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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

I’m going to be quick today… Luke Lango has a teaser ad that a lot of folks have been asking about, teasing his “Next NVIDIA: 7 AI Moonshots with 100X Upside” report about some possible smaller stocks that could surge higher, and I can offer a little bit of info, at least. The ad presentation, […]

I never wrote about this teased pitch from Porter & Co. last year, but they continue to promote it as a “special report” in selling subscriptions to his Big Secret on Wall Street service (usually offered at $1,000/yr… Porter & Co. is apparently going to be absorbed into Stansberry Research again, now that Porter Stansberry […]

This teaser solution and discussion was shared with the Irregulars in the Friday File a few weeks ago, but questions are continuing to come in, particularly as Melvin pitches this as a “Buffett v. Biden” story, and there has been some more news from the company, so we’re re-posting and updating our solution for everyone […]

Let’s start with insurance, because I love nothing more than putting everyone to sleep at the end of a long week… Kidding! These are the companies that actually often get me excited, running through numbers in my head as I try to fall asleep at night — not many business models offer better long-term returns […]

There are three things that seem to excite investors at the moment, at least if we go by the focus of the current crop of teaser ads and the number of questions we’re getting: Figuring out how to deal with income investing in a higher-rate world, Buying oil stocks to benefit from continuing demand and […]

The latest pitch for Dave Lashmet’s Stansberry Venture Technology leans heavily on Lashmet’s recommendation of NVIDIA many years ago… “Our Top Tech Analyst’s A.I. Recommendation Soared 1,466% – the Highest Stock Gain Ever Recorded in Our Firm’s 24-Year History “Here’s the NEXT breakthrough he says will soon improve millions of lives – and could 5X […]

What’s going on these days? It feels like the world is on fire, and that the divisions encouraged by extremist entrepreneurial politicians around the world are pouring gasoline on every spark, helped by “curated” and targeted social media and “news” sources that destroy even any common understanding of what’s factual and inflate opinion and perspective […]

Here’s the intro from the latest ad from Brownstone Research: “Tech research firm that picked NVIDIA before it soared 7,910% now reveals… “‘The Next NVIDIA’ “Small tech company is on the cusp of unlocking a $150 billion AI breakthrough for early investors (19 billionaires are already buying shares)” No surprise that’s generating some questions, right? […]

“I’ve found the next stock that I believe has just as much potential as (perhaps more than) Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, Netflix or Amazon. “In fact, it could be even bigger than any of those when all is said and done.” That’s from Alexander Green’s most recent pitch for the Oxford Club’s Communique, their entry-level newsletter […]

We’ve looked at SOUN before and my opinion hasn’t really changed — they think they’ll be close to break-even by the end of this year as new contracts come in, and they’re cutting costs and restructuring, but the revenue is just so low that it’s hard to turn the corner into becoming a viable business unless their partnership deals accelerate a bit. Not impossible, but not so interesting to me at 20X sales.

Talk of the real estate and corporate debt apocalypse continues, as rates remain high and investors begin to believe that they will remain “higher for longer,” and the lagging impact of that on some types of investments continues to hit the markets — especially with REITs and utilities and other very interest rate-sensitive businesses. There’s […]

Recent Author Comments

On Answers: Tilson's "Nuclear Renaissance" Tease

Just going from memory, the first four sound like UEC, Oklo, Centrus and NuScale[...]

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On Answers: Altucher's "Secret AiPhone Supplier"

Yep, that was somewhat similar pitch from Luke Lango[...]

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On What's the "#1 Next-Gen Stock?" -- De-teasing Eric Fry's "2024 Tech Panic" Buy

Don't know anything about it... what makes them stand out to you?[...]

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On Friday File: Social Inflation Winner?

No news from LAB. I expect it to require patience. Haven't looked at the other two recently.[...]

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On Friday File: Social Inflation Winner?

I expect he'll be gradually selling smallish chunks for many years. In this case I wouldn't say it's a clear negative, it's more the absence of a positive.[...]

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On "The Oppenheimer Stock" to buy before June 27?

Oklo's Alaska project was rescinded almost as soon as it was "pre-announced" last fall. That still has a tentative deadline of 2027, but there's probably no way for it to possibly be built by then. BWXT is supposed to deliver a micro reactor for the ar[...]

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On Friday File: Social Inflation Winner?

No, but I invest in insurance underwriters who I'm pretty confident are better at evaluating weather risks than I am -- and most of them don't actually take much of the catastrophe exposure for known property risk areas on their own, they use reinsurance o[...]

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On Friday File: Social Inflation Winner?

Haven't looked at that one yet, but I think I've got a copy in my pile... thanks![...]

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On What's King's "The Next Gen Coin?" Tease says "Musk, Dalio and Cuban Are Loading Up"

This was back when ETHE traded around $20, several pundits teased that from time to time as an easy way to get Ethereum exposure for those who didn't want to dabble in actual cryptos.[...]

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On "The Oppenheimer Stock" to buy before June 27?

It's a cool story, for sure. I'd like to see the NRC license at least one non-light-water reactor before I invest in one of the hopefuls, since it's likely to take so long, but it certainly might work out fantastically.I like the idea of the Oklo reac[...]

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On "The Oppenheimer Stock" to buy before June 27?

True, though the Navy usually uses different stuff -- I think they primarily actually use HEU, the weapons grade stuff, as fuel in naval reactors, because it gives them a bigger power plant in a smaller space.[...]

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On What's the "#1 Next-Gen Stock?" -- De-teasing Eric Fry's "2024 Tech Panic" Buy

Sounds like you probably mean the nuclear proliferation risk -- that flows from a Science article that [...]

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On Friday File: Altucher's AiPhone Story, Homes, Nukes and, yes, more NVIDIA Chatter

Thanks bernigu! I'll take a look to see if that ad has changed, but it could just be a repeat of the "[...]

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On Answers: Altucher's "Secret AiPhone Supplier"

I'd say "no" and "no" -- they're certainly pushing AI at Apple now, and investors reacted with a cheer, but no big partnerships or deals announced with the several companies teased with such promos.[...]

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On De-tease: Alex Green's "Next Magnificent Seven" Artificial Intelligence-Driven Stocks

Thanks Sheryl... guess he hasn't updated all his ads to swap out the hints about PATH for ASML clues yet, I'll keep an eye out for that.[...]

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On What's the "#1 Next-Gen Stock?" -- De-teasing Eric Fry's "2024 Tech Panic" Buy

Following the feedback, I went back and checked the Q's and K's -- yes, it turns out most of the apparent dilution was the conversion of Class B shares into Class A, so the real shareholder count is relatively unchanged since the IPO in 2020 (was slightly [...]

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On What's teased in Tilson's "Peace Profiteering" Pitch?

Yes, Tilson's #1 investment, the "would feel safe putting half my kids inheritance in" is still Berkshire Hathaway (he used to say, "kids college fund," but his kids are I think all graduated now, or close to it) -- that's essentially a repeat of [...]

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On What's the "#1 Next-Gen Stock?" -- De-teasing Eric Fry's "2024 Tech Panic" Buy

In general, yes -- part of the challenge is that this was essentially a private royalty fund before going public, so they had investors in the fund who became shareholders, but there is also dilution. See tiger5's comments in this thread for some ameliora[...]

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On Answers: Altucher's "NVIDIA's Silent Partner" Poised to 100X in 2025 -- Who's NVIDIA's "Tiny Back Door Contractor" teased in the "Deadline May 28" pitch?

Haven't noticed that particular ad, but I'll keep an eye out.[...]

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On What's the "#1 Next-Gen Stock?" -- De-teasing Eric Fry's "2024 Tech Panic" Buy

Thanks tiger5, great feedback on the accounting.[...]

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