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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

Entry-level investment newsletter from Manward Press, with a monthly investment idea and further commentary now based on “the latest opportunities within Manward’s proprietary Modern Asset Portfolio (MAP).” Gilani took over and revamped the newsletter strategy in late 2023 when Manward founder Andrew Snyder left, so this is very different from the previous Manward Letter which […]

And now it’s time to give some credit where it’s due… what were the most successful teaser picks of 2023? Each year, we spend a few minutes highlighting the worst idea from the investment newsletter world when we name our “Turkey of the Year” at Thanksgiving… but as the year comes to an end, we […]

Every year we highlight the “Turkey of the Year” at Thanksgiving time, calling attention to the worst performing teaser stock picks of the previous twelve months… so it only seems fair to highlight the best picks, too, and that’s what this time of year is all about… between Christmas and New Year’s Day, when Stock […]

This is how a recent ad from Louis Navellier begins… “For the First Time in Over 40 Years… “Wall Street’s ‘King of Quants’ Reveals His Secret $6 BILLION AI Blueprint “‘If you apply my “Secret Blueprint” to the red-hot AI market, the next 12 months could be extremely lucrative… even if you’ve only got $500 […]

Motley Fool Canada is selling their version of the “bundle” that so many newsletter publishers push — they call theirs Market Pass ($799 first year, renews at $999), and it includes access to the North-of-the-border versions of Stock Advisor, Rule Breakers, Hidden Gems, Everlasting Stocks and a Canada-only publication called Dividend Investor. But what caught […]

Here’s the lead-in for the latest ad from Tim Plaehn’s Dividend Hunter ($79/yr): “In the summer of 2014, I quietly recommended 3 no-name dividend stocks to a small group of retired folks… “A decade later… these 3 stocks generated $671,727 of dividends inside an average IRA portfolio “TODAY — I’m releasing a new set of […]

It’s been a wild month, no? We moved pretty high on the “Fear and Greed” index of investor sentiment during November, which was one of the dozen or so best months for the stock market in the past several decades, so we’re firmly back in “Greed” zone now, an even more abrupt turnaround in sentiment […]

So… what’s Porter Stansberry’s “picks and shovels” play in online gaming? It’s not a sports betting stock, which is somewhat of a relief given how aggressively those were touted a few years ago, but Porter hinted at his latest pick in the free lead-in part of his article on Friday, and I’ve got a very […]

This makes two days in a row we’re talking about next-level “AI” teaser pitch — not so much the “pure play” AI stocks, but the companies who might benefit from AI, or might supply needed parts and services that make AI work. Yesterday it was Porter Stansberry with his “Artificial Illusion” stocks that he calls […]

Here’s the top of Porter Stansberry’s latest order form: “EXPOSED: The Big Secret Behind AI “The most remarkable talent in financial publishing reveals how to correctly profit from the real winners of the AI revolution” The “presentation” from Porter this time is similar to past presentations he has given — half “big picture” argument about […]

Time for another longstanding Stock Gumshoe tradition — every Thanksgiving, for 16 years in a row now, we have looked back over our teaser tracking spreadsheets and called out one terrible pick as the Turkey of the Year. That’s the teaser pitch that provided us with the worst-performing, most-overhyped, or otherwise just the goofiest gobbler […]

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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