Jim Cramer wants you to know that picking individual stocks isn't the fool's errand that academic finance says it is. The CNBC host has been on something of a crusade lately, challenging the conventional wisdom that index funds are the only sensible path forward and that trying to beat the market is a waste of time.

On a recent episode of "Mad Money," Cramer took direct aim at the efficient market hypothesis, that cornerstone of financial theory that says all available information is already baked into stock prices. According to this view, consistently beating the market by picking individual stocks is essentially impossible. Cramer's response? It's "bogus." He argues the market is full of anomalies that sharp investors can exploit.

The Track Record

And he's backing up his claim with numbers from his hedge fund days. "I did consistently beat the averages nearly every year at my old hedge fund, giving my clients a 24% compound annual return after all fees over the course of 14 years, versus 8% for the S&P," Cramer said. "The simple truth is that markets are not perfectly efficient. In fact, frankly, they're often irrational. They ignore things, make mistakes, misvalue information every day. And that's a major reason why anyone can make money picking individual stocks."

Those are impressive numbers, and if they hold up, they make his point pretty clearly. The market makes mistakes, gets emotional, and creates windows where informed investors can find edge.

The Index Fund Caveat

Here's where it gets interesting though. Even after making the case for stock picking, Cramer immediately turned around and said that low-cost index funds remain the "best" option for most individual investors. His advice? Put a "big chunk" of your savings into a low-cost S&P 500 fund, because picking individual stocks requires serious work.

"It's the safest way to give yourself equity exposure," he said. "It's perfect for your retirement accounts. You can gradually contribute over time with every paycheck and as long as you believe the US economy can keep growing over the long haul, you can park that money in an index fund and check in on it maybe once or twice a month."

So the guy who just told you he crushed the market for 14 years is also telling you to buy index funds. That's actually the most honest part of his message: yes, you can beat the market, but it takes effort most people won't put in.

Cramer's Market Efficiency Theory

Cramer offered his own spin on the efficient market hypothesis, acknowledging it has some value as a "rough guideline" even if it's not entirely correct. His version? The market almost always mirrors the majority's consensus. When everyone expects something to happen, positive or negative, the market has usually already priced it in.

"When all the talking heads and journalists and media-friendly money managers are telling you to be afraid of the same thing, that might be the one thing you don't actually need to be worried about," Cramer said. "From the stock market's perspective, the fact that most investors believe something's going to happen means that Wall Street's already treating it as a reality."

It's a useful framework: don't panic about the thing everyone's panicking about, because it's probably already reflected in prices. The opportunities come from what the market is getting wrong, not what everyone agrees on.