Too Many Newsletter – Information Overload!Hi all,
I’ve posed a ? to Travis and the Support team regarding the number of Newsletters that I’ve acquired over the past year. At this point it seems that I get at least 5 or 6 different ones each week from various vendors – Street Authority/Agora Financial (x3+)/ Newsmax/Soverign Society/Stansbury Research/Wall Street Daily/Wealth Advisory/Palm Beach Letter/Energy Advantage, etc. etc. etc.
The information ranges from ”Doom & Gloom” to ”Latest & Greatest,” but one constant seems to be ”BUY, BUY, BUY” our newest most exclusive (and expensive) research! Travis and the Thinkolator (!) often debunk much of the information or show that its not really very current, merely the HYPE of the Day/Week/ or Month.
So in good conscience I’m asking for your opinions as to what service is truly worth keeping and to what degree do you individually or collectively believe it (they) provide(s) truly valuable information?
I’m struggling with keeping up with the info, the repeats, the slant of a ”guru/specialist/sage” all of whom seem to have impeccable credentials supported by a massive advertising ”house”! It also seems that if you take one you soon are innundated by everything published by that family and others! I feel truly ’blessed’ to be PT Barnum’s – ”sucker born every minute!” and would like to unravel that dubious distinction…
Per my discussions with Travis, I think others may have a similar problem and would like to have some feedback!
Thanks – Dave
This is a discussion topic or guest posting submitted by a Stock Gumshoe reader. The content has not been edited or reviewed by Stock Gumshoe, and any opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
It is driving me crazy as well .. almost every email I receive lately is pushing me to “Log into my friend Steve’s $900,000 Website” for a mere $2500, . I am about ready to unsubscribe from all of them just to stop the craziness….
I’ve been a sucker and subscribe to over 20 newsletters. It would be more but for reading reviews here putting truth to outrageous claims! For 20 years I swore by Hulbert and averaged 14-16% yearly buying 4-5 of his top performers over past years and ignoring the current year. Then the old performers failed to perform and I started endless acts of faith.
I recently compiled results from newsletters and list them below. They are total return and make no adjustment for time invested!
RANK LETTER %GAIN VALUE($000)
1 Gumshoe 416.54 114
2 Grail 135 25
2 DDDBCorps 98 40
3 Ameritrade 91 176
4 Sound Profits 81 18
5 Activist Trader 61 7
6 Pepsi 44 1454
7 Outstanding Inv 43 58
8 True Income 38 27
9 Extreme Value 35 108
10 12 Letter 35 27
11 MF Rule Break 31 79
12 TOTAL 31 2714
13 Stock of the Mo 25 25
14 SA Resourse 19 44
15 Hi Yeild 16 23
16 Money Market 14 15
17 China Strat 14 57
18 Cabot Top 12 11
19 DivMach Co 12 68
20 Casey 10 12
21 Silver Stock 9 7
22 Daily Wealth 7 20
23 Small Stock 7 56
24 Spin Trader 4 9
25 MFStock A 4 156
27 Gold Analy 3 79
28 Thomas 3 10
29 Speed Retirement -32 4
YES! YES! YES! Stock/mutual fund picking isn’t my full time job, but it seems to be taking up a lot of time lately! Any chance of getting your opinons on best hedge fund managers/hedge fund newsletter too. Would love to have the boom gurus as well as the bust gurus.
I’m a 20 year + subscriber to Richard Band’s Profitable Investing. Have met him at a couple of Money Show speaking engagements and can say he is a solid rock in a squishy environment. I’ve always appreciated his conservative “stay the course” belief in solid investments and particularly dividend paying securities.
His twice weekly updates help sort through major market moves up or down.
That said I’d never blindly just buy his model portfolios, preferring to get ideas and confirmation from Richard to my own ideas and research
Thanks Jim, we’ve gotten some reviews on that one but not lately — they’re here if anyone wants to see them (or add their own): http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/profitable-investing/
Have done Stansberry products for 7-8 years, they run hot and cold but paying attention have gained. Am dropping 2 this year, they have become too republican fanatical, shouldn’t be in this type of product, now replacing with Motly Fool. Best advice——-
PAY ATTENTION !!!
Republican! You have not been paying attention. S&A has been and always will be aligned against big, intrusive government. Democrats and Republicans in and out of office and the voters who put them there are responsible for the mess our country and the world is in.
Hi Dave — we get this question a lot, we’re making another push today to get some more opinions out there on this topic for you and everyone else who asks. Today’s note is here http://stockgumshoe.com/2013/02/whats-your-favorite-newsletter/ — we’ve already got a good number of comments and the reviews of newsletters are flowing in as well so our overall rankings will be gradually moving in response to those new reviews.
After 40 years of listening to advisors and being burned by both brokers and newsletters (They tout their wins, but ignore their blunders) I am ready to start my own corporation and load up on a big salary and huge stock options.
The industry has gotten away from shareholders as partners and more as innocents to plunder. What happened to integrity and using a expertise to help people? It appears there is no room for the straight shooter, the business goes to the hype. It would be interesting to have a background check on the advisors and the corporate officers.
I really appreciate the insights and honesty from Gumshoe and the subscribers.
Keep up the excellent work!
I don’t have a newletter to recommend. However, I’ve found “seeking alpha.com” to be very helpful.
agreed.
I posted this on Travis’ article on this today, but I have one addition.
“I have most of my money in very conservative stuff, and agree that the Retirement Letter and Cash Machine are useful in running that. I keep about 10% to 15% in very aggressive stuff – nothing in the middle. For the last five years, the #1 letter in Hulbert has been New World Investor, and #2 is Forbes Special Situations. Those two are almost always near the top of the rankings, and I use them for ideas and do my own DD.”
The addition is that New World Investor doesn’t have an “upsell” to a more expensive letter and has never asked me to subscribe to anything else, and Forbes is not nearly as bad as Stansberry when it comes to burying you with solicitations to buy other letter.
Thank you for the input! The reviews on New World Investor can be found here: http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/new-world-investor/
What I like about your website is the “unlocking” the stupid mystery companies other sites tease and explain in simple terms what the co is valued at, the future prospects and if it is a good or bad idea. Mostly the honesty is refreshing!
Not really a newsletter, but I subscribe to an excellent stock rating service. The author tends to stick to the types of industries he knows well and does in-depth evaluations of companies according to if they offer good value and are good long term invesments. He provides an accurate record of all his recommendations and also of his returns over the years. He has beaten the return of the stock indexes year in and year out and has averaged 13% per year for ten years. No BS or hyperbole, just clear thinking. Investorsfriend.com
We just added Investorsfriend.com to our list of reviewable services, if you’d like to add your starred review: http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/investorsfriend-com/
I am currently a subscriber to John Markman’s, Traders Advantage. The site provides short term investing ideas which have been profitable for me. The site does not advertise teaser stocks, just good ideas.
I am a loyal Stockgumshoe reader and appreciate the work in uncovering these stock teaser articles promoted by other sites. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Paul! Here’s a link to our readers’ reviews of Trader’s Advantage:
http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/traders-advantage/
My favorite is Morningstar primarily for the information their site provides; I leaned how to do the DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) model for Valuation of a firm. The numbers I need are there. Now since I learned the models in the 80s I know for tech and pharmaceutical firms I wil be low. But that is ok because if the price per share is near or below my Valuation I view that error as a margin of safety (I am trying to learn some of the newer methods). If one of their analysts has done a Valuation, I carefully read the essay part of the Valuation and try to determine if his/her world view (and assumptions are close to mine). Every Valuation is based on assumptions and uncertainty but is still very worth while. E.G. I Value FIATY at 16-17 dollars a share if the synergies of their latest acquisition bear fruit. The price of the stock is 5-6 per share and with Italian elections at an impasse might go still lower. I also use them as a check on my Valuations. I also like Seeking Alpha as I learn which companies to do a Valuation from the articles posted. Being by myself I am not able to read all the technical and scientic info out there but I come across articles that make sense on their face and if I am looking a new idea for investment I do a Valuation. I like doing my own Valuations because I know most analysts have a bias on the buy side. In my opinion an analysts should neither recommend a buy or discourgae one but rather state what the Value of a firm is and let the reader decide if buying stock in the the firm meets their investment objectives and style of investing (Some people can live with a lot of uncertainity and some people can not) . Years ago I used Value Line but came to realize their investment style and mine were different. There is too much tease to Motley Fool but on occasion I have figured out the company/companies behind the tease and proceeded to do a Valuaion. I do like their long term outlook. I bought DDD and SSYS months ago and sold with the latest dramatic rise. My assumptions for the markets are: the market is weakly efficent, price and value converge in a reasonable time, the market is unpredicable but in the long run but in the US slowly converges with the economy (Never bet againt the American People in the long run). Value, Valuation with a cap means the price of a stock done by an analyst with perfect knowledge and no bias. Never achived in the world but that does not matter.
Hi Dave!
I feel your pain!
Personally, I cancelled all of my subscriptions — with the exception of a “lifetime” subscription I have with the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII.com). I use the site frequently to expand my investment knowledge, not only for my personal investment needs but for a financial blog site I recently started.
The best advice I can offer to you is this: With regard to investing, expand your knowledge base because no one knows more about your personal finances and investment needs than you! Look to learn more about the various investment instruments available in the marketplace today, and try to expand your investment tool box, so to speak.
There is no such thing as a silver bullet, and the latest and greatest stock today can quickly turn into the biggest dud tomorrow. Don’t just look for newsletters that provide the latest and greatest stock suggestions, look for new investment ideas such as how to trade/invest with ETFs, Forex, mutual funds, options and real estate investment trusts (REITs). Expand upon your investment knowledge and you will expand your investment opportunities.
AND, by all means, stick with Travis — because he is the only person out there I have found to be open, honest and reasonable. 🙂
Some free resources that may interest you are:
http://www.investopedia.com
http://finviz.com/
http://www.stock2own.com/Default.aspx
http://shortsqueeze.com/
http://www.barchart.com/commodityfutures/All
http://stockcharts.com/
http://www.morningstar.com/
You may also want to look at some of the broker sites as well, given that they offer free newsletters, especially with regard to macro economic trends. I have found Vanguard’s (https://investor.vanguard.com/home/ ) and Fidelity’s (https://www.fidelity.com/ ) resources to be fairly useful at times — Fidelity is my favorite for research information.
Hope this helps.
Best of luck!
I somehow get overwhelmed by the number of “this is it! Only letting a few more people in before midnight at $5000 a year”. I have followed Travis first as a freebie then decided he was the real deal in tearing some of these teasers apart. I get the Mötley Fool, use INO a little, ignore a lot. One that is similar to Travis is Weber Global. The guy is genius but deals more in currencies, which is something I admittedly know nothing about. It’s a monthly newsletter, cheap, and does give some good insight. The main thing that’s been mentioned, is unless you get really lucky (only happened to me once making $23,000 on option trade in 4 days), this market lives and breathes and doesn’t always play by the rules. I’ve learned to hold my stocks when I used to buy and sell every day. I’ve earned some good money from paying attention. My only regret in the years of trading is when I ignored even myself on Facebook and not only lost a ton of money buying shares but got caught in that “glitch” that doubled my order. Either way I will probably keep looking at all these newsletters and then delete them. Travis I will always keep. You are the “thinkolator” and I like your style. I’m not a person to post but figured I would throw old Mr. Weber in there for anyone who trades currencies or wants lots of precious metal insight. Fabor has worn me out with so much of the same back and forth commentary. I think he has a couple good ideas and just brings them up every so often in different ways. Hope I can say that and not get in trouble! Thanks Travis! Appreciate all your hard work.
Two simple stock ideas that have worked over the years is “Dogs of the Dow” and SPY which is the S&P 500 ETF. Both wil work as long as the market trend is up. Play them when the index is above the 50 day moving average and move to the sidelines when it drops below. Good ideas are everywhere but so are land mines. If you get on board make sure you enter stops especially when you have a gain. Don’t expect the guy who touted you on the stock to also tell you when to get out. Let the market tell you with stops. Some stocks can trade in 5-10 point trading ranges for years. You don’t need to own a lot of stocks just make sure you know the ones you own.
Hello and THANKS TO ALL for your insights and thoughts! I particularly appreciate Travis for starting another “Newsletter Rating” Blog and to the many of you who have made recommendations. I do have a lot of the ones mentioned – Stansbury, Motley Fool, Wealth Advisory etc. etc. etc. ; but as so many have noted, its not so much the information as it is the “Tease” and the obnoxious ‘upsells’ or additions even if focused on another sector.
Again my appreciation to all who have responded and share a similar predicament. Perhaps we all can benefit from these discussions on a periodic basis. One additional question which might bear a comment or two – How Long Do You Retain your Various Newsletters?
Regards,
Dave