare scenario of infinite losses if the stock price continues to climb.

In such situations, when short sellers run out of options, they are forced to buy back shares, which can send the stock price even higher. For shareholders, this scenario can be advantageous. While short sellers may be a threat when predicting a stock’s decline, their need to buy back shares can act like rocket fuel for the stock’s price when good news emerges.

“If you’re a shareholder, they’re your worst enemy when they’re talking about a stock going to zero. But once the stock starts soaring on any good news, the shorts are your best friend because their forced buying is like rocket fuel and they can’t stop the propulsion while you just get to go along for the ride.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the recent episodes of Mad Money. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 25

Talking about MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR), Cramer remarked:

“I’ve gotta tell you, it’s a Bitcoin play. I prefer to actually own Bitcoin. I know that Citron put some sort of short on it. All I can tell you is own Bitcoin. That’s a winner.”

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) provides AI-powered enterprise analytics software and services. It is also known for its involvement in Bitcoin development. Recently, it faced a setback in its stock performance after Citron Research announced its decision to bet against the company. According to a post made by Citron on X, the company has transitioned into a Bitcoin investment fund, and its business operations are no longer closely tied to its software offerings.

The post criticized the company’s increasing focus on Bitcoin investment, stating that the company’s market volume had become detached from Bitcoin’s underlying fundamentals. While Citron Research expressed continued confidence in Bitcoin’s future, the firm revealed that it had hedged its position with a short position on the stock.

On November 22, appearing on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), described the company’s approach to generating revenue by focusing on its role as a Bitcoin Treasury company. He explained that the company earns money by selling the volatility of Bitcoin and reinvesting the proceeds back into the cryptocurrency.

He said that in addition, the company strips the volatility, risk, and performance from fixed-income securities, transferring those factors to common stocks. Saylor noted that critics who short the stock believe that if the premium on the equity disappears, the company won’t be able to make money.

However, he argued that they overlook the strategy where, when borrowing money at 6% and investing it in Bitcoin, the company stands to gain significantly. For example, if Bitcoin appreciates by 30% or even 60%, MicroStrategy could realize a 90% spread on Bitcoin, compared to an 80% spread.

Overall MSTR ranks 5th on our list of the stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round. While we acknowledge the potential of MSTR as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSTR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.