I noted in the Friday File for the Irregulars a few days ago that I’ve been getting more and more questions about bitcoin. And I’m sure that’s no surprise to you… heck, I was even at a birthday party for a friend’s child over the weekend and the few new folks I met, when they learned what I do with my time, also immediately asked about bitcoin. Talk of cryptocurrencies is surely in the air.
So despite the fact that I’ve sold essentially all of my cryptocurrencies, I do still pay attention to them… and I’ll keep writing about these teaser pitches that promise things like “the next bitcoin” or “the backdoor into bitcoin” or “the picks and shovels for bitcoin miners.”
There are lots and lots of bitcoin teaser pitches out there — but I tend to get more questions about Motley Fool teaser pitches than most others, so let’s start there… David Gardner, who has shown a tremendous ability to buy “expensive” stocks (“Rule Breakers,” he calls them) and let his winners ride, has apparently just picked a stock that’s “a potential backdoor to bitcoin profits.”
So what is it? The ad is for Motley Fool Stock Advisor, which David Gardner co-edits with his brother, fellow Motley Fool founder Tom Gardner, and if you don’t feel like subscribing to learn that “secret” we’ll see what the Thinkolator can tell us.
Let’s dig in… here’s the first part of the ad…
“Legendary investor David Gardner unveiled his latest stock pick… and I haven’t been this excited about a brand-new recommendation in a long time!
“Because his latest recommendation is a ‘backdoor’ opportunity into a big trend that’s become the financial story of 2017.
“I’m talking about Bitcoin — which has surged 659% just this year alone creating a new wave of ‘Bitcoin millionaires’ in the process.”
OK… so what else do we learn about this pick?
The ad says that bitcoin is so volatile that it’s “hard to buy and own…” but that this recommendation can capture that upside without the volatility. More hints:
“David Gardner’s newest recommendation is a savvy backdoor way to position your portfolio to capture the upside of the Bitcoin boom…
“This new recommendation — just announced — is creating a way to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream financial world.
“So even if Bitcoin soars another 1,000%… drops 50%… or sits flat for the next year, this company is positioned to profit so long as people are trading the digital currency.”
We all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, I suppose — so you can think through that and note that yes, perhaps this company’s positioned to profit “as long as people are trading” … but profit how much? Certainly it’s not likely to provide crazy gains like bitcoin has if it’s an indirect and “profit as long as people are trading̶