The Year in Teasers

It’s been close to two years now since I started writing about the teasers that investment newsletter publishers send out to entice us to subscribe, and the results aren’t so pretty.

I track the picks that I sniff out, and make those tracking spreadsheets publicly available so that everyone can draw their own conclusions — but as you can imagine, the last six months have turned even the best-sounding stock ideas into ashes.

Claim Your “Gas Rebate” Check — Oxford Club

“Some smart Americans have begun collecting checks from a little-known government-guaranteed gas rebate program. And they’ll continue receiving payments until 2011. Now you can join them…. Simply put your name on the list below to claim your ‘Gas Rebate’ checks ($400-plus every month!) starting with the next payout … New York Times reports that Americans ‘are making significant amounts of money’ from this gas rebate program”

Government Secret Buried for 44 Years

Have you seen the ad from True Wealth about a secret, buried in Government Archives for 44 years, that promises to increase your monthly income even if you’re already retired? It’s just a rehash of an old teaser — Click here for the explanation.

GGP the “Stupid Investment of the Week”

The bankruptcy watch has been slowed, but GGP just sold some malls and looks incredibly weak … and was named the “Stupid Investment of the Week.”

New High Yield Pick from Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff is given credit for foreseeing the credit debacle we now find ourselves in, and for a long time he’s been focused on choosing high-yield international stocks for his investors — he teases one such investment in his newsletter this month, want to know what it is?

GGP Gets its Extension

General Growth Properties probably won’t be going bankrupt this week, after all. The Las Vegas mortgages were extended another two months — things aren’t rosy and the terms weren’t friendly, but they’re still alive.

“Action Plan for the Wipeout!” Navellier

Louis Navellier started marketing his services late on Tuesday with an email that has the subject line: “Today’s Cut Takes us to the Brink!” In his words, “I have been telling my customers for several weeks now that this is the greatest buying opportunity of our lifetimes. But let me clarify: It’s not as simple as buying any old stock that’s cheap now, it’s about owning a mix of the highest quality stocks. That’s why I have spent the last few weeks creating what I call Action Plan For The Wipeout. Act today and you can put this plan to work for you, beat the market by over 3-to-1 AND be able to look at the morning news without flinching.”

What is his “Action Plan?” Read on for details!

Gold and Silver off to the races

Gold and silver are off to the races again — dollar down 2.5%, Gold up 2.5%, click for past gold and silver articles

Death Watch Continues for GGP

Still no renegotiation of those mortgages — did anyone actually bet against GGP or other REITs? Most of them recovered quickly from that debacle at the close Friday, but many of the high-debt ones seem like they could easily double or go to zero on any given day.

Be “Dumb and Rich with TD Circ 570’s”

“It doesn’t involve Stocks… Government Bonds… Currencies… or even Options.” Steve McDonald wants to sell us a service that will help select safe investments. The ad says that “back testing the strategy to 1920 proved that it was 99.77% risk-free.” Is that kind of return really possible … or, more importantly, is it likely? And what is he talking about?