Stock Gumshoe

This is part of an ad that we’ve looked at before in slightly different form — the other “Billion Dollar SSE” we looked at was General Steel Holdings back in July.

What the folks at the Motley Fool’s Global Gains newsletter mean when they call something a “SSE” is a “state sponsored entrepreneur” or “state sponsored enterprise” — that’s a term they use for something inbetween the tiny mom-and-pop firms in China, and the huge state-owned companies. These are midsize companies, though many are really small caps in the context of the US stock market, and they usually have good connections to the government but are privately owned and managed by entrepreneurial founders.

In general, I like the theory — these are the companies I am most comfortable with in China, too, though they are certainly not guaranteed successes. And I have some financial interest in a few of them (though not the main one covered here today). Small companies that are either consolidating industries or growing organically in a huge market are usually more compelling for me than are large companies that are owned by the government and may have other priorities beyond growing shareholder value (or a big overhang of shares if the government decides to sell). Not always true, of course, that’s just my general feeling.

So what is this latest teaser company from Bill Mann at the Motley Fool? Here’s a taste of what they’re selling … Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t been checking the site over the last few days, you might have missed the most salient news of the week:

The Stock Gumshoe is on vacation.

But not absent from your hearts, I hope.

Today’s vacation rerun is an ad that recently started burning up the charts again — the Chaffee Royalties from Chris Mayer’s Special Situations newsletter.

Mmmmm… Royalties. Love the image that conjures up, you just sit there and collect your cash, right, and don’t have to do anything?

Well, sort of — I wrote about this one back in May, you can read up on the Chaffee Royalty ad here, and find out what stocks are touted.

I won’t spoil the surprise too much, but the main stock touted was already down quite a bit in May, and has come down another 40% or so since I wrote about them … is it a bargain now, or a falling knife? Your call.

Today, as the Gumshoe vacation begins, I share with you some articles from … last week.

Since everyone on this green planet seems to be on vacation at some point in August, I figger if you’re here to check up on Stock Gumshoe now, you probably weren’t here last week. Impeccable logic, no?

Anyway, the series of articles on “Capone’s Legacy” seemed fairly popular, so I thought I’d share them with you again — here you go!

Capone’s Legacy Part 1: Beer

Capone’s Legacy Part 2: Gambling and Booze

And Part 3: Cigarettes, Cigars, and Slot Machines.

Don’t worry, I’ll only be lounging about on the beach for a week, so these reruns will only last a few more days … enjoy!