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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

August 15, 2017

Crypto Alert

New cryptocurrency trading service launched in August 2017, aims to recommend 2-3 trades in cryptocurrencies per month based on the currency expertise of Martin Hutchinson. Sold on a no-refunds, up-front basis for $3,000 with recurring annual “maintenance fees” thereafter.

August 2, 2017

“Apple’s Secret Project Stuns Investors”

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 […]

August 1, 2017

What’s “Jeff Bezos’ Next Big Bet?”

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 […]

July 31, 2017

Takeover Alert, The

New service that aims to use Louis Basenese’s “M.A.R.K.E.D” methodology to identify stocks that are on the verge of being takeover targets. Basenese had a similar newsletter called The Takeover Trader several years ago.

July 26, 2017

Lithium for the “Hungry Red Dragon”

I went into a lot more detail on the David Fessler’s teased “ultra-lithium” company on Tuesday, but there was also some curiosity about the second lithium stock he hinted at in those ads for his Oxford Resource Explorer, so I’ll take a quick look-see at that one as well. If you want to go back […]

Recent Author Comments

On What's the "Jupiter Engine" Being Teased by the Oxford Club?
Posted on August 22, 2017
Bloom makes fuel cells, this is a conventional turbine generator -- it just happens to operate at much higher pressure with near-liquid CO2. Its relatively small for a turbine, but nowhere near the "outside every building" size (or requirements) of a fuel[...]
On Microblog: Magic metal
Posted on August 22, 2017
That ad from Matt Badiali has been running for a few months, we covered it here: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/real-wealth-strategist/whats-matt-badialis-magic-metal-pitch-about/[...]
On Friday File: Mampilly's "Greatest Medical Breakthrough in History" pitch, plus some updates
Posted on August 18, 2017
Well put, thanks.[...]
On Mampilly's "Untapped Ocean of Energy Found Under All 50 States"
Posted on August 18, 2017
Gosh, why wouldn't he have a $50 chance at Rockefeller-like fortunes actually in his portfolio? What in his portfolio sounds better than his words here:
"“And I believe, if everything falls into place, its stock will hand early investors t[...]
On Mampilly's "Untapped Ocean of Energy Found Under All 50 States"
Posted on August 17, 2017
Ormat is a publicly traded company, it does indeed trade for near $50 a share (right now it's at about $56, close to where it was when Mampilly started teasing it in March). Publicly traded stocks are bought and sold on exchanges, using brokerage accoun[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 16, 2017
That would only be the case if Hutchinson actually had a unique insight that no one else understood, and wasn't wildly overpromising in the ad... whistling past the byperbole is usually a perfectly reasonable response, even on the rare case when the Thinko[...]
On Friday File -- Checking in on some favored Mutual Funds
Posted on August 16, 2017
It's a little odd conceptually, because 100% of the exposure is to the CAPE strategy... but it's done through swaps, not direct equity positions, so both some cash and the fixed income portfolio are effectively collateral for those swaps (to minimize count[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 16, 2017
Moderation is important -- and the distinction between savings and speculation or investment is important. You should be prepared for major losses in your speculations, and losses in your investments, but you shouldn't think of something as 'savings' if t[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 16, 2017
I wouldn't bet against China blocking online cryptocurrencies IF they decide that's a real priority -- and if you block them online, they become more or less worthless to most people (yes, some more dedicated users will take them offline or transact with U[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
Most cruptocurrencies can barely hope to develop their own business and technology with the proceeds from an offering... and, I expect, most of them will turn out to have been either hopeless boondoggles or frauds when we look back on the thousands of ICOs[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
I think there was a shady pyramid scheme/bitcoin lending program called Xcoin a while back.... hopefully this is something different.[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
It is a little crazy how early in the venture stage these developers are in some cases. I wonder how many will actually fail to develop a workable product or run out of funding along the way.[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
We're going to get to the point where hundreds of hedge funds trade cryptocurrencies... I wonder if they'll take their fees in dollars?[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
Well, that makes it even less likely as a match, thanks for letting us know :)[...]
On What's that "August 28 ICO" pitch from Martin Hutchinson about?
Posted on August 15, 2017
That was a big one, though it completed the offering a while ago as I understand it.[...]
On "Apple's Secret Project Stuns Investors"
Posted on August 15, 2017
We'll need some massive in incentives to build out the charger network -- the gas stations were first built out by the oligopoly oil companies, but the current market dynamic Wouldn't likely make it worthwhile for the electric companies to build out that [...]
On "Apple's Secret Project Stuns Investors"
Posted on August 15, 2017
Ha! Should have more clearly said "allocation to" -- I reference my portfolio allocations when relevant to give my comments some perspective. NVDA is about 3% of my equity portfolio, though I dearly wish I owned 3% of the company. :)[...]
On Microblog: Secret Gold Deposit Stock from Stansberry
Posted on August 15, 2017
Interesting, that list is here: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/mining-materials/exploration/17179 I have no idea whether it's really accurate or not, but thats a list of the exploration projects that have spent the most -- First Mining's model is that they active[...]
On Stansberry's "Goldwater... Single BIGGEST Gold Discovery in 12 Years"
Posted on August 14, 2017
The Springpole deposit is partially under Springpole lake and will require draining part of the lake -- I don't know if Goldlund is under water to any degree or not, but it's a past-producing mine site. Springpole is also roughly the size teased in terms [...]
On Microblog: What's the $12.00 stock set to save the internet being touted by
Posted on August 14, 2017
If this refers to the Manny Backus/Wealthpire pitch, that has been circulating on and off for more than a year -- it was talking about FireEye last time I looked, and they don't usually update the ads if the ad is working so that's probably still the case.[...]

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