The response of the market to the slightly-better-than-expected CPI number on Wednesday and PPI on Thursday really tells us all we need to know: When it comes to investor sentiment, it’s still all about interest rates. Slightly improve the probability that the Fed will cut rates at least once or twice this year, with a […]
Author Bio
Travis Johnson is an individual investor who founded Stock Gumshoe in 2007 as a way to air his dissections of overhyped marketing pitches... and to share the "secret" stocks that stock newsletters hype to get your attention and your subscription dollars. His thinking? If you already know what the "secret" stock is, you can make a much more reasonable and thoughtful decision about whether or not to commit to an expensive newsletter subscription. (And if you don't pay for the info, you'll be more free to think for yourself about whether or not the investment is worth your money.)In his charmed life he has been, among other things, a university faculty member, a fundraiser, a writer, and a world-champion ice-cream scooper. Now he runs Stock Gumshoe for you, allowing us all to discuss and dissect the latest overheated stock ideas... as well as review and talk about investment newsletters and enjoy the commentary and opinions of Stock Gumshoe's other special contributors and the discussion with our unusually attractive, erudite and polite readers. He lives with Mrs. Gumshoe and all their little Gumshoes in the wilds of Western Massachusetts.
Author Archives
June 13, 2024
“The Oppenheimer Stock” to buy before June 27?
“An obscure U.S. firm is set to unleash the biggest gains of the decade — the last time something similar happened, investors were able to book 8,200% gains… “But it’s vital you get in BEFORE June 27” That’s the intro to the latest ad for The Crows Nest ($99 first year, renews at ??, 6-month […]
Eric Fry has a somewhat contrarian “Tech Panic” teaser pitch running for his Fry’s Investment Report newsletter ($49 first year, $79 renewal, 90-day refund period), mostly focused on the fact that he thinks the current AI boom is a mirror of the 2000 dot-com boom, and will similarly crash, leading to disaster for the “Magnificent […]
June 10, 2024
Answers: Altucher’s “Secret AiPhone Supplier”
I’m fleshing out a quick teaser solution for you, after I shared it with our Stock Gumshoe Irregulars on Friday… we’ve got yet more people asking about this latest James Altucher ad today than anything else. So… who’s James Altucher teasing as the Secret “AiPhone Supplier?” The ad is another irritating over-promise presentation about a […]
Pretty much every “growth” investor worth his salt is making big promises ahead of Tim Cook’s keynote address to the Apple WWDC today — mostly out of habit, I expect, because every time Apple (or NVIDIA, lately) makes an announcement, the newsletter jockeys use that as a moment to recruit new subscribers by promising some […]
I’m starting with a quick teaser solution for you, since we’ve got more people asking about this latest James Altucher ad today than anything else. I’m not going to go through all the detail for you, due to a lack of time, but it seems like folks are feeling itchy about this one so we’ll […]
June 6, 2024
Answers: Tilson’s “Nuclear Renaissance” Tease
Whitney Tilson has rejoined the nuclear power parade, launching a new teaser pitch recently for his Commodity Supercycles newsletter at Stansberry (first year $49, renews at $199, includes a one-year trial of Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, also now edited by Tilson). Here’s how the ad begins: “This Invention Will Create More Wealth than Any Technology in […]
The headlines have been awash with stories about the “Magnificent Seven”, the stocks who have provided most of the return for the market over the past year or so… which means, naturally enough, we’ve got lots of folks trying to sell us on the idea that they can predict who the next Magnificent Seven will […]
Another day, another interminable ad promo… though this one, at least, has a coherent investment argument, despite the over-the-top silliness of the news desk “discussion” format. The ad is from Charles Mizrahi, for his 8 Figure Fortunes “upgrade” newsletter ($995/yr, no refunds), and it’s about the “echo boom” of housing demand, driven by the demographic […]
We are right around the peak year for “number of people entering retirement” right now, and the stock market remains richly valued and a little nerve-wracking for the folks who are just beginning to think about living off of their investments… so I expect we’ll continue to see more pitches and promises about income investments […]
This article was originally published on Feb 27, 2024. The ad is again circulating from the Fool, unchanged, and the following article is also unchanged. The stock being teased is still within about 5% of where it was when this article was first published. It’s hard not to get the “FOMO” feeling when reading through […]
Boston Omaha Settles Down… For Now Boston Omaha (BOC) shares have had a bit of a recovery from the angst-ridden lows caused by the departure of their Co-CEO a few weeks ago… partly because a couple insiders have stepped up to do a little insider buying, with a decent first quarter also in the books, […]
Time for an update on this story, because Alexander Green’s latest version of his ad (dated April 2024) is ginning up interest among Gumshoe readers. Here’s how the “interview presentation” that Alexander Green is now circulating begins: “Alexander Green Makes Huge Bet on Artificial Intelligence… ‘I’ve Invested $100,000 in ONE Tiny AI Stock’ “Discover Why […]
Pitchmen love to find the hottest product, and then say they’ve used their uncanny skill and their unparalleled industry connections to find the secret little company who will benefit from that hot product. They’ve been doing it for years with Apple, fueled by the cottage industry of “whisperers” inside Chinese manufacturing plants who start the […]
I first bought shares of Markel Group (MKL) about 22 years ago… but I sold them on a stop loss trade in 2004, because I didn’t really understand the company very well and it was going down in a rough year (turns out, 2004 was the last year that Markel reported adverse development of its […]
We’re all just waiting for the NVIDIA (NVDA) quarterly report, due after the close today, because that’s the report which is most likely to either ignite yet more enthusiasm for AI stocks… or tap the brakes and make everyone think about fundamentals and risk again. So while we wait, let’s check out all the other […]
Gold and copper were hitting hew highs early this morning, so it appears we’ve got some interest brewing in metals again… shall we check out a gold teaser? I thought you’d never ask! This one’s from Dr. David Eifrig over at Stansberry Research, who’s teasing us with his favorite “2024 Gold Trade” in trying to […]
May 17, 2024
Friday File: Beating Buffett to his “Secret” Stock?
I posted a long Trade Note in the form of a Tuesday File piece earlier in the week, since the announcement about Boston Omaha’s (BOC) executive departure caused me to do a deep dive into the company and rethink my investment… I won’t repeat that entire piece here, but I generally think Boston Omaha is […]
Here’s the intro to Adam O’Dell’s latest ad for his 10X Stocks service ($1,495/yr, no refunds), which looks for small-cap stocks that have the potential for a 10X return in a year… so no “widows and orphans” stuff here, these stocks will presumably be risky and volatile. “AI will require 212X more power… And one […]
May 14, 2024
Tuesday File: What’s the Deal, Boston Omaha?
A few hours after I posted the Friday File last week, we got some surprise news from Boston Omaha (BOC) — one of the co-founders and co-CEOs, Alex B. Rozek, has abruptly left the company, leaving CEO Adam Peterson, the other co-founder, in charge, and with control of all the super-voting shares. That brings up […]
Recent Author Comments
Posted on June 15, 2024
Posted on June 15, 2024
No news from LAB. I expect it to require patience. Haven't looked at the other two recently.[...]
Posted on June 15, 2024
I expect he'll be gradually selling smallish chunks for many years. In this case I wouldn't say it's a clear negative, it's more the absence of a positive.[...]
Posted on June 15, 2024
Oklo's Alaska project was rescinded almost as soon as it was "pre-announced" last fall. That still has a tentative deadline of 2027, but there's probably no way for it to possibly be built by then. BWXT is supposed to deliver a micro reactor for the ar[...]
Posted on June 14, 2024
No, but I invest in insurance underwriters who I'm pretty confident are better at evaluating weather risks than I am -- and most of them don't actually take much of the catastrophe exposure for known property risk areas on their own, they use reinsurance o[...]
Posted on June 14, 2024
Haven't looked at that one yet, but I think I've got a copy in my pile... thanks![...]
Posted on June 14, 2024
This was back when ETHE traded around $20, several pundits teased that from time to time as an easy way to get Ethereum exposure for those who didn't want to dabble in actual cryptos.[...]
Posted on June 14, 2024
It's a cool story, for sure. I'd like to see the NRC license at least one non-light-water reactor before I invest in one of the hopefuls, since it's likely to take so long, but it certainly might work out fantastically.I like the idea of the Oklo reac[...]
Posted on June 13, 2024
True, though the Navy usually uses different stuff -- I think they primarily actually use HEU, the weapons grade stuff, as fuel in naval reactors, because it gives them a bigger power plant in a smaller space.[...]
Posted on June 13, 2024
Sounds like you probably mean the nuclear proliferation risk -- that flows from a Science article that [...]
Posted on June 13, 2024
Thanks bernigu! I'll take a look to see if that ad has changed, but it could just be a repeat of the "[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
I'd say "no" and "no" -- they're certainly pushing AI at Apple now, and investors reacted with a cheer, but no big partnerships or deals announced with the several companies teased with such promos.[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Thanks Sheryl... guess he hasn't updated all his ads to swap out the hints about PATH for ASML clues yet, I'll keep an eye out for that.[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Following the feedback, I went back and checked the Q's and K's -- yes, it turns out most of the apparent dilution was the conversion of Class B shares into Class A, so the real shareholder count is relatively unchanged since the IPO in 2020 (was slightly [...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Yes, Tilson's #1 investment, the "would feel safe putting half my kids inheritance in" is still Berkshire Hathaway (he used to say, "kids college fund," but his kids are I think all graduated now, or close to it) -- that's essentially a repeat of [...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
In general, yes -- part of the challenge is that this was essentially a private royalty fund before going public, so they had investors in the fund who became shareholders, but there is also dilution. See tiger5's comments in this thread for some ameliora[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Haven't noticed that particular ad, but I'll keep an eye out.[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Thanks tiger5, great feedback on the accounting.[...]
Posted on June 12, 2024
Shouldn't benefit RPRX much, the speed-up part of AI drug research is the "discovery" part, it makes it faster to identify compounds that will make good drugs. So far there's no indication that it will speed up the actual clinical trial process (8-10 year[...]
Posted on June 11, 2024
The accounting does obscure the value to some degree, I'm sure, so perhaps I'm too short-sighted when looking primarily at the falling revenue and free cash flow per share -- didn't dig into PFIC or other issues with that.They've compounded cash flow[...]
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Don't know anything about it... what makes them stand out to you?[...]