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What’s Your Favorite Newsletter?

Your fellow Gumshoe readers are crying out for your opinion -- please help!

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, February 26, 2013

That’s the question that I receive from readers more often than any other — and my response is always disappointing, because I don’t and can’t really have one.

And the real answer is getting to be a bit of an overused question here at Gumshoe HQ — a big “what do you think?” for the masses of Gumshoedom — but it’s at the core of what we’re trying to do.

OK, so most of what I spend my time at is sifting through investment newsletter teasers and finding the truth (and sometimes the gem) that’s buried beneath the pile of, well, fertilizer. But we’re really all about people getting more fully informed, putting some of the hype aside, and making their own choices and sharing opinions — no newsletter is going to manage your portfolio for you, or make you rich, or turn around a sagging financial life.

But lots of them can help. I’m not anti-newsletter, I don’t think the folks who put out these missives every day or week or month are criminals or shysters … with some exceptions, of course — most of them, at least those from the major publishers that we see most often, are really trying to come up with good recommendations and helpful commentary. I don’t like the hype-filled promises of wealth that fill their ads, because I think those boasts and promises are what stick with people even as the more sensible and nuanced commentary that fills most of the actual newsletter issues is skimmed over or quickly forgotten by many investors. The big promises are what catch our attention, and they remain there in the lizard brain at our core, giving hope for ridiculously flashy financial salvation without work, research, patience, saving, discipline or sacrifice … or luck.

So when we look past the overpromising and the large type that promises 20% dividends or 800% gains, which letters do people actually end up finding most useful (and hopefully profitable)? Is it the background or education that these letters provide, or the udpates on their portfolios, or the unearthing of heretofore unknown investment opportunities or particularly nimble skill in picking buy and sell points for stocks or options? Or is it just the reassurance of having someone in your inbox each week, advising you to stay the course even if the headlines are freaking you out?

I can’t tell you that — I don’t subscribe to these ad-hyping newsletters that I write about, partly because there are too damn many of them, but mostly because it wouldn’t be very fair or sporting as I try to dissect their ads and unearth their “secret” ideas with the help of the Mighty, Mighty Thinkolator.

But your fellow readers can tell you — that’s why, in addition to sharing the teaser picks we unveil, we collect reader reviews of newsletters and allow for lots of free and open commenting on our articles. And we collate and average those reviews to give rankings of the newsletters — not rankings based on my opinion or on any measure of actual portfolio performance, but rankings based on what subscribers actually think of the letter.

So… wanna know what the “best” is? You can simply go to the Newsletter Rankings page… that will let you browse by ranking, or to filter them alphabetically by title… or even to search for particular publishers or authors.

We haven’t been calling the reviews to your attention much of late, so for many of these newsletters the subscriber reviews have gotten a bit stale — they might reflect a surge of pessimism from 2009, for example, or a particularly good few months from 2008 or 2011 that made folks love a letter … so we need your help.

If you’ve ever subscribed to a newsletter, please review it for us.

As we’ve seen from many, many comments in recent months, readers are overwhelmed by the number of letters, their crazy marketing aggressiveness, and their inability to keep up with dozens of email updates, so folks clearly want help in separating the wheat from the chaff. Can you help?

If you’ve subscribed to a newsletter, just click on it on the ranking page or search by title (search box is at the top right), and on each newsletter page you should see both some “stars” that you can use to give a ranking to various aspects of that letter, plus a comment box below for submitting anything else you want to say about that newsletter.

Reviews are moderated to try to cut down on spam, so your review might not show up instantly. And though we add new letters and trading services frequently there are some newsletters in the cast of thousands that just aren’t in our system yet, so please contact us if you’d like to submit your opinion of a newsletter or service that you don’t yet see on the site and we’ll cheerfully add it.

And I’ve got an extra inducement for you today.

The person who submits the most thoughtful and helpful reviews over the next couple days will either get upgraded to a lifetime membership in the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars (a $200 value, if we do say so ourselves), or, if you’re already a lifer, I’ll send you or your favorite charity a check for $100. They can be positive or negative reviews, and you can submit one or two or a dozen or more, whatever you have time and inclination to share.

So please, think of the letters and services you find helpful and useful, and those that you’ve found frustrating and disappointing, and share your opinions with us. Not only will you be helping your fellow investors to sift through the fog, but you might even earn a little something for yourself. And while you’re at it, hop on over to the most recent plea for help from one of our valued readers and let them know what your top two or three newsletters are with a brief comment.

Thanks for participating in this great adventure, and thanks for reading and commenting and reviewing and sharing your experiences with the great Gumshoe community — you make my work a daily delight, and I do appreciate it.

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jessfarr
Irregular
jessfarr
February 26, 2013 11:58 am

I can honestly say I do not think I have any newsletter subscriptions active at the moment; there may be one or two that were auto renewed before I finally got such stopped. I now simply look at the gumshoe stuff, feeling I have been more exposed to such guestimates of hopeful stocks and even been blessed with good research concerning them than I could otherwise be with much less expenditure of time. Now, if you had some negative sort of rating like a black hole or two instead of simply one or no stars, I might could think of some ratings to give out; but, then again, that would probably just be based on anger at myself for being stupid enough to believe that particular person’s hype of the day.

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Terry Waggoner
Terry Waggoner
February 26, 2013 12:00 pm

20 plus year subscriber to Richard Band’s Profitable Investing newsletter
I’ve also been in and out of numerous flaky pump and dumps. I now
rely on Richard, Travis and my own research. The first two are totally
reliable. I am an Irregular member.

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Lynn Clark, Stock Gumshoe
February 26, 2013 4:47 pm
Reply to  Terry Waggoner

Hi Terry,
If you’d like to review Richard Band’s Profitable Investing on our site, you can do that here:
http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/profitable-investing/

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Al
Guest
Al
February 26, 2013 12:01 pm

I like Larry Edelson’s Real Wealth Report for precious metals. He relies relatively heavily on cycles for major and intermediate trends. In the last year he has offered relatively few new purchase recommendations, since precious metals have been mainly sideways to down for over a year. Some of the few recommendations he has made have been stopped out. He was a bit too early in recommending inverse ETF’s and was stopped out a few times, although ZSL is currently in the money.

I subscribe to Stansberry’s Private Wealth Alliance. Perhaps the best newsletter in the alliance is Retirement Millionaire by Dr. David Eifrig Jr. Besides giving relatively safe stock buy recommendations, he gives health tips and everyday money saving tips.

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Charles Hicks
Charles Hicks
February 26, 2013 12:14 pm
Reply to  Al

I’m an Stansberry & Associates Alliance Club member and subscribe to Boom n Bust, Wall Street Insider, Palm Beach Wealth Builder, Leeb’s Cash Cow, Wealth Advisory, and Money passport Club, and Stock Gumshoe Lifetime member. All of these have useful information, however, the Gumshow gets my vote as #1 newsletter. It explains the teases and keeps me from making unwise investment decisions. If I would have known about the Gumshoe at the very first, it would have saved me $200,000 in bad investments.

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Al
Guest
Al
February 28, 2013 11:57 am
Reply to  Al

I see a lot of comments about Stansberry’s email stuffing with pitches for additional, more expensive newsletters. There were times when I’d get at least half a dozen a day, and at most one a day that I had paid for–to the point the ones I paid for got lost in all of the fluff. I sent several emails to no avail, but after several conversations over the phone with their fulfillment people, I finely got off of most of the fluffy emails.

marvin trimas
Guest
marvin trimas
February 26, 2013 12:22 pm

I have subscribed to the Cabot Top Ten newsletter for years. Every month I receive his top 10 recommendationsm and overall they have performed well. He gives his preferred stock of the 10 also. He also sells his “January Effect” stocks in December, which have always been successful for me for the past 5 years—–the latter costs only $25 and I have made hundreds from each recommendation. Before I trade any of his recomendations,, I study the fundamentals of the stock and I also study the chart and then purchase. This has prvoen to work well for me.

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Lynn Clark, Stock Gumshoe
February 26, 2013 5:01 pm
Reply to  marvin trimas

Hi Mavin,
Thanks for the input. We don’t have any reviews yet of Cabot Top Ten Trader, so if you’re interested, please feel free to comment on it here:
http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/cabot-top-ten-trader/

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Gene
February 26, 2013 12:23 pm

I subscribe to several of Stansberry newsletter. While they are very informative at times, they are TOO informative also. They shower you with background, facts, diligence, etc. before getting to the recommended picks. All of which is insulting. Just give me your picks and I’lldo my own diligence. Also, once you get several subscriptions, they bombard your email with teasers, sales, videos, and umpteen more pitches. Once you click on the pitch, you are usually directed to a goofy email with someone “reading” a printed text. Just give me the printed text, I don’t need anyone reading to me, it’s insulting. On top of that, the text is “over the top” with exclamation points, bold face types, one sentence paragraphs, etc. (And sorry, Travis, sometimes you go a little overboard also, but at least you are honest about it). I’m willing to bet that fellow gumshoers want the facts, short, and quick, with a recommended pick and enough with all the hyperbole.!!!

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Phil
Guest
Phil
February 26, 2013 3:48 pm
Reply to  Gene

Quite often, when you try to navigate away from the page without listening to the whole hour of drivel, you get to select a text option! That’s what I usually do.

whatch
Member
whatch
February 26, 2013 10:50 pm
Reply to  Gene

Travis, don’t you change a thing. Although I am a relative new comer to Gumshoe, it is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I get junk from several news letters. S&A, Motley Fool, and WSI to name a few. Without a doubt Gumshoe and WSI are my favorites. In my opinion the rest just get you started and then spend most of their time trying to sell you something else with a price range from 49 to 2500 dollars. I am constantly having my email bombarded with the next big thing. IF. I am willing to pay just one more subscription fee. I enjoy what I see here and hope to keep enjoying it for a long time to come.

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Peter Watts
Peter Watts
February 27, 2013 5:08 am
Reply to  whatch

Motley Fool, but only until my subsciptions expire. As Wayne says, once you are in they spend forever trying to sell you a “different” service. I have tried and tried E-mailing them asking “what do I get if I subscribe for this new service which I do not get under my existing subscription?” No answer has yet been forthcoming. Or alternatively I tried”if I have paid you for your best recommendations, why are some new ones being witheld from me, until I pay you more money?” Still no response.
I am not sure that I have ever found an answer a satisfactory answer to the question “if these guys are so good why do they have to sell advice to me. Why not just get on and invest their own money and make a fortune?” I don’t buy the altruism answer.

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Rick Wheeler
Member
Rick Wheeler
February 26, 2013 12:24 pm

My favorite is The Dividend Machine by Bill Spetrino. The newsletter focuses on getting into good quality dividend stocks when they are at a good value and holding on to them for a long period of time. The stocks in his conservative portfolio are always strong performers and in the event of a market downturn, they are the first to come back. The results are very good and it is a portfolio that you don’t have to constantly manage, which allows you to sleep at night.

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RAY
Member
RAY
February 26, 2013 12:27 pm

Been in the markets 30+ years. Currently do not have any news letters. Most were a waste of time and money and I have lost a considerable sum following their advice. Currently do not have the time to waste reading through pages of B.S.
I you want to impress me show me performance and as little wording as possible. Just get to the point.

gene
gene
February 26, 2013 12:33 pm
Reply to  RAY

Right on Ray! My feelings exactly. Speaking of Stansberry (again), they are quick to crow over their successful picks, but seem awfully quiet when they miss (which seems to be a majority of the time).

doug9694
April 5, 2015 9:44 pm
Reply to  RAY

Falcon lists all of their picks, they say. They are from a year or so ago. You can see how good or bad they have performed back to 2004. One pick a week.

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Deborah G Flynn
February 26, 2013 12:36 pm

I subscribe to only one now. I tried Motley Fool but it was so uber bland any kid with $200 and a lifetime can’t go wrong with their long term picks but it didn’t do it for me. I have only one now it’s a $5 a month dividened reporting service and I doi my own reseach based on their selection.s Never found a whole lot. My favoirite beside Stcok Gumshoe which is my ALL TIOME favorite is DTA a free newsletter that is quite good actually and have made many successful trades based on their anaysis. The point is most of them have a good teaser and we have Travis so why waste money? read the teasers and see what the Gumshoe says. I am a paid subscriber too but I hate to say this Travis? you are too cheap ! THANKS Deb

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gene
gene
February 26, 2013 12:42 pm

Deborah: What is DTA?

Eagle AL
Irregular
February 27, 2013 2:41 pm

DTA is Daily Trade Alert

Dwight Fisher
Member
Dwight Fisher
February 26, 2013 12:39 pm

I do not subscribe to any newsletters. I enjoy reading your letter because you only present the facts. You do not actually encourage us to buy or sell. I do my own research through Vanguard, T.D. Ameritrade or both. I feel that if the writer of the newsletter knew so much he would not be writing but busy managing his holdings.

William Vogt
February 26, 2013 12:41 pm

Have subscribed to Leeb, Weiss, Stansberry & AAII Journal, but find Stock Gumshoe
best for the money.

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James P. Marquart
Guest
James P. Marquart
February 26, 2013 12:50 pm

I am an Irregular, but I don’t seem to be getting the Irregular emails! Is there something special I must do to receive them?!

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john hryma
Guest
john hryma
February 26, 2013 12:51 pm

Over the years I’ve probably lost more than I have made. Most of my mistakes have been hanging on to a Stock too long. I wanted to make 50%,60% profits and that’s what killed me. The adage being Pigs get slaughtered. I try to be nimble and only buy Blue chip stocks that have a lot of Cash on hand and a great track record. Make your 200, 300 or 400 dollars and be happy that you got out in time. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Don’t believe people in how much money they made in the Market. You have to be very lucky. You have to be able to throw the darts in the right direction. Years ago they took the three best Stock pickers in N.Y. and put them against you guessed it a Monkey with a rolidex. Guess who Won. Happy Investing The early Bird gets the worm.

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Zaydac
Guest
Zaydac
February 26, 2013 12:55 pm

I can’t do any reviews because I don’t subscribe to anything now. The best I ever subscribed to was Stephen Bland’s newsletter which scanned UK stocks using his PYAD screen (P/E, Yield, Assets,Debt). He had some successes with that – a few very quick doubles and a load of 30% – 40% 12 month gains. But he seemed to hit a bad patch and I let the subscription lapse. He is still in business, I might have another dabble. He always struck me as being totally, indisputably honest. Apart from newsletters I would say Travis is the best, Bill Cara’s old site second best, Trader Dan the best for following PMs – and at the other end of the scale Zero Hedge/Mish Shedlock/Karl Denninger are the most dangerous (read too much of that stuff and you want to shoot yourself instead of investing).

Alexander in California
Guest
February 26, 2013 1:01 pm

Chris Weber’s Global Opportunities Letter is by far the best. I have subscribed to many newsletters, but only Chris Weber gives me peace of mind. He has been correct on the major trends. Avoiding losses is his secret of building wealth.

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Dick
Guest
Dick
February 26, 2013 1:01 pm

Leeb income investor is serious but nothing fancy. All of Cabot are serious (but they are trend followers and I can’t buy after a 30% raise, I can’t). I just tried Perry Income, which looks good but he just launched a new $ 2,500 newsletter that promises 40% cash return a year through leverage and dividend capture…. greed when you get us. I like Forbes Low Priced Stock for a small part of my portfolio.

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BonnieEmber
February 26, 2013 1:04 pm

I just sub’s to Daily Wealth, Oxford Club & Ino.

They are great, but what I am looking for is a software program subscription, like Web bot.

I like Swing Trading, & am looking for a program that can find the stocks,
that I am looking to trade.

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geoko
geoko
February 26, 2013 2:53 pm
Reply to  BonnieEmber

I think that you’ll be very pleased to find what your looking for at One Option, an excellent service that caters to several different type of option traders, including swing traders, in his new service. He’ll either make some picks or provide current info for you to choose your trades from.

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mark
Member
mark
February 26, 2013 1:04 pm

I get the weiss research free stuff. I lost over 1000 dollars rolling options on the demise of the Euro which never happened. I think they actually predict the future but could not time a situation to save there own lives. They are always too soon on the destruction of America. They got the idea right, but their timing stinks, smells like a bigfoot. I would much rather ponder the choices of Travis and your mighty Think-o-later. do you have a pet name for the think-o-later? If you don’t maybe there should be another contest event coming up? I would love to win anything just once in my life.

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GL
Guest
GL
February 26, 2013 1:05 pm

I have tried several services so here’s a go at rating them. The Motley Fool is a little complicated because even though there are some good ideas from the brothers and the caps, they almost always lack a sense of timing. Perhaps if one can stand the long wait, it can have some value. The problem for me was that there was always a better technical time to buy than theirs. Give it 2 stars.
Patrick Cox suffers the same problem. There have been some interesting ideas and some completely off the chart ones and in his case the cost is so ridiculously high, I can’t give it any kind of value. Avoid it. no stars.
Technology Profits, is a kind of little brother to Cox’s flagship but it has value as it’s cheap and the head man has good chops for finding good plays in technology and biotech. He’s about 50/50 on winners/losers but he doesn’t use a hard sell and, after all, we are grownups (I think) so the result for me has been more wins than loses choosing that which I sellected from his picks. 3 stars.
My preference is for information, so I regularly use Seeking Alpha, and Gumshoe. I avoid the CNBC’s except when I want to hear the noise out of curiosity.
In the end you have to do your own dd and hope you haven’t missed something.

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Ekbal Rayani
Member
Ekbal Rayani
February 26, 2013 1:14 pm

A great newsletter is more than one persons opinion or an update on the markets or your portfolio or your future health issues and how to avoid them or financial traps or governmental initiatives that will improve or totally screw up your life , or places to get discounts or foods and medications to avoid or to partake and of course sound financial advice. There are hundreds that do one or two of them and i have subscribed to lots of he in the past. There is only one that does it all! The winner hands down has to be:
is the Retirement Millionaire by Dr. David Eifrig Jr. Besides giving relatively safe stock buy recommendations, he gives health tips and everyday money saving tips. He has an incredible success record, patiently explains how to utilize options and puts and calls in a manner even the most simple person can understand and effect. What’s even more enticing about him is that he truly seems to cares about his subscribers, their well being, both financial and personal. Best of all Stock Gumshoe has very little bad to say about his newsletters or even his recommendations! P.S. I did not get paid anything to write this … Lol!

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Ekbal Rayani
Member
Ekbal Rayani
February 27, 2013 12:43 am

I forgot to mention that of course ultimateIy i end up checking out what the good doctor says by going to the Stock Gumshoe website. I just thought you might be getting tired of being constantly called and referred to the number one newsletter and didn’t want to rub it in 🙂

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jan hoang
Guest
jan hoang
February 26, 2013 1:15 pm

I subscribed in the past to Stanberry, oxford, trending123, robert shu but I found that
all of those pale in comparison to the Gumshoes, who sticks to facts and analysis. In addition, there are none of advertisement that spin your head off.

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