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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

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) […]

Upgrade letter for junior mining stock picks that is for “professional stock pickers” and mirrors Gerardo Del Real’s personal speculations in the resource space. (“Entry level” for his junior mining strategy is the less expensive Junior Resource Monthly)

Recent Author Comments

On Friday File: Berkshire, Brookfield, Restaurants and Electrical Infrastructure

It changes my thinking about the way BOC works, and it was a very big surprise.Will sit on this for a little, and see how the remaining CEO talks about it -- they each control big chunks of the shares.[...]

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On Reveal: "NVIDIA's Secret Partner" teased by Shah Gilani

Good perspective, thanks.[...]

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On Oxford's "Why Argentina's New President Has Me Eyeing This Investment" Pitch

Great feedback, thanks![...]

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On More Advertising for the Lock Box

Hope it works out for you![...]

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On Microblog: Motley Fool: AI Playbook special sale

Haven't seen any new ads from them recently, but they've been selling an "AI Disruption Playbook" for years n[...]

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On Answers: "The Pentagon is going ALL IN on this Tiny AI Firm" (Three "Satellite AI" stocks)

What do you like about KOPN? See some growth emerging from their defense business, perhaps?Altucher flogged that one like crazy with some very misleading promises that it would be involved with the Apple VisionPro. Don't know if he has given up on that [...]

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On More Advertising for the Lock Box

Rough start for DV -- mild miss on this first earnings report since I bought, and a more significant reduction in the forecasted revenue for 2024.Not cataclysmic, no sign the business is fundamentally broken, but a rough beginning for this one in the[...]

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On Answers: "The Pentagon is going ALL IN on this Tiny AI Firm" (Three "Satellite AI" stocks)

Thanks Stacy![...]

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On Porter & Whitney's "New Form of Money" -- What's "The Secret U.S. Currency No One Told You About?"

He said they were doing some work on a potential acquisition in Canada. The big private ones are mostly in ag or energy to one degree or another, and he doesn't like bidding wars for public companies... but you never know.[...]

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On Porter & Whitney's "New Form of Money" -- What's "The Secret U.S. Currency No One Told You About?"

I think that was the pitch for selling puts and covered calls, no? Eifrig has been doing that for a decade or so.[...]

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On Porter & Whitney's "New Form of Money" -- What's "The Secret U.S. Currency No One Told You About?"

No promises, but a little birdie tells me that Stansberry in the past has recommended:CME LNSTY CBOE ICE BOLSY[...]

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On Porter & Whitney's "New Form of Money" -- What's "The Secret U.S. Currency No One Told You About?"

Care to elaborate?[...]

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On Microblog: Oil and gas royalty investments

That teaser ad is getting pretty long in the tooth now, they haven't updated it since February of 2023... the primary stock they're pitching is Permian Basin Royalty Trust (PBT), which I have a lot of concerns about (primarily their reliance on net profits[...]

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On Friday File: Good Cloud Growth, Reassuring Underwriting

Thanks for the perspective... Mission Technologies is a tiny part of the business right now, though it is growing much faster than the shipyards.[...]

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On Friday File: Good Cloud Growth, Reassuring Underwriting

Berkshire quarter out -- crazy cash balance approaching $190 billion now.And a somewhat surprising sale of more than 10% of the Apple stake in the quarter... probably responsible, given how massive that position is now, but still a little surprising.[...]

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On Answers for Ray Blanco's "Did A.I. Just Find The Hidden Cure To Cancer?" Tease

As an actual business, it will be at least several years before we can really guess at how much money they could make as drugs are developed using their technology and make it Through clinical trials.As a biotech or AI story stock, though, anything[...]

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On Answers for Ray Blanco's "Did A.I. Just Find The Hidden Cure To Cancer?" Tease

Thanks... that's a tough business, personalized immunotherapy that has to be manufactured individually for each patient. Maybe part of the challenge is the history of companies who failed in their attempts at building similar businesses over the past deca[...]

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On Answers for Ray Blanco's "Did A.I. Just Find The Hidden Cure To Cancer?" Tease

I don't use those particular funds, but I outsource most of my biotech/pharma stock picking to funds as well... can't argue with that. It's important to be aware of the areas where you don't have the background or deep industry knowledge (or interest, eve[...]

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On "Trade of the Decade" 10-Bagger Picks teased by Junior Resource Speculator

Which ones do you like?I write about mostly what people ask about, and what newsletters tease in their promos... sometimes they're more sensible long term ideas, but certainly lots of speculations out there, too.I guess it's easier to get the bloo[...]

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On "This tiny Canadian A.I. stock could be the next Nvidia" -- what's Motley Fool's "Huge A.I. Stock Alert"

For this article? Because it doesn't match the clues at all.In general? Mostly just because POET has been a "story stock" for a decade but hasn't ever built into a real business, and I have no idea when or if they ever will. They have consistently [...]

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