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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

Monthly “entry level” newsletter with a monthly stock pick and analysis, along with weekly and trade alert updates, seems to focus particularly on stocks with insider buying.

I’m going to get to several updates on Real Money Portfolio stocks at the end, including those questions “What to do with Qualcomm (QCOM)?” … but first, I’m going to go through the stocks where I’ve completed my Annual Review this week. Each year I promise to re-analyze and reconsider my opinion about each stock […]

The “Trade War” is getting real, and the higher prices imposed by governments in China and the US. Tariffs are just import taxes, paid eventually by the customer, so they raise prices… which, our economist friends will tell us, suppresses demand… and since the higher price is going to a tax, not to a company, […]

We seem to be on a bit of a dividend kick this week, with the “Extreme Dividends” of Monday leading to the “Secret 6.1% Stock” yesterday, so it seems natural to stock with it… plus, readers have been asking about Mark Skousen’s latest teaser pitch, and we haven’t covered him in a while. So that’s […]

Newsletter driven by “smart beta” strategy, includes both options and equity trades to leverage Skousen’s “Five Pillars of Profitability” (previously advertised as: Sales growth over 11%; Profit margins over 12%; Profit growth over 23%; Price-to-earnings ratio under 29; Major institutional buying)

Time, once again, for the Annual Review of all of the stocks I hold in the Real Money Portfolio. Many of my positions are built up over many years, and sometimes they’re stocks that don’t generate a lot of news or attention for months at a time, so I promise each January to cover every […]

The first version of this article ran way back on March 30, 2016, so it might look familiar to a lot of you — but a few folks asked about it today, and it looks like the ad is running again, still without much change to the spiel, so I’m re-publishing this teaser solution. I’ve […]

Paul Mampilly’s high-end (~$5,000 one time fee plus $499 annual maintenance, no refunds) advisory that aims to “turn $10,000 into a $10 million fortune” — monthly stock picks with analytical commentary. Newsletter is closed. Mampilly left Banyan Hill in 2022.

Ray Blanco makes (part of) his living looking for biotech moonshots, like most biotech-focused newsletter writers — and like his predecessor at Agora’s biotech and emerging tech-focused newsletter Breakthrough Technology Alert, he has often touted companies that are trying to end the scourge of Alzheimer’s Disease. Why? Well, two main reasons: First, and by far […]

We have a couple traditions here at Stock Gumshoe… we call out one of the worst teaser stock ideas around Thanksgiving and identify the “Turkey of the Year,” and then, as the year comes to a close and holiday merriment washes all around us, we call attention to the best teaser stocks of the year. […]

Recent Author Comments

On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Yep, I consider those minor delays... but hitting HII too, which I own.[...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Thanks Jamshid! I do love it... most days :)[...]

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On Friday File: Beating Buffett to his "Secret" Stock?

Thanks... not all that surprising to see higher margins leading to grumpier customers. I wonder whether that will lead to real market share loss, or if it's mostly just grumbling.[...]

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On Friday File: Beating Buffett to his "Secret" Stock?

Nothing really changed about my opinion of the five-year potential, I dom't see problems with the business model or the possible growth as ad monitoring continues to go more mainstream. Just a bad earnings report with growth a little slower than expecte[...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Thanks Terry![...]

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

I wrote some about SMCI and VRT as the[...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

:)Thanks Carolyn.... some days are more ridiculous than others.[...]

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On Microblog: Who is Oxford Club touting as ‘the inventor of the world’s first AI-designed drug to enter clinical trials’? The next Intuitive Surgical?

Yes, that's EXAI -- the ad from Alexander Green has been running since last year, I covered it here: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/oxford-club/answers-kansas-welder-story-leads-to-company-alex-green-believes-will-become-the-most-important-ai-company[...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Thanks for the kind words, Dick![...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Rolls-Royce has certainly had a STRONG recovery... though of course that's almost entirely due to the resurgence in air travel post-COVID, and to a good order book for engines, and some pretty impressive leadership from the new CEO after a long period of m[...]

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On Microblog: Master Indicator from Lance Ippolito

I've never looked at that one, sorry -- I tend to shy away from the folks who talk up their secret indicators or chart patterns or trading triggers, just because all those things that can be done by a computer are going to be done better by the bigger comp[...]

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On Microblog: AI research?

I don't use AI directly for research, though I do sometimes experiment with it for summarizing articles (it still lies a lot when doing that, which is disconcerting). Google's increasing use of AI-powered summaries for search is really speeding up a lot [...]

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On "The AI Growth Engine: How to Profit from AI’s 212X Energy Boom" -- What's teased by Adam O'Dell in the "AI Power Summit?

Thanks Dennis, I appreciate you reading it![...]

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On Blinded by the Light... plus a COVID Catch-Up & Other Brief Bulletins

Michael often covers a variety of health/medicine topics in his columns... they're not always connected by a "narrative."[...]

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On Tuesday File: What's the Deal, Boston Omaha?

Yep, in retrospect it was clearly overvalued in the early days, lots of optimism about what they would do with their cash, particularly around the DFH windfall and their SPAC during the boom times. I think it's clearly undervalued more recently... though [...]

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

Well, the secret's finally out... Warren has been copying us and buying up shares of Chubb (CB), so our favorite insurance conglomerate now owns a little over 5% of the shares of one of our other insurance companies. We'll see if he builds the position be[...]

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

Yep, about 1.03b[...]

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

Don't know what the "FDA investigation" might be, don't remember running across anything like that... but there are certainly lots of lawyers circling, trying to gin up a class action suit over the departure of the CEO (the "inappropriate relationship with[...]

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On Tuesday File: What's the Deal, Boston Omaha?

That's a reasonable way of looking at it -- and yes, if the stock is in the $10-11 range in November I'll probably feel conflicted. This is mostly some minor protection against any big surprises... and if I'm being honest, probably this is partly just a w[...]

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On True Wealth teases, "The Secret Currency is like gold, only better, because it gives you tremendous upside potential with very little risk."

Didn't know you were a pirate, tim![...]

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