Another wild week in the life of growth stock investors — in just the course of a week Shopify, Fastly, Amazon, Docusign, Roku, NVIDIA, Teladoc and Wrap Technologies each managed to rise in value by more than 10%, some by much more, and that’s in a week that saw essentially no fundamental news about any […]
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
The opening to Eric Fry’s latest teaser ad sounds similar to many other gold-focused teaser pieces we’ve looked at over the years… “If you want to make a fortune in 2020, there is only one thing to know. After four years of going nowhere, gold is once again in a bull market. “Because of events […]
The teaser ad I’m reviewing today is from David Fessler, a pitch for his Strategic Trends Investor ($79/yr) that has been running for a few days now. It’s all about a miraculous machine with some little ceramic tiles that will power our world and make us all rich… ready? Here’s the part of the tease […]
The latest Investorplace pitch for Matt McCall’s Investment Opportunities ($99/yr) promises that we can cash in by “joining the Foldable Phone revolution”… and that sounds both fun and lucrative, so let’s check out the ad and see if the Thinkolator can ID his investment ID for you. The dream of a flexible phone screen has […]
Stock Gumshoe is closed today for the Independence Day holiday, but I did put together a few thoughts last night, and have a couple updates for you on the Real Money Portfolio, so we at least have an abbreviated Friday File for you… Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG in London, HPGSF OTC in the US) has […]
July 2, 2020
Can we “Make 611% Scaring off Amazon and Apple?”
Today brings us another “black box” teaser pitch — we see similar themes across investment teases, and the “black box” is popular… a presentation with some pundit holding up a mysterious box sand saying, “thar be gold!” This time around, it’s Hilary Kramer pitching us as she tries to recruit subscribers to her GameChangers service […]
Pretty much everyone who’s trying to build a large-scale newsletter issues proclamations like “stock of the year” and “stock of the decade,” since such claims get attention… after all, attention is the currency of the online marketer. So we’ll take this with a wee grain of salt, but here’s the beginning of Andy Snyder’s latest […]
Today we’re looking at a teaser pitch for the new Green Zone Fortunes service from Adam O’Dell, who has offered some “cycle trading” newsletters in the past for Dent Research (Cycle 9 Trader and 10X Profits), and has recently launched this Green Zone product as an entry-level service ($49, renews at $79). I haven’t covered […]
June 30, 2020
Green Zone Fortunes
Entry level “systematic trading” monthly newsletter, says that it “provides a monthly newsletter centered on the latest big investment opportunity and a weekly email that includes the Green Zone Ratings, which highlights the top 10 best performing stocks, as well as the top 10 worst performing stocks.” O’Dell also helms the “upgrade” newsletters Cycle 9 […]
The emails that I started getting a few days ago start out with a tease about a secret meeting… “Right near the Pacific coast… “Where you can smell the salt and volcanic dust in the air… “There lies a secret compound… one visited by some of the brightest financial minds in the world.” And, it […]
June 29, 2020
Oxford Microcap Trader
Recommends small-cap stocks that Alexander Green sees as having 100X potential, their marketing materials indicate that they’re looking for small and profitable companies in the $300 million-$1 billion range, “well-run small businesses with fast-growing sales” but not really “penny stocks.”
June 26, 2020
Friday File part 2: Nibbles and Two Watchlist Additions
I shared part one of our Friday File with you this morning, when I took some time to dig into a nanocap idea being teased by Keith Schaefer, so part two will be a little more brief… just a few quick notes about things of interest this week, and some minor moves in the Real […]
I saved this teaser pitch to cover for you, dear Irregulars… and I confess that it’s mostly because covering a company this tiny and illiquid for our larger group of free readers feels a little bit irresponsible. Even if I say cynical or skeptical things about a stock, talking to thousands of my closest friends […]
This article was originally published on May 28, 2020, when we first saw these ads — they have recently been re-circulating as the June 30 date approaches and vaccine interest rises again. What follows has not been updated since May 28, though I did add an updated note at the bottom. We haven’t covered a […]
It’s been a year since we first covered this Frank Curzio teaser, and it’s back in the news again in recent weeks… with a new teaser pitch for his Curzio Research Advisory ($49/yr) over the past few days… so I thought I’d check in with some updates. First, though, we’ll get quickly to our solution, […]
The over-the-top promise of the latest Green Chip Stocks pitch is impressive… this is from the order form: “Now, Get Ready to Profit from “The Most Important Discovery in Half a Century” ––Science Magazine “The last time science came anywhere close to a breakthrough like this, early investors made up to 70,000%” And it gets […]
If my limited interactions with the outside world are any indication, I’d say we’ve gotten to the “cab driver” period that institutional investors often talk about: When your cab driver starts giving you stock tips, the top is probably near. That’s not a reliable predictor, of course, and I guess it would be Uber drivers […]
We haven’t looked at a “free money!” teaser in a while, so when readers asked about this one I figured I should check it out — it’s another one that’s all about “loopholes” and “bonus cash” and “signing up to qualify” or “putting your name on a list”… which means that in all likelihood this […]
A version of this article was originally published on October 21, 2019, but the ad continues to circulate and generate new questions so we have updated it to address any changes over the past six months. Hard to believe that the major publishers didn’t already have something called The Penny Stock Letter, but this is […]
June 16, 2020
Sleuthing out RiskHedge’s “Amazon Killer”
This ad is a few weeks old now, so my apologies for not getting to it sooner (or ID’ing the stock at a better price, frankly), but it’s still an interesting story and I’m still getting questions, so let’s dig in. The pitch is for Disruption Investor ($99/yr), Stephen McBride’s “entry level” newsletter for RiskHedge […]
Recent Author Comments
Posted on August 14, 2020
Posted on August 14, 2020
IPO orders are sold to people who buy in before it starts trading, and at whatever offering price the investment bank decides it should offer at... so if there’s huge demand for more shares beyond what was sold in the IPO, the price will surge as the peo[...]
Posted on August 14, 2020
Nope. Have any in mind?[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Some connection, I suppose, and I do like the potential of Fastly, even at this nutty valution... though here Brown is just teasing hardware makers.[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Thanks... tiny company that has tripled in a month, so that gives me great pause, but it sounds like it's worth reading up on them a bit. Not much actual revenue yet, and surprisingly low gross margin for an IP company, but certainly growing that top lin[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
That's not a question. I've never looked at Cerence, if that's what you're asking. Interesting idea, software for cars (largely for driver interface, including voice commands), but I don't know anything else about it or who their customers or competitors[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
They're still using that old Hon Hai/Foxconn tease, so I guess it's still working to draw in more subscribers.[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Thanks, seems some folks saw a lot more promo material for this one than I have seen so far.[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Elastic they've teased before, that was one of the "FAZER" stocks -- somewhat appealing, and a cheaper valuation versus its growth ra[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Huh?[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Sure, another reasonable guess.[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Freshpet is a manufacturer, with its own food brands... Chewy more of an online pet store. At least, that's my 30-second differentiation, have never looked deeply at Freshpet, though it is also getting a sales growth burst.[...]
Posted on August 13, 2020
Have never heard of them — what do you think the catalysts are?[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
It was technically near $4, just because the traded ADRs represent more than one share each.[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
Nope, it’s definitely NVDA for those clues — though Brown may well recommend AMAT for other reasons. AMAT is an interesting “bet on all semis” stock in some ways, though Lam Research and others in similar businesses have done much better Than AMAT[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
That can sometimes be a nice way to ease into positions.[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
Don’t know anything about that one, I’m not a day trader or swing trader so may not be the one to ask... but I am very suspicious of all the “war room” style live trading services.[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
Here's the latest spiel that I've seen introducing this ad: "The 12 Million Mile Battery" One "original 7" electric car employee has beaten his former company to market on an energy innovation so powerful it can send a Tesla cross country wi[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
Thanks derek. I've been gradually buying new tranches of put options every six months or so for a couple years now, some of those have thankfully paid for themselves but in general it has been a drag on the portfolio -- much of it is psychological, having[...]
Posted on August 12, 2020
Yes, they are both generally investors in royalties, though companies like EMX and Altius do a bit more prospect development too as a way to generate royalties, Sandstorm just buys them. Sandstorm has a little copper exposure, too, but not much -- almost[...]
A possibility, they’ve had a little e-commerce recovery too (finally)[...]