Hidden Gems

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Monthly newsletter picks small cap stocks with a value focus.

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Gumshoe Articles & Teaser Picks Revealed

“‘Inevitable’ disaster erases 117 years of American progress…” Motley Fool

This teaser starts, as so many of them do, by drawing a picture of the horrible future that a chosen stock can prevent … “On a hot summer day, just after the sun reaches its highest point, it begins… “Within minutes, cell phones go silent. Oil refineries shut down. Flights are grounded. Assembly lines grind [...]

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“The Greatest Transfer of Wealth in the History of Mankind”

Today our teaser is for the Fool’s Hidden Gems service, which according to Hulbert has been their worst-performing service over the last three years with an annual loss of about 20% (Hulbert doesn’t track Global Gains, which has been decimated with the crash of the BRIC countries) — perhaps not surprising, since they focus on [...]

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“Power Plays — Cash in on the Wind-Energy Revolution” Motley Fool

Ah, another book-length teaser from the Motley Fool … just the thing to dig in my Gumshoe teeth after a few days of odd posts about the Gumshoe contest and Social Security payouts. Back to stocks! Today our teaser is for the Fool’s Hidden Gems service, which according to Hulbert has been their worst-performing service [...]

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Hidden Gems: “Hidden Oil Millionaires and $5 Gas”

I know it seems like I’ve been writing primarily about the Motley Fool over the past week or so, but I am but a simple servant to my masters: the wide-ranging, unusually intelligent, and good lookin’ Gumshoe readership. And a large number of you, I’m guessing something on the order of a zillion, have emailed [...]

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Motley Fool’s “Peter Lynch-Style Super Investment”

Ah, another one from the Motley Fool! Like mother’s milk, it nourishes the Gumshoe so to pore through a ponderous Fool tome in search of clues to great stocks. Today, we’re blessed with a teaser letter for the Hidden Gems newsletter, with the letter coming from Bill Mann, who runs that newsletter in partnership with [...]

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Subscriber Reviews

Posted by Steve on Feb 9, 2012 @ 10:37 am

I think Hidden Gems does require a lot of luck in picking the right recommendations at the right time. If you look at the overall performance of all their stocks it actually lags the S&P, and there are some utter dogs in there that I divested from on the way down to near zero (SCSS, CRYP) and others that have paid for my subscription many many times over (CMG, ATHR, BWLD, CTRP). They recommend that you hold positions in at least 10 of their stocks, and that is what I now plan to do after selling half my CMG at the start of this year. If I was starting again I would dollar cost average into the same 10 picks each month with something like Sharebuilder and review at the end of the calendar year. Asset allocation and rebalancing, and a bit of luck is all any of us can all hope for, but I think Hidden Gems is a great guide as to how to gradually immerse and educate yourself in Mr. Small Cap Market.

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Posted by Rtrak on Feb 21, 2011 @ 8:34 am

I started off with Motley Fool in 2009 subscribing to Stock Adviser which I found to be interesting. I use the approach of only investing in companies involved in activities I’m interested in. Rather than investing my ‘hard earned’ I tracked the recommendations, sadly with mediocre results. I gave up on Stock Adviser and moved to Hidden Gems hoping to find some ‘ground floor’ (or preferable ‘bargain basement’) opportunities. In addition to their recommendations I also did my own research, despite this, in ‘difficult’ markets I’ve taken a beating (like – 48%)on two of my four selections. The other two were companies I’d already been looking at and they’ve raised about 70%. As with other reviewers, I don’t think their selling strategy is effective, possibly they may be ‘in love’ with companies and holding too long. Maybe the other CAPS people know more than me but they seem to support stocks to the bitter end – misplaced loyalty, maybe? As with other reviewers I found a lot of the free information useful, also the CAPS ratings and forum were of use in research.

I’m bombarded with marketing emails from ‘Fool’on a daily basis, it infuriates me that they still use their ‘carrot dangling’ strategy to gain support for other ‘Premium Services’. I won’t be renewing my subscription for another year. Unfortunately it’s easy to miss the ‘renewal’ email among the hoards of others, thankfully I don’t use the original subscription credit card and more!

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Posted by Afamiii on Nov 23, 2010 @ 5:01 am

I subscribed to Hidden Gems from 2006 to 2010, just over four years. I recently let the subscription lapse when my credit card on the account expired (and they could not autorenew.)

The newsletter was much stronger when Tom Gardner and Bill Mann edited, bringing me such winners as CTRP way back in 2006. However, as new editors have taken over the strategic focus seems to have moved or gotten lost. Many of the current recommendations are good companies at good prices, but don’t meet my investment strategies, which have now gravitated to extreme growth (+30%) and future growth prospect (capability to quadruple revenues over a few years.) and extreme value (great companies – in terms of competitive advantage and profitability – that have stumbled hard, but will in my opinion recover soon. )

Hidden Gems does not serve up these stocks any more. Overall, neither this nor any other newsletter will enable you to beat the S&P. For that you need your own unique strategy, which reflects your investing edge (my other which includes your strategies for selling as well as buying, and for portfolio management/position sizing.

I have had some great companies from Hidden Gems, and of course some bummers. But every investor no matter your search strategy ends up with her or her share of bummers. They come with the territory and expecting any editor not to have their fair is unrealistic.

Overall if you use them as a source of potential investments then they are OK (i.e. Let them stick to the analysis) as far as timing, selling rules, etc. Are concerned they are clueless (as are 80% of all professional analysts and investors.) They will and have followed a good company down to Hell.

To be fair their investment philosophy comes from the Gardner’s who’s claim to fame was to discover excellent growth companies very, very early in their cycle. With this strategy (picking one 20 bagger in every 10 picks) then learning to sell is not so important. The Gardner’s have this gift, the new editors don’t.

I think Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad) uttered the most important words in investing. Getting a financial and investment education is more important than money.

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Posted by Afamiii on Nov 22, 2010 @ 1:31 pm

I’ve been a subscriber for a couple or three years, until my credit card expired earlier this year and I decided to move to Fool Stock Advisor.

They are generally good analysts, but not really good investors. They do not have a focused investment strategy and serve up a couple of stocks that are generally OK (good company, good price.) They focus too much on the company and not enough on the price or the market in which they are in.

They delivered a number of good stocks that I have made money on. They have also delivered a number of bummers that I sold at my 12% stop loss limit (they don’t seem to have a clue about selling strategy.)

No newsletter will make you a successful investors. The best they can do is serve you some good ideas to add to the ones you come up with yourself. Hidden Gems does this OK.

I think they were much better though when Tom Garner was the editor, his focus was more on growth stocks that have the leaway to grow a lot more (if you get into one of these early then you don’t have to be smart about selling to make outsized returns.) But if you go into companies that are not so attractive, then you have to be much smarter.

I let it lapse because my investing style has evolved into extreme value (i.e. really cheap, but which I believe can recover from their problems) and extreme growth (i.e. +30% EPS growth, with associated nose bleed valuations, but much opportunity to sustain that growth.)And they just don’t deliver these types of companies anymore.

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Posted by BH on May 12, 2010 @ 10:36 pm

I have been following The Motley Fool since the early days on AOL. I subscribed to Hidden Gems in 1999. I have not followed all their advice or bought all of their pics. Overall market performance has an awful lot to do with the results you will get from this service. These are long term investors. They do not claim to have any skill at timing the market. I agree with so many of the other reviewers that they do seem to be unable to recognize a loser and are reluctant to sell. I was burned on SCSS and others but overall I have made a lot of money. The Motley Fool has a lot of services and you need to compare the different ones and find something that fits your investment profile. Each service has a different approach and a different record. I am very fond of Stock Advisor which relys on picks by the original dynamic duo and has produced fantastic returns.

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