Porter Stansberry’s Investment Advisory

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Monthly newsletter recommends undervalued, “blue chip” and “next boom” stocks.

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Posted in Big Picture / Asset Allocation, Stocks | Tagged Stansberry & Associates |

Gumshoe Articles & Teaser Picks Revealed

A $6 Stock for 7 Cents? [Friday File Rerun]

The article excerpted below was originally published here on August 6 as a Friday File for the Stock Gumshoe Irregulars. It has not been updated, though the stock is up roughly 10% from that time. (For disclosure, I continue to be interested in the stock, but I haven’t bought the shares and continue to have [...]

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Get “Pre-IPO” Shares — 1,823% Gains From One of California’s Hottest New Tech Stocks?

This ad has been floating around for a few weeks now and I haven’t had a chance to dig into it — but that ends today. The good folks at Stansberry & Associates are using it to sell their flagship Stansberry’s Investment Advisory service (recently renamed, since it’s now written by Braden Copeland instead of [...]

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Is 2010 the “Year of the Hard Disk Drives?”

I was reading earlier today about Porter Stansberry’s aggressive short bet against the computer hard drive makers, who seem to have been the canaries in the coal mine regarding computer sales for several years — and at the same time I received a teaser from Louis Navellier for his Blue Chip Growth teasing that the [...]

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Bankruptcy Probe: Shutting down on April 30? — Stansberry

If you’ve been biding your time with us here in Gumshoe Nation for a while now, you might remember Porter Stansberry’s prediction that General Growth Properties was about to go bankrupt as they faced a debt repayment deadline that they couldn’t meet. Well, he’s at it again. Which isn’t to say he was wrong the [...]

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Not bankrupt quite yet …

Last week we looked at Porter Stansberry’s Put Strategy and his assertion that General Growth Properties would go belly-up last Friday. Well, that mortgage debt of $900 million that came due on Friday for a couple of their Las Vegas malls still hasn’t been extended, renegotiated, or repaid, but the company hasn’t gone bankrupt yet. [...]

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Posted by Chris on Feb 3, 2012 @ 2:08 pm

Bravo Farm Girl. But I am surprised Stansberry or one of his flacks didn’t post a review contradicting what you wrote, as they usually do. I am guessing you wrote it so well they are stumped, good job!

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Posted by Farm Girl on Dec 22, 2011 @ 1:03 am

In the October 2011 issue of Porter Stansberry’s Investment Advisory he said: “From November 2008 through March 2010, we were extremely bullish on stocks. And we were right: The period from March 2009 through March 2011 was one of history’s greatest increases in stock prices in the shortest amount of time. Stocks hadn’t doubled in two years since the election of Dwight Eisenhower.”

Yes, it was an exciting two years. However, I noticed right away that he got off the bus in March 2010 and missed the whole second year of the rally. Also, he got on the bus, according to him, in November 2008, so he must have suffered a pretty serious drawdown between then and the March 2009 bottom.

I went back to check, and he was indeed bullish in his November 2008 issue. However, he also was very bullish in his October 2008 issue, where he recommended buying Ebay and said: “My friend and business partner, Steve Sjuggerud,tells me stocks have experienced their worst 12-month period since the terrible bear market of ’73-’74. Many of you, I’m sure, have suffered declines in the value of your assets. Many of you, I’m sure, are nervous about owning stocks and are probably very reluctant to buy stocks now. That’s how bear markets work. Mr. Market doesn’t want you to buy stocks at great prices. He’ll try to scare you away. Don’t let him. Now is the time to buy.” [emphasis added]

So I’m not sure why he counts his bullishness from November – he was very bullish in October, too. He wrote that on October 3, 2008, when the S&P 500 closed at 1099.23.

His March 2010 letter was indeed very bearish. But then I thought: Was he really bullish all the way to March 2010? I didn’t remember it that way, so I looked at some earlier issues.

February 2010 was headlined: “The Nightmare Scenario Unfolds: China Abandons the Dollar.” The second article was “The End of America is Imminent” and he made some short sale recommendations. He concluded by saying: “In light of the concerns I have about the dollar, I believe it’s time to be extremely cautious with our portfolio positions. I don’t want to own stocks that don’t pay substantial dividends or won’t benefit from the coming inflation. That means we need to sell several long held deep value stocks: Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Valhi (NYSE: VHI), and Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT). While these stocks are still cheap, they simply don’t provide enough of an ongoing dividend to give us the margin of safety we need right now.

“Likewise, I think it’s time to sell some of the assets we picked up at absurdly low prices during the market panic last spring. High-yield bonds are no longer providing enough of a cushion in terms of higher yields, so we will sell HYG. And we’re selling our real estate fund, C&S REIT Income (NYSE: RNP). We earned nice gains on both positions, but it’s time to move on. Higher interest rates will hurt both of these positions. I’ve also increased the risk ratings on virtually all our positions. It will be difficult for stocks to maintain their current prices in the face of an extreme disruption to the global economy and soaring interest rates. Now is definitely the time to have a hedged portfolio.” [emphasis added]

I don’t see how he can call that “extremely bullish on stocks” with a straight face. He wrote that on February 19, 2010, when the S&P 500 was at 1109.17. He really was bullish in the previous letter, written on January 8, 2010.

So his “extreme bullishness” actually ran from October 3, 2008, when he said “now is the time to buy,” through February 19, 2010, when he said “Now is definitely the time to have a hedged portfolio.” During this period, the S&P 500 moved from 1099.23 to 1109.17. He made only 10 S&P points during “one of history’s greatest increases in stock prices in the shortest amount of time.”

By shifting the beginning and ending of his bullishness period by a month each, he gives a totally misleading picture of his investment acumen – or lack thereof. Even using his false claim– November 2008 to March 2010 – he made 219 S&P points, or 23.5%. That’s less than one-fourth of the available returns in “one of history’s greatest increases in stock prices in the shortest amount of time.”

One of the most important things to me is a newsletter editor who admits his mistakes readily and is honest with his subscribers. I don’t see that here, and will not renew.

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Posted by Zachary S. Tillis on Oct 15, 2011 @ 8:00 am

I watched your video and the only thing that scared me was i already saw this coming. I have never had much money, and I’ve been hurting these past 5 years. I took notice in the way things have been going. I also watched the news today and it dawned on me that with that video started a revolution. They never said your name one time but, the first thing to come to my mind was you. You did the world a great justice i just hope you know that when this all goes down, everyone is going to look to you for guidance hopefully you do the right thing again.

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Posted by Chris on Sep 28, 2011 @ 4:57 pm

Dick, I didn’t get mixed up, (and you proved again that you work for S&A) you have presented get rich quick “advise” in the form of a newsletter. NOT marked advertising but in an actual newsletter (sometimes the exact same information is marked clearly “advertisement”). But the good news is that since i began complaining about it, the occurances have decreased, someone must be listening, Is it you Dick

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Posted by DickG on Sep 14, 2011 @ 11:06 am

Which letter, Leo? The latest issue (September) had two shorts, the August issue had one short, and the July issue had two longs. Don’t get the marketing materials mixed up with the paid newsletters like Chris did a few months back.

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