Things will be a little quiet here at Stock Gumshoe for the next week or so — I’m off to do my big fundraising ride for Dana-Farber tomorrow, and will then be taking several days off to recuperate next week and spend time with family… I’ll be back with the Friday File next week, but […]
A few readers have asked about this recent Motley Fool Stock Advisor promotion, so I thought I’d take a quick look-see for you today… apropo for “Apple Week,” it was all about Apple’s next “secret project” and “3 stocks to buy before Apple unveils its next must-have product.” So what is it? Well, I’ll spare […]
This article, originally titled “‘Universal Voice Control’ and ‘The End of Google as We Know it,’” was published on May 11. The ads have recently been coming in hot and heavy for this service, with the new ads headlined “Want to Invest like Jeff Bezos” and “Jeff Bezos’ Next Big Bet”, so we’re re-running this […]
Lou Basenese has a new service over at Agora called The Takeover Alert ($1,750), and he’s all but promising that he can identify takeover targets in advance… and give you the chance to make $29,000 profits from stocks that surge dramatically in just a day. To which the first response from any reader should be, […]
First, let’s get the week’s changes to my Real Money Portfolio out of the way… and after that, I’ve got a few other updates on stocks that I follow for you, dear Irregulars. We’ve got a new stock in the portfolio…. As of tomorrow, I will have a position in NVIDIA (NVDA). This is a […]
Before I get into some updates on my Real Money Portfolio, I’ve got a quick look at a teaser that several of you have asked about: Keith Schaefer’s pitch for his Oil and Gas Investments Bulletin about a “perfect business model” and “everything you want as an investor.” Here’s how Keith gets our mouths watering: […]
Lots of news on companies in my Real Money Portfolio this week, so I’ll try to keep it fairly brief and share my updated thoughts on a bunch of them. Here goes! Shopify (SHOP), the e-commerce service provider that has been so aggressively pushed by the Motley Fool over the past year, released another fantastic […]
We’ve seen some real shift in the dollar, interest rates, and gold over the past week or so, driven, it seems, mostly by the geopolitical risk that is headlined by Syria — I don’t have any idea how that will resolve itself, but under President Trump and his ability (and seeming inclination) to create “black […]
Today I thought I’d first share a few notes I made from the presentation that Pat Dorsey made made at the MIT Sloan Investment Conference I attended a couple weeks ago, since that’s the presentation that really had the most resonance for individual investors (and led to a few ideas that might be worth considering), […]
Quite a few eagle-eyed Gumshoe readers forwarded the latest ad from Dr. David Eifrig to us over the weekend — he’s pitching his Retirement Millionaire newsletter, which is an “entry level” offering from Stansberry that includes money-saving retirement tips and health tips as well as investment ideas. It tends to not be an aggressive or […]
Today I continue my annual navel-gazing for you, as I look at each position in my portfolio — though this year, as I mentioned in our kickoff last week, I’m changing the way I describe, report and follow these stocks for you, largely so that I can be clearer about my preferences and opinions and […]
Politics has everyone in a tizzy despite the dwindling uncertainty of the US presidential election, interest rates continue to be either teensy weensy or negative, and the S&P 500 is still within a rounding error of its all-time highs. Mohammed El Erian, the Allianz strategist who used to be co-brain at Pimco with Bill Gross, […]
This article originally appeared as part of the Friday File for the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars (our paid members) on November 20, 2015. The article has not been updated or revised, other than a couple quick updates to numbers and valuations, but we’ve had questions about the ad of late, so we’re moving it back to […]
Time for some “Idea of the Month” thoughts for you, dear Irregulars. When you think the investing climate is a little more nerve-wracking than usual, why not go with a master investor who’s also nervous and is preparing for an awful economy? I’ve spoken quite a few times about my fondness for insurance company stocks. […]
There’s not one “big thing” that jumps out at me this week to blather to you about for your Friday File edutainment, but I do have a smorgasbord of thinklinations to share… including a few “quickie” teaser solutions as we go along. First, for those who have been asking: Yes, I have now covered my […]
This is a story I’ve written a few times this year, but the questions keep rolling in and the ad keeps getting changed (and, frankly, it seems to me that the ad has been made more aggressive)… so we’re covering it again. And it might be that writing about it again today and calling yet […]
Despite the fact that I almost never bet against stocks, either through shorting or put option buying, this is not likely to be shocking news for those who follow my Friday File commentaries. I wrote about having this personal inclination about this specific stock in my Friday File note on August 19… … and since […]
So… what’s been happening with the stocks I follow and write about for my favorite Irregulars? We’ve had a couple weeks pass since I last checked in, thanks to my vacation and the Pan Mass Challenge, so there’s a bit to catch up on… (and thanks again to those who sponsored me, once I get […]
Do investors have a tendency to overreact to trends and fad worries? Yep. Despite all the concerns about Facebook (FB) losing “eyeball time” to Pokemon Go or losing the “cool kids” to Snapchat or just saturating the market and getting overvalued, Facebook AGAIN blew out earnings expectations this quarter (reported on Wednesday evening) by doing […]
[ed. note: Today’s training ride took more out of me than I expected (I’m raising money for Dana-Farber by riding in the Pan Mass Challenge next week, please sponsor me if you haven’t yet done so!), so I’m afraid I have to leave you with what we’ll gently refer to as a “rerun” — though […]
Newsletter copywriters are no different from other marketers: they will do whatever it takes to get attention by playing off of something or someone that has celebrity or notoriety. In the past that’s meant implying that some big celebrity investor has a connection to a “secret” stock or technique, or that someone high up in […]
This article was originally published on May 19, and the ad we’re covering has been heavily promoted over the past month, leading up to a big final push before yesterday’s supposed catalyst date of June 13, when Blanco (or his ad copywriter) was certain that Apple would announce some big news about “this tiny company”. […]
This week we don’t have a new teaser solution for your Friday File pleasure, so I’ll stick with some updates on a few stocks I’ve been watching this week… and next week, we’ll get our “Idea of the Month” piece up for you. And we also have a new piece from Dr. KSS up today, […]
I wrote a short note to you last weekend while I was attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, and as part of that I noted that I had taken some profits on several of my time-sensitive gold positions, including some warrants on Brazil Resources and call options on Sandstorm Gold, among others. I didn’t get […]
ed note: This article was first published on March 31, 2016 — the ad has been changed a little bit and now we’re seeing a version that leads with “Virtual Reality Pornography” and catches your attention that way, though the company being teased and hinted at is still the same. What follows was published on […]
We’ve seen a few teaser pitches about “wireless charging” over the past couple years, and it is indeed a compelling story — who among us wouldn’t be happy to have their phone, watch, or other electronic doodads being recharged over the air, relieving us of the irritation of having to find the right cord and […]
We’ve certainly seen our share of “next breakthrough” promises from Louis Basenese — he has worked for a variety of publishers (mostly under the Agora umbrella, I think) and is now promoting a service that he calls VentureCap Strategist, published by Wall Street Daily, and now he’s dangling his take on virtual reality in front […]
This ad has been running again and generating a lot of questions from Gumshoe readers, so we’re re-posting the answer here. The article below has not been updated or revised since it was published on July 20, 2015, other than an update to the Irregulars “Quick Take” box and an updated disclosure at the bottom […]
Each year I go through all of the stocks that I either own personally or have brought to the attention of the Irregulars (there’s quite a bit of overlap on those lists), and I make sure to update my thoughts and opinion on that stock in an organized and, hopefully, disciplined way — that helps […]
So… the Fed failed to do anything, which I guess means that the wild predictions about the end of western civilization hitting us on September 18th are going to get pushed off again. Maybe we’ll soon start to see ads about how the next Greater Depression will start on October 28, or December 16…. or, […]
Yeah, probably not. But that’s the promise — and there is some mathematical possibility that it could happen, if all the ducks line up in a row and this company becomes dominant. You never know, I suppose, but let’s go into this with somewhat more realistic possibilities… like, “this company could double.” That I could […]
Apparently Apple had some sort of news this week, and I guess the Federal Reserve is supposed to do something next week, eh? Well, there are thousands of market pundits who will tell you all about those things — and dozens who will tell you that the world is going to start coming to an […]
Uh oh, it’s almost too late! I’m typing as fast as I can, but I’m not sure that I can get this teaser solution written up for you before Tim Cook unveils the latest iPhone today! And… there it goes, I didn’t make it. Dang. So please, please forgive me if the stock shoots up […]
When looking into “buy the correction” ideas, a key problem is getting your head around when a stock has finally “blown off” any excess valuation — fundamentals aren’t falling for most stocks, at least not for the stronger, growth-oriented names in the market, but the stocks are falling anyway… why? Well, obviously we have the […]
There’s been quite a bit of buzz about the rumored “Apple Car” over the last year or so — with some folks getting ahead of themselves and anticipating an Apple buyout of Tesla, or a new Apple car on the road within this decade… but even if we aren’t going to see an iCar on […]
Lots of questions about this one, so as I run out to a meeting today I’m re-releasing it for you — Navellier’s pitch is in heavy circulation again, and the ad is still touting the same stock as his similar ads of a month ago. The article below first ran on July 16, when the […]
I haven’t written about a Christian DeHaemer pitch in a while, so this one popped to the top of our list today when a few readers asked about it. And part of the pitch is similar to others we’ve seen about the “death of cable” — all about the cord cutters, and about the fact […]
I’ve got a teaser pitch to solve for you, dear Irregulars — it’s from Roger Williams at Wall Street Daily, pitching his True Alpha letter by hinting at the stocks he thinks can double tomorrow in the “Penny Stock Index.” But first, a quick update on Criteo… A couple folks called yesterday’s (perhaps brief) crumpling […]
This article was originally published in late January — Andy Obermueller is teasing Apple suppliers again, hinting that the Apple “Growth Window” will close up on September 30 (presumably when we start freaking out about their next wave of iPhones and iPads, usually introduced around then), and the descriptions of the teased stocks that he […]
Christian DeHaemer launched a newsletter called Technology & Opportunity about a year and a half ago, piquing investors’ interest with the idea that you can “Ride the Robot Revolution” and make massive gains, just like getting in early on the computer revolution by buying Apple, Microsoft or Dell 30 years ago. And now it looks […]
I’m feeling a little bit old today because my fourth baby, Stock Gumshoe, just celebrated its eighth birthday. Eight years of solving teasers, sharing thoughts, and defusing marketing hype… and it’s still such a cute little fella! I certainly never expected this to grow and get the attention of so many people when I sat […]
I have a few updates for you this week — there was a little bit of earnings news in the Gumshoe Universe, and I did a little rebalancing in my portfolio to get cash levels up in anticipation of future buying opportunities… but first, the latest pitch for Chris Versace’s Growth & Dividend Report caught […]
I’m still in the “accumulation” phase of my financial life — I’m trying to add to my savings and investment accounts as aggressively as a I can, and keeping my eye out a couple decades to what my holdings might do before I retire. Assuming I ever retire. So my perspective is, I know, quite […]
We see pitches about the “end of money” all the time — across the spectrum from the goofy spiel for “loyalty points” being the next Bitcoin, to actually trading in Bitcoin, to the more popular “end of America” pitch about the dollar dying and the need to have old silver coins and gold in your […]
All of you, dear Irregulars, know that Stock Gumshoe is not a “tip sheet,” and I don’t operate a portfolio for other people to emulate or copy, or even attempt to track the stocks we cover as if they were a portfolio of buys and sells with consistent trading advice… but I do keep a […]
The following was originally published on November 10 and has not been updated or revised. The teaser ad covered is being circulated again today with a slightly different headline pitch about cellphone royalties, but the balance of the ad (and the teased company) are largely unchanged. —from 11/10/14— Dr. David Eifrig is touting something that […]
Hello, all! I’ve missed you in our holiday hiatus — and my apologies that the hiatus was extended a bit due to a nice bout of New Year Flu, but we should be back on track now. This first note is just to let the Irregulars know that I’ve made my first portfolio adjustment for […]
We’re closing up shop early today for Veteran’s Day, and in the spirit of the holiday we’re running a membership special today. Stock Gumshoe will donate 50% of all membership revenue today and tomorrow to Homes for our Troops, an excellent charitable organization that builds specially adapted homes for severely disabled veterans — so for […]
Ian Wyatt is pitching a stock that he says is going to surge on the demand for more wireless data that comes with each new iteration of the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy… and I didn’t look at this ad for a few days, because it sounded really familiar. Wyatt’s copywriters love the Apple iPhone connection […]
I think I saw this ad a few months ago and didn’t write about it for one reason or another, but it just started a heavy rotation again — so let’s have a gander. David Gardner is a growth stock dynamo — he and his brother Tom founded the Motley Fool as an AOL chat […]
First, I should tell you that this is bad for you. This searching for stocks that double in a day. Seeking such instant gratification in investing is like drinking three beers for breakfast every day because you’re thinking you might run into a friendly Brazilian model on the subway and you want to be “loose” […]
The Palm Beach Letter folks are out with a teased “special report” about how to collect more income in “three minutes” using some kind of secret California “maneuver” … … so naturally, Gumshoe readers are saying “huh?” And “why do they always use California when they make up these names?” And really, just “what are […]
A hodgepodge of thoughts and comments to catch up with thoughts on a few companies that have reported quarterly results or had other meaningful news as I was on vacation — and a quick note on a small buy. First, I need to let you know that I bought a few JP Morgan warrants (JPM-WT) […]
Today we are blessed with another teaser pitch from Ian Wyatt, who tells us he’s got the “one stock you must own” for this year … and he’ll tell you what it is just as soon as you sign up for his Top Stock Insights newsletter. The basic spiel is like many that have relied […]
Just as I catch up on some of the favorite stocks in the Gumshoe universe at least once each year, so too I need to check in with all of our watchlist companies — but first, a trade to note for you: Among the non-watchlist stocks that I own or have covered recently, I’m tempted […]
Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct is an activist investment group, they try to get access to companies, develop relationships with them, serve on boards, and create value. They don’t hedge or short or use leverage and he keeps his own money in the fund, so he is very, very careful. And he defines value, which most people […]
Whenever I’m away from Gumshoe Manor for any length of time, I come back and have to hoe the teaser fields for quite a while just to hack down the hype and promises that crept into our lush mountainside gardens while I traveled — and this week is no different, I leave the field looking […]
I’ve been seeing a new ad from Amber Mason for the DailyWealth Trader service in the last week or so — it’s all about a special way to earn dividends, but to do so much more quickly. What’s she talking about? Well, I expect we’ll find that this is yet another option-selling pitch (several of […]
Over the last few days I’ve been getting a lot of questions from Gumshoe readers about the latest “World Dominator” pick from Dan Ferris over at Stansberry’s Extreme Value newsletter — they’ve apparently been hinting at it and teasing it to the subscribers of their other letters, and piquing the interest of my readers who […]
Well, I don’t think there’s anything I can tell you about Apple (AAPL) that you can’t read anywhere else … except for the fact that I just increased my AAPL position by about 15%. Apple and Berkshire Hathaway have been jousting back and forth for the coveted title of “largest holding in Travis’ equity portfolio” […]
I try to share my opinions with readers like you in a variety of different ways, from my notes on each teaser stock I cover to my more thorough looks at “idea of the month” picks or stocks that I buy personally … but investing is a very quantifiable thing, so even though my investment […]
This article was originally published — with more or less the same clues and the same pitch, and the same stock being featured, back on September 4, 2012. I’ve added this note to the beginning and a supplemental note to the end, and changed the headline (back in September their hype was “Time is Running […]
Today I’ve got a teaser to decipher for you (that’s where our florid headline comes from today), and some shuttling around in my personal portfolio that is actually related to the stock being teased. To give it to you straight and sweet up front, since you’re one of my favorite people: Jim Nelson is teasing […]
Markel released their earnings last night, and they were, well, typical very good Markel earnings — they actually had an above average year in some ways, with good underwriting and not much catastrophe loss and good increases in sales (written premiums). And now, after crashing to about 1.05X book value after announcing the Alterra acquisition, […]
Paul Tracy and the folks at StreetAuthority tend to be very dividend focused — we’ve covered several of their ads that tease long lists of their top picks, many of which are either high-yielding stocks or “blue chip” dividend growth stocks. And there’s always a soft spot in your friendly neighborhood Gumshoe’s heart for a […]
I’ve got a few thoughts to share this week — no new teasers have caught my eye as interesting ones to share specifically with the Irregulars this Friday, but we sure have been seeing a lot of the graphite and graphene teases again (like Byron King’s pitch, and the Oxford Club’s graphite spiel), and everyone […]
I just added to my position in Greenlight Capital Re (GLRE), and have additional orders in to buy a bit more if it drops … and I have a suspicion that it might indeed drop over the next few weeks. Greenlight is one of my favorite stocks to play on a theme that I think […]
Everyone in the investing punditry game has to make predictions, so I’ll go out on a limb here and let you know which of the stocks in the Gumshoe universe I’m most excited about for the coming year. I’m also, so you know, going to be revamping how I present and track the “Idea of […]
Paul Tracy is out again with a similar ad to one he shared a year ago, teasing his top ten stocks for next year — and, like last year, there’s a lot of interest among the Gumshoe readership … so let’s see if we can name those hinted-at picks for you. The basic idea is […]
For those who are curious about what I’m doing with my personal portfolio, I should note that I’ve let the cash balance build up a little bit (mostly through savings, not sales), and that I’ve had a couple transactions this week — I sold Teva (TEVA) as their strategy has morphed away from what I […]
Well, I noted about two weeks ago that I still had a lingering Apple (AAP) limit buy order in, but that I didn’t expect it to be triggered during the (then pre-earnings) AAPL selloff. Surprise, surprise, suddenly Apple is in “bear market mode” according to all the pundits, and the stock is falling further still. […]
OK, fine, if the Street is going to consider good news to be bad for the stock and bump the shares down, I’ll buy some more Apple (AAPL). With the shares falling on news that Apple has revamped every single major product in their lineup over the last two months, just in time for the […]
Every single time the Apple iPhone is revised, refreshed or upgraded the wave of teasers comes crashing down upon us once more. Not that we’re complaining, mind you — this is, after all, the path we’ve chosen: They tease, we de-tease … if they stop, we stop. And frankly, we don’t have anything better to […]
This one may not be entirely loaded with secret stocks, since I suspect quite a few ardent Gumshoe readers have already figured out who they’re talking about as “Steve Jobs’ Mentor” … and therefore figured out which company they’re teasing … but, well, I’m still getting a lot of questions every day on this one, […]
Today I’m taking a “mea culpa” moment to remind you about a a stock I’ve been a wee bit skeptical of as “too expensive” for quite a while … I’ve been quite wrong about the stock so far and it has risen persistently and consistently over the last 2+ years. Not that it’s rare for […]
I won’t buy any shares right away, since it often makes sense to let investor expectations shake out a bit, but I’d love to add to my Apple (AAPL) holdings by a little bit over the next several months if the market continues to write the shares down. In case you’re the one person who […]
That quote above is from George Leong, who’s trying to get you to sign up for his Small-Cap Growth Stocks newsletter. He says that new subscribers can “be the FIRST to read about a great undervalued, undiscovered American company that could hand you a $120,000 gain by year’s end.” Sound good? Well, he makes it […]
We haven’t looked at a pick from Rober Hsu’s China Strategy in quite a while — and it’s not just that we’re ignoring him, as far as we can tell InvestorPlace has not been promoting his newsletters very actively over the last six months or so. Which probably isn’t a huge surprise — China stocks […]
Today I picked up a few more shares of two companies that were already fairly large holdings in my personal portfolio — I increased my holdings in both Apple (AAPL) and Lonrho (LONR.L LNAFF) by roughly a third with limit buy orders that triggered this morning. Apple reports earnings today after the market close, as […]
Now that Apple is the largest public company in the world, and the most popular stock, the eagerness with which newsletter guys tout “secret” Apple suppliers is ramping up still more … impressive in itself, since the basic “buy Apple suppliers” pitch has been around and making money for subscription-sellers ever since Synaptics was pitched […]
I get questions about my personal portfolio every day, and you know that I always write about the personal stock buys and sells I make on this site for you, my favorite Irregulars — so every now and then I like to share some updates on what my top holdings are and, particularly when there’s […]
It’s been a few months since I last wrote about a teaser pitch from the Palm Beach Letter, the “entry level” letter from Common Sense Investing that was started in the last year or so by ex-Stansberry pundit Tom Dyson and marketing guru Michael Masterson/Mark Ford. (Yes, I say “entry level” even though this is […]
This ad is not exactly brand new, but folks have been sending in queries about it for a few weeks, and pretty steadily, so I thought I’d try to get some answers out for you. The pitch is from Ian Wyatt, who’s trying to sell his Top Stock Insights newsletter by throwing in a “special […]
The folks at the Motley Fool have run lots of ads for stock picks that “piggyback” on the iPhone’s gargantuan success — as have lots of other newsletter publishers, of course — and it looks like that trend will continue. The ad I’ve seen today takes a somewhat different tack on this same basic idea […]
Most of the time I write about the investment newsletter business — the pundits who sell their expertise, the copywriters who make the mundane seem otherworldly, and the outrageous promises and teases that the publishers use to convince us to subscribe to newsletters that proffer investment research and stock tips. But it’s worth noting that […]
That provocative headline is there to get your attention, of course — plenty of folks disagree with Warren Buffett on one thing or another, but few believe him to be “mad.” No, what Hilary Kramer is trying to do is to draw your attention to the fact that Buffett finally bought a tech stock, IBM […]
This particular ad, or one very much like it with a few edits, has been running for about six weeks — it’s a pitch to get you to subscribe to Global Investment Strategist from Yiannis Mostrous ($497, thanks very much), and it’s all about a key Apple (AAPL) supplier. Which has been a hot investing […]
I LOVE this ad. Not just because it’s fun to read, full of hyperbole, and fills our head with dreams of huge investment returns — they all do that. No, I love it because it’s great to see the big newsletter publishers answering each others’ challenges — you’ve certainly seen and heard Porter Stansberry’s “End […]
As the market tumbles thanks to the failure of the Super Committee and the rising level of feelings of impending doom, I picked up a few more shares of Apple this morning when they triggered a buy limit order down here in the $370 neighborhood. I have no idea whether or not this will be […]
It’s been a while since Bryan Perry’s ideas graced the glorious pages of Stock Gumshoe — his Cash Machine newsletter has generally teased high-yielding picks in the past, but it looks like he’s downplayed the “high current yield” bit somewhat for this new teaser. And yes, to be fair, we should note that the last […]
Crazy days, no? The overriding fear among investors seems to be that we’re headed back to something like the Fall of 2008, a “Lehman moment” if Europe doesn’t get its act together and Greece or one of the other weaker pups of the EU actually defaults on their debt … or defaults in some extra-bad […]
Yesterday we took a look at the “Apple Core” stocks, companies who have assets or products that the iPhone/iPad colossus can’t live without … and I promised that I’d catch up today and get into Apple Core #3, the one teased stock I didn’t get to in our initial sleutification work (if you missed that […]
It’s been a few weeks since we had a heated teaser roll in from the Motley Fool, so today we’ll welcome the Foolies back to the fold — this time it’s an ad for their flagship Stock Advisor newsletter edited by Tom and Dave Gardner, and it’s all about profiting from the “Mobile Media Gold […]
Sometimes I look back and realize I’ve been a dope. This is one of those times. I’ve been holding and/or actively buying shares of stocks that benefit from the mobile revolution and from the massive consumer businesses the breakthrough products from Apple (iPhone and iPad) have essentially created from scratch over the last couple years […]
I haven’t sniffed out a HIlary Kramer teaser for a while, and lots of folks have been sending me the latest of her hypetastic ads, so I thought I’d dig into the one that sounded most compelling to me. The ad is for her GameChangers newsletter which, sort of in the mold of the Motley […]
Michael Robinson edits a newsletter that’s now called American Wealth Underground, which looks like it’s the successor to the BreakAway Investor newsletter that he took over last year from Christian DeHaemer and, before him, Andrew Mickey in the game of musical chairs that so often is the newsletter business. As far as I can tell, […]
Well, the folks at Stansberry are now releasing the penny stock newsletter that they’ve been testing for a few months — and of course, they’d like you to subscribe. The editor is Frank Curzio, who used to run a similar newsletter at TheStreet.com focusing on stocks under $10. So just as a warning, both Curzio […]
As I type this I’m waiting for the deliveryman to arrive, bringing my new router and computer — one thing I can say about life as the Stock Gumshoe, it’s hell on my laptop. The poor thing is so clogged with spam and has been sent on so many forced marches across the internet as […]
A commenter noted that Sosnowski has a new pick out that I haven’t yet seen the teaser ads for — I’ll copy the comments here: “Sosnowski has a new teaser – a niche tech company: ‘For example, recently I offered a recommendation on a company that makes a specific $2 part for the Apple iPhone […]