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Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe

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

You’ve already heard quite a bit from me this week, since I shared the latest buy news from the $100K Lock Box portfolio yesterday… but I’ve still got a few things to share with you to close out the week… including one more add-on buy. We’ve got news from a few of our Real Money […]

To some degree, my personal preferences about the industries that I find understandable and attractive are coloring the $100K Lock Box Portfolio — yes, my intention is for this to be a portfolio that is as diversified as possible, within the restrictions I’ve set up (high growth, relatively small size, justifiable valuation, potential for business […]

Time to check out another A.I. pitch… and this time it’s from The Wealth Advisory, which has been through a few editors over the years but is now edited by Jason Williams. If this pitch is anything like the past ones we’ve looked at from them, it’s going to be an exaggerated spiel about a […]

You might note that there aren’t a lot of green “Yes” entries in the “is this a reasonable buy right now” column on the Real Money Portfolio page.  That’s mostly because, though I do update those numbers as the outlook gradually improves over time (for most of these companies — sometimes the numbers go down, […]

The Motley Fool is pitching its “Market Pass” service ($998 first year, ? auto-renewal price, no refunds), which is their “package deal” subscription (Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Everlasting Stocks, Real Estate Winners and Rule Your Retirement, plus an “Ultimate Portfolio” that they choose from the recommendations of those services), and the hook they’re using to […]

Here’s the lead-in to the Dr. David Eifrig pitch some readers are asking about this week… “If I had to Pour Every Single Penny of My Retirement into ONE STOCK… This Would Be It” “And today, while it’s still at a good price, I’d like to share it with you, too.” The ad is for […]

It’s hard not to get the “FOMO” feeling when reading through a Motley Fool teaser ad, because they always start with their past blockbuster winners — here’s how the latest tease begins: “Can you imagine if you could go back to 2002, when cloud computing burst onto the scene… “And invest $10,000 in Amazon at […]

Dan Ferris at Stansberry is pitching his “entry level” newsletter, The Ferris Report ($49/yr) by talking up what he calls the “Green Scare” — which is basically a spiel about how “climate alarmism” is being used by the government to “stretch its tentacles ever further into your home,” a new version of the “Red Scare” […]

I’m on vacation this week, but still have a few thoughts to share on some of the earnings reports and other news items that we’ve seen since last Friday… I’ll try to keep it quick, and there are still plenty of earnings updates and news items I haven’t caught up on, so we have something […]

This article was originally sent out as a bonus note for the Irregulars on Friday, February 2… but people are still asking about it two weeks later, so we’re now releasing it for anyone to read. What follows has not been updated since it was originally published. Altucher is pitching his Paradigm Mastermind Group ($5,000/year), […]

This isn’t really about a new teaser pitch, but I’ve had lots of readers ask what’s going on with the flurry of changes at Palm Beach Research and MarketWise recently… so if you’re interested in that bit of publisher crisis, stick with me for a few minutes and I’ll share my perspective, a little back […]

This article was originally published on January 24, it has not been updated but new versions of the ad with different headlines are driving questions our way so we’re re-posting here. If you’re looking for Stansberry Innovations Report’s “#1 AI Stock for 2024” that was covered separately here. Today I thought we’d look into a […]

We’ve got a couple trades this week in the Real Money Portfolio, as well as some updated thoughts on portfolio companies who reported recently, so let’s just skip the jibber-jabber about the S&P 500 hitting a new round number (closing above 5,000 for the first time) and get into the details. Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) […]

Recent Author Comments

On Reveal: Brownstone's "Next NVIDIA"

Lots of promises about that from various newsletters, all of whom are selling different ideas. Which newsletter pitch are you thinking of?[...]

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On Microblog: James Altucher’s AI wealth window - $2,500 cost join his service to find out small AI stock who has partnered with NVIDIA

That was my best guess when I wrote about this pitch earlier today... and a couple readers have con[...]

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On What's Altucher's "NVIDIA Backdoor" Company -- Big News Coming on March 21?

Your reasoning is almost as clear as Altucher's![...]

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On What's Altucher's "NVIDIA Backdoor" Company -- Big News Coming on March 21?

Thanks for the confirmation![...]

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On What's Altucher's "NVIDIA Backdoor" Company -- Big News Coming on March 21?

Nowhere near matching any of the clues, so no. Have written about other teases of GSIT as a "NVIDIA Killer" in the past.[...]

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On What's Altucher's "NVIDIA Backdoor" Company -- Big News Coming on March 21?

He didn't mention a share price in the promo I watched.[...]

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On What's Altucher's "NVIDIA Backdoor" Company -- Big News Coming on March 21?

Yep, covered those three here: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/the-big-secret-on-wall-street-this-week/porters-artificial-illusion-pitch-buy-the-beneficiaries-of-ai-not-the-future-pretenders/[...]

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On Answers: Kohl's "NVIDIA Killer Could Make you 120X" Teaser

I don't know whether GSIT will "win" or not, of course, I'm NOT trying to talk you out of investing in the company, just trying to make the point that they don't "own" that space. The makers of rad-hardened chips include almost any big player in automotiv[...]

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On Microblog: George Gilder is hyping some type of new material

Could be, I guess we'll find out in the fullness of time... though it's not really an investment recommendation when nobody can invest in the company (it's still private).[...]

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On Friday File: Acquisitions, Acacia and Intuitive

Nope.[...]

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On Answers: Kohl's "NVIDIA Killer Could Make you 120X" Teaser

Sure. But there are dozens of very large chip companies who sell rad-hardened chips. No idea of anyone has a particular edge in that area.[...]

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On Answers: Kohl's "NVIDIA Killer Could Make you 120X" Teaser

That's to meet specifications for military and satellite chips. Not particularly unusual, but too expensive for chips that don't require radiation hardening.[...]

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On Friday File: Brookfield, WESCO, Pershing and China

Have not looked at ADBE in a very long time. My impression is that they're an exceptional company trading at a pretty extreme valuation.[...]

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On Friday File: Acquisitions, Acacia and Intuitive

I'd say "slim", but never say never.[...]

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On More Advertising for the Lock Box

Will be interesting to see. They're playing offense in AI, though we won't know whether they win new customers because of that for a while. I expect a lot of the value for advertisers, using TTD or DV or competing platforms, is in providing cross-platfor[...]

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On Reveal: Brownstone's "Next NVIDIA"

We write about ANET pretty regularly -- last update here: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/alpha-investor-report/detease-the-next-microsoft-earn-generational-wealth-from-the-ai-guardian/[...]

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On Microblog: TIM BOHEN “Elon’s Endgame 2024” Discover how Elon’s SHOCKING pivot to this $23 trillion market could send Tesla and 5 tiny “silent partner” companies soaring… …Bigger than space…Bigger than cars…Bigger than social media -- COMBINED

Have only looked at one of Bohen's ads in the past year or so, and it sounds like this wasn't the same one -- will look for that promo and see if he drops any clues, thanks.[...]

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On Microblog: Smci..etc

SuperMicro has been one heck of a burner, those are exactly the kind of stocks (rising analyst estimates, earnings and revenue momentum) that get graded highly by Navellier's quant systems. Did he drop any hints about the five stocks in his ad? Haven't [...]

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On Microblog: DRAKE STERLING "Gaming L1 Partners with NVIDIA: We Bought It"

I've never come across him, but I generally stay away from the crypto pitchmen -- soooo much scamminess in that group that I'd have to be far more expert on the topic to ferret it out.[...]

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On What's the "The AI 'Tollbooth’ That Could Pay for Your Retirement?" Jason Williams says it "has ChatGPT by the Balls" and teases, "Discover how to collect your cut for up to $48,800 annually…"

Thank you, Doug! Having great readers makes it a delight on my end, too.[...]

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