Jim Cramer's faulty Bear Stearns advice earned him comparisons to Neville Chamberlain, courtesy of FBN. But was his misstep a one-time affair, or does CNBC's Mad Money host have a record of doling out bad recommendations?

As all these types of questions are answered: Yes, and no.

Cramer's show encourages high-paced trading, early and often, and that's drawn the ire of critics. But even so, are his stock picks performing better than, say, the indexes?

Last year, Canadian newspaper the National Post gave Cramer its own "booyah," reporting that Canadian stock picks Cramer made in April 2006 resulted in a 13.7 percent one-year return — four percentage points higher than the Toronto Stock Exchange composite index.

Michael Zhuang, however, gives a lackluster assessment of Cramer's stock-picking prowess.

Zhuang, the president of MZ Capital, a Maryland-based investment advisory firm, analyzed stock picks Cramer made in January and February 2007.

On the financial Web site seekingalpha.com, Zhuang wrote that of Cramer's January picks, more than one-third — 35.6 percent — were accurate.

Zhuang arrived at his conclusion by taking stocks that Cramer said were bullish or bearish on and then comparing their one-year returns to that of the S&P 500.

Cramer's February '07 picks, Zhuang told ABC News, were considerably better, with 56 percent of Cramer's calls proving accurate. [...]

Zhuang is no fan of Cramer. Like Swensen and Ehrenberg, he argues against frequent trades and says Cramer may be influencing investors to overreact to financial news.

"The Jim Cramer show is really making a lot of people trigger-happy," he said. [ABC News]