This article was originally published on March 21, 2019 when the “deadline” touted was March 25. We’ve lightly updated our piece below, but much of it (like the ad) is unchanged from March.
The latest ad for Green Chip Stocks is a doozy — reminiscent of the many “the world is about to change” ads that we’ve seen over the years, though a little bit light on detail.
That’s OK, though, I’m sure the Thinkolator is up to the challenge.
The headline of the pitch for Green Chip Stocks ($99/year “on sale”) is all about March 29 August 4th, 2019 November 13 being the day that an announcement will be made that changes your life. If you’re someone who’s a little bit worried about having enough money for retirement, this kind of language is like setting a shot of whisky in front of an alcoholic who’s trying to quit…
“This event will be very, very good…
“And could make you very, very rich.
“If you know what’s coming and take decisive action.
“On that day, at an invitation-only meeting of the world’s most connected and influential people…
“A company executive will step to the podium and make an announcement so stunning…
“That it will rank at the top of the most life-changing events ever recorded in history.
“Folks still remember where they were when we landed on the moon…
“And when the Berlin wall fell…
“Or when Bin Laden was killed.
“This announcement will be bigger than all of those.”
See? Even though we KNOW it’s BS, that these kinds of deadlines are mostly ginned up just to get us to pull out our credit card before we have time to think it over, we’re still tempted.
And it gets worse, with this kind of language:
“You can brag about your new wealth if you want.
“Or you can just sit back and listen to them talk about how another one got away.
“Listen to them complain how the rich keep getting richer.
“And just be content knowing you had the foresight to see what was coming…
“And the guts to take action.
“Just do me a favor.
Are you getting our free Daily Update
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just click here...“Don’t be a jerk with your new millionaire status.
“I’ve seen so many people go off the rails when they get rich overnight.
“Donate some to charity… or church if that’s your thing.
“Just imagine the look on your wife’s face when you tell her.
“Or how the kids will feel knowing you just paid off their college debt.”
OK, I’m all for “don’t be a jerk” reminders, but still — let’s not put the cart before the horse, OK? This dude is promising that there will be an earth-shaking announcement in one week, and that he’s the only person who can tell you about it… all it takes is a hundred bucks to get the answer.
We know that’s not the way the world works… right? Even if we weren’t aware that he made exactly the same promise a few months ago, and the world has not yet experienced this “Day Zero” miracle, we still know, in our heart of hearts, that there isn’t someone who knows the “secret” moment at which a breakthrough will happen… and, if the world turned upside down and such a thing could be true, we know for double sure that this person wouldn’t sell the idea for $99.
So let’s load up our wheelbarrow with skepticism… then we’ll head down to the garage, pull the tarp off the Thinkolator, and see if we can’t get an answer out of this mess of tantalizing promises.
These are the clues that stick out:
“The Chief Medical Officer of this company is about to be a science rockstar.
“Not only am I convinced that her company is the best bet for overnight riches we’ve ever seen in our lives…
“But I’d be willing to lay odds that she’s named ‘Person of the Year’ after this announcement.”
And we’re told a little detail about here, which should help:
“A.B. from Harvard…
“An M.D. from Harvard Medical School…
“A fellowship with the Harvard Combined Infectious Disease Program…
“She led a team researching breakthroughs in biotech for a global, Switzerland-based corporation…
“And joined the faculty of both Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.”
That narrows it down a LOT… still, Thinkolator chugging away. Any other clues we can toss in?
How about…
“In that invitation-only room…
“Packed with the wealthiest insiders on the planet…
“The Chief Medical Officer of this company will reveal scientific proof detailing a new treatment…
“That makes immune system ailments…
“Heart failure…
“And brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s…
“A thing of the past.”
And we do get a little bit of detail about exactly what this company does…
“TORC1 is like bad cholesterol.
“When you block TORC1, it’s been shown to prolong lifespan….
“And block the onset of age-related diseases.
“TORC2 is like good cholesterol.
“When scientists blocked TORC2 in tests…
“It actually decreased lifespan….
“You want to block TORC1 without blocking TORC2.
“And that’s exactly what this company has been secretly developing for years.”
And, well, that’s about it — like I said, light on the clues. And a little surprising in focus, given that Green Chip Stocks in my experience has mostly been a newsletter that pitches renewable energy investments. So who is it?
Thinkolator sez this is almost certainly little resTORbio (TORC), which has graced the pages of Gumshoe before — though at a substantially higher share price (Marc Lichtenfeld teased it as a “fountain of youth” drug developer back in September of 2018 when it was around $14… when Siegel first pitched this stock in March it had just announced a secondary offering and was trading at about $6.50, it recovered for a while after that but is now back below $7.)
And yes, resTORbio is indeed developing drugs that strengthen the immune response by inhibiting TORC1. The primary drug at this point is designated RTB101, and like all of resTORbio’s other programs the compound was licensed from Novartis (NVS), their partner. This drug just completed Phase 2 trials in respiratory tract infections, it’s basically designed to cut down on RTIs in elderly people and it seemed to do just that in the Phase 2 trial, cutting the incidence of RTIs from about 2.5% to 1.5% for that population, either by itself or in combination with everolimus (a rapamycin analog from Novartis). Which seems substantial, and respiratory tract infections among the elderly are a big deal and a major reason for hospitalization (and therefore a large market, with insurers looking for drugs that reduce the need for hospitalization), so that sounds pretty good.
They just announced that they’ve completed enrollment for their Phase 3 trial, and won’t have top-line data from that until next year (one part in the first quarter, the other mid-year), so what’s this about a “earthshaking announcement?”
That’s a good question. And the answer is, “there almost certainly won’t be an earthshaking announcement in November.” It looks like the copywriter just used the next expected quarterly earnings report as the artificial deadline this time — and yes, TORC should report its next quarter on November 13… but no, that likely won’t mean anything. Clinical progress is what matters for little pre-revenue clinical biotech stocks, not the financial results they report each quarter.
As a non-expert, the announcements that resTORbio has made about the success, so far, of their TORC1 inhibitor are indeed reason for some hope about helping the body to fight diseases that become more difficult with age. That’s hopeful, but not “your grandkids will weep when they tell your story” life-changing for investors. At least, not yet. This is still an early-stage story.
There are no announced conference presentations coming from resTORbio next week, but there is one other possible announcement that could come soon: They also indicate in their presentations that the Phase 1 trial in Parkinson’s Disease for RTB101 in combination with sirolimus was started in the first quarter (sirolimus is another rapamycin analog, similar to Novartis’ everolimus and sold as Rapamune by Pfizer as an immunosuppressant for use in organ transplant rejection), and it looks like the dosing is only done for four weeks so it’s possible that there could be some news relatively soon… but it doesn’t seem very likely, and resTORbio has said that they don’t expect the “data readout” for this trial until next year.
So why am I certain that the Thinkolator is right? Well, the TORC1/TORC2 work is a perfect match, which they explain pretty effectively in their Investor Presentation here, but the real kicker is that, yes, that Chief Medical Officer teased is an exact match for resTORbio’s Dr. Joan Mannick, who, from what I can tell, really is a rock star in her field.
Where does that leave us? Well, sadly, you’re not likely to go from nothing to being a millionaire in three weeks. Sorry.
But it was only our greedy daydreams that made that promo work on us anyway, right? The same thing that tempts us to buy lottery tickets? So let’s set that aside, acknowledge that the ad was silly, and think about whether TORC is a stock worth considering.
I don’t like buying clinical stage biotech stocks, personally — it drives me crazy that they are usually at least several years from generating any revenue, and that we have to make wild guesses about what they could even charge for their drugs if they do get approved someday… but that’s a personal hangup, and I know a lot of you do enjoy speculating on biotech ideas. Partly because it’s fun to be part of helping people, which helps to salve the wounds a little if you lose a lot of money in the effort to help people.
And to give further reason not to listen to me when it comes to biotechs, I also thought this one sounded pretty interesting when Marc Lichtenfeld pitched it more than a year ago at $14. So I’m not embarrassed to say that although I won’t be buying the stock, I still think it seems interesting. This is a huge potential market, and they are starting Phase 3 without (so far) having hit any big safety concerns.
It seems Phase 3 will be a little bit different than Phase 2, in addition to being substantially larger — they’re testing only RTB101 instead of adding a combination therapy, and they’re judging reduction in the percentage of patients who have symptoms of a respiratory illness, not just a lab-confirmed respiratory tract infection. This will all happen during cold and flu season, so they’ve starting with the first group in the southern hemisphere and are moving on to the northern hemisphere as winter begins.
They think that if they can test a total of 2,500 patients, that will provide a big enough safety database to apply for new drug approval, which means they’re hoping that this one Phase 3 trial will be their last before they cross their fingers and hope for safety, efficacy and an FDA approval to commercialize the drug in 2021.
What does that mean? Well, they’re going to spend a lot of money, and probably won’t generate any big news in the next six months unless their Parkinson’s Phase 1 trial reports something surprising right off the bat. So I guess that’s why they raised a big chunk of money (about $50 million) back in March, despite the fact that they were already sitting on $100 million in cash — they presumably know that they don’t have any pending news after this that will make raising money easier in the near future, and predicting how investors will think about your company during a relatively quiet period when they’re waiting for news is probably a worrisome guessing game for companies that need to raise money to keep trials going.
I’ve kept our reader comments from the first version of this article appended below, so you can see what folks where thinking then and add your own two cents.
COULD YOU GIVE ME INFO ON A GUY—STEVE SNYDER–WHO IS PROMISING 89% PER DAY ON HIS CODEBREAKER PROFITS SYSTEM–2200$ PER YEAR. HE”S NEW ON THE WEB.
Never heard of it, but that’s obviously an egregiously misleading promise. Nobody makes 89% a day. Nobody even makes 8.9% a day with any consistency.
Trading “systems” are touted all the time, I rarely look at them in detail because they’re generally worthless and I have no real expertise in evaluating day-trading or technical trading systems. Just keep in mind that anything that can be done by a computer, like trend following or other quantitative trading systems, is being done by computers… and computers quickly erode any “edge” a new trading strategy might enjoy. Quant traders used to be able to count on a new idea working for a couple years, now any edge disappears within months because other computers can find the opportunity as easily as yours did.
But no, I don’t know that one and haven’t heard of the person.
Swissmike
Could this be Andy Snyder of Manward via Oxford ?
Yes, Andy Snyder left Oxford Club a year or more ago to set up his own operation (Manward Press), and now everybody and his brother/sister with any possible tie to Oxford Club is touting Andy’s claim that, after exhaustive work on some magic new computer system, his “service” offers the possibility of 89% gains “per day” on average. I’ve seen this BS for more than 15 years from various operations linked to Bill Bonner and his Agora “empire,” but this is maybe the most outrageous ever. Dan Ferris comes sorta close with his current hype – when he received an “F” for 2018 in Stansberry’s yearly “report card” on their own services.
ANYONE know the Micro Wave- company announcing big
news this week
/
Do you mean the silly “Electro Wave Inversion” pitch from Moors? Don’t bet on something huge happening immediately, covered the first version. Of that ad here: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/micro-energy-trader/whats-this-electro-wave-inversion-business-from-kent-moors-are-7-1-million-ewi-devices-shipping-april-1/
RE: Codebreaker Profits is from Andy Snyder of “Manward Press”. Here’s the link to his sales speil
https://pro.manwardpress.com/p/LAUNCHTO2200CBPLTMTDMTDLT/ECBPV3IM/?a=9&o=41414&s=78300&u=47993&l=2842377&r=MC2&vid=jSI-MB&g=0&h=true
I respect Andy but am not venturing the funds to invest in this at this time. He may have something here as he hasn’t appeared to be a hustler in the past. He has a free newsletter The Manward Letter if you want to follow him.
I might politely disagree about Andy Snyder not having “appeared to be a hustler in the past.” Oxford Club has two different personas: 1) a pretty well-thought-out basic philosophy of investing (IMHO) as exemplified by Alexander Green’s portfolios in the Oxford Club Communique (the main portfolio used to be highly rated by the well-respected Mark Hulbert in his unbiased evaluation of newsletter services); and 2) the most obnoxious hyping of its expensive newsletters, including Alexander Green’s own “services.” Andy Snyder was the “managing editor,” I think it was, at Oxford Club, so was exceeding well acquainted with the seedier side of the club.
As Porter Stansberry once replied to me – after I “congratulated” him on being found guilty of fraud in a Maryland court 10-15 years ago (I had complained about his company’s excessively misleading hype): if you think such a company can succeed without the hype, give it a shot (that’s a sorta paraphrase of his response as I recall it).
What a symphony of Perculator Thinkolater brain activity! Much intellectual effort to summarize all that which seems to be an ego problem hooked up to a high tech invisible machjngme! Seems you hit it in the head, about some folks who have better statistical skills than insight into people and illness!
Something this laboriously ponderous usually ends up having road runner speed up alongside only to instantly see through it, re-asses the problem, and re-fit a totally new simpler cause and its solution!
It’s like after squirming through a long abstract, modern music piano concerto… ALL you can say is-was it worth tuning that Grand for that?! Lots of education, skill learning, high attained positions for this that perhaps will work-or is it publish or perish to hold on to that status!
Used to work in an Ivy League Medical School as a Tumor Registrar-even the brightest learners there did not know what went on in those files! (LOL!)
Nancy
I think your last paragraph is right on target. If resTORbio thought there was any chance of the price moving higher in the near future they would have postponed the public offering and raised $50M with fewer shares.
I recently received something from Frank Curzio’s Research Advisory “The end of heart disease”. Killing America’s no. 1 killer. Was wondering what that was all about.
I heard shark music while reading your article.
io
The date given today (31 may) by Angel Publishing is June 13th !
Thanks for the resTORbio article, I’ve just received what must be a recycled promo,from the same guy predicting the 4 August ‘will change history’
Saw this just this morning. The new DAY ZERO is Aug 4
Quote:
“Read Now: Profit Alert from Jeff Siegel
After this announcement is made on August 4, 2019… a new world will exist.
Insiders are calling this moment in time:
Day Zero”
“But on August 4, 2019, that changes.
In that invitation-only room…
Packed with the wealthiest insiders on the planet…
The Chief Medical Officer of this company will reveal scientific proof detailing a new treatment…
That makes immune system ailments…
Heart failure…
And brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s…
A thing of the past.
History.
The old world will end.
And a new one will begin.
Day Zero.”
I seem to remember Orson Wells talking about it
I always thought Day Zero was the day one went to heaven. Or not.
I bought Torc on the advice of a biotech adviser and am up 34% so far.
Well. Once we wake up to the STRESS of chasing high priced invented disease intervention drugs for fragile populations! Drugs targeted to be marketed as panaceas, but could include a kit for quick genetic testing of the proposed recipient for appropriateness of patient match to the drug. Thus “thinko-follower” will wait out its development, and hence my use! Key is avoidance of iatrogenic illness, then expensive cost treatment, expensive pt. suffering, family sweat, for an avoidable doctor drug tx. induced illness.
This similar genetic screening was (by recall) in the 1980’s in very limited use for a Rheumatoid Arthritis medication!
More aware than ever.
High costs!
My spouse took the enhanced potency flu shot offered this early winter. I did too, no mal-effects !
But he developed injection arm. arm and neck to hand crippling pain of neuralgia/nerve bone pain to which he is prone due to a familial bone disorder in the genes, but with late clinical onset of bone deterioration symptoms post age 70.
His experience.
Cost our nation’s Sr. insurance system a fair bit! Lots of pain meds, 11 days in the hospital, a related to hypnotic pain controlling meds came a home-origin scrape-wound on a foot related to too much attempted pain control with much pain medication and resultant slipping on the floor-then after hospitalization & staff ignored for days despite diabetic risk reminders,! Kosinski band aid put on it! Post discharge 6 days saw at foot doctor’s Office start of wound drainage typical of gang green,! Pattern is we can end up with limb loss unfortunately in a diabetic, so not good when green drainage showed up!
Home by then! Wife knew what to do using old script stuff in the house. Foot saved per foot Dr. , then he really scratched his head!
More; 2 months worth foot doctor weekly dressing changes, and wound scraping treatments! Plus dressing change by family at home related to bathing! For the duration of a month post H. discharge 3X a week home health services of an RN. OT, & PT, plus neurosurgeon re nerve pain visits, X-rays, an MRI! Cat scans done in the ER first night! Big “tab?!”
➡️So! The scientist who figures out the genetic-drug patient match kit-would potentially become a huge insurance system cash saver- That is THE one this” thinkoRooter” awaits to invest in! COULD BE PARED WITH HUNDREDS OF DRUGS, or heaven forfend included in US Gov’t pre-release of agency research on approvals! Still except for this one chase, think of all the other invention chased which development “we” never chased!
Chasing investing in allopathic remedies, gets pathetic unless a rare miracle discovery is found-then even that would benefit from the genetic drug-patient match kit! Could be sold with one pill, sold pre-script filling unless an ER emergency, then an inpt. simpler drug impregnated petri-dish skin scraping could be used to check it fast! (Cannot return filled scripts! No matter how high the price!)
Epitype-pens (generics still way over-priced; this investor owns stock in an off-label delivery device Co) These epinephrine pens are needed after one reacts basically to an emergency, so risky in and of its self!! So it’s a realistic fact, the pre-drug ingestion to screen out thus preventing exposure to an allergic drug reaction! They could even fine tune the degree (by including a feature to measure the degree of reactivity a sort of measured allergic titer of a likely reaction)! Thus a pre-vention intervention!
Keep reviewing & writing for us!
Marion!
Ex-chart 24 yr. reading Medicare/caid, Pub. Hlth regulator.
Only take supplements … but cautiously, & cheaply!
I do have Green Chip Stocks newsletter. The stock you’ve mentioned is correct, but it’s not part of our portfolio.
I don’t quite get those kind of reports when it’s not even in the portfolio. I guess it works more like a tease to attract more subscribers.
I do like his newsletter though. He is mainly focusing in Marijuana stocks now. He is usually way ahead of the others so called gurus. He recommended CGC back in 2015 when it was trading for $1.60, OGI.V at C$0.40, APHA in 2016 for $1.13., and many others.
The only complain is: I do wish he kept in touch more often with updates regarding our portfolio. Some stocks are down more than 50%, but I do understand that this is a very volatile space, and i am in for the long-term
I have subscribed to another very expensive non-refundable newsletters focus solely in cannabis (Oxford Club) just to realised that most of the picks are the same of the Green Chip Stocks, which I have paid only $99.00. I am quite cross!
Anyway, I hope this is helpful!
I just finished watching his newsletter pitch about Michigan and August 28th as a deadline for a green stock. I’ve been burned so many times by other newsletters and would like to try before I buy. Do you know what stock he is pithing?
GARY LEWELLYN, what I have learnt is the more expensive the service the less profitable it’s for us. I have a subscription with The Chartist ETF/Mutual fund, which is a cash account investment, and the cost is only $20.00 per month. How many services out there put their own money in to their recommendations? Their profit is coming from silly us paying high fee subscriptions.
I am totally disgusted by it! Unfortunately I have fallen in to their traps, and have wasted a lot of money, but finally I have woken up.
Take care of your money, and stay away from this type of pitches!
I own this stock. Nothing profitable happened two days ago. Or yesterday. Or today.
Shocking!
I’m thinking the news that the RTI Trial P3 enrollment was already announced on July 23 and we were late to the dance. I took the bait not on the the hype of an announcement but rather on the concept of the trial. Respiratory Tract Infections, especially targeting viruses, translates to a huge market opportunity (IMO). Might be a good hold yet Very High Risk/Reward.
And now a new version of the ad is out — “Day Zero” is now apparently November 13, 2019.
Whew! Thought for a moment that was a Friday, but checked the calendar for reassurance. Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday in November.
A friend just received another one of these pitches, but the date is now Nov 13. Looks like we are in for many additional “MostProfitable Days in History. ” Travis was kind enough to direct me to this article. I am a retired biotech consultant and I believe there is great merit to downregulating the mTOR target. Early days for this company, but they could get acquired as one catalyst to there share price. With the number of clinical trials in the pipeline they have on their website, they will either need to find partners or issue secondaries.
I do believe an announcement just like this will occur around the aging issue. It just a matter of time given the well funded and intense research focused on the problem. No way to currently know if this is all smoke and mirrors or a real opportunity. Here is a link to an article I wrote on just this subject. https://medium.com/@touche/affordable-global-universal-healthcare-f7caab0a0114
I just saw Day Zero is 11/13/2019. About an hour of my own googling from the clues led me to Restorbio and Joan Mannick. I don’t see anything in their portfolio that could be happening soon that would bring great stock gains.
I guess this Jeff Siegel is selling his newsletter and maybe pumping up the interest in the company and he could be selling short?
Doesn’t seem to be worth the time of day.
I prefer to remain a jerk. Best to be a poor one than a rich one, so I’ll do the world a favor and save everyone the annoyance of me being a rich jerk. I’ll pass.
The TORC “life as we know it will change forever on Nov13 announcement reminds me of the movie on COLD FUSION………good movie with a much better outcome, but the reality is that the movie was much more entertaining than the TORC pitch, and worth the price of admission. As the THINKOLATOR exposes ridiculous hype in an effort to part you and your money, at least the movie delivered what it promised…………entertainment for the price of a ticket.
Sorry forgotten what I was going to say
Gum Shoer’s how do.
So what’s everyone’s top five (5) 5G stocks? They are pushing this real hard like you have to buy now. But I don’t think there is any rush. Just as long that you have them bought by 2020. But I would like to know what everyone is buying. Right now all’s I have is NOKIA (NOK).
Thank :-: You
FRANKeightMORRISS
Back on March 15th, 2019 Nokia was around 8 or 9 dollars a share. Since then it’s lost almost 50%. I’ve read where Nokia is going to be a 5G leader but closing at $3.51 on 11/12/19 I’m wondering if I would have held on if I had bought it back in March. Probably not!
NOK topped out around $6.70, but yes, has been a big loser since then.
(INSG) and (GILT) appear to be the best of the Small cap players; and, (QCOM)
appears to be the logical Big cap company after literally spending many hours of reviewing current and forecasted revenues for 2020 ! Also, I believe that Travis has reported previously on each of these in earlier 5G posts .
C. Davis