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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

Lots of readers wondering today about Steve Sjuggerud’s latest China teaser — it starts with a pretty “urgent” promise… “Recently, in a closed-door meeting in Boston, the most powerful authority in global investing told me… “Two Stocks That Nearly Every Wall Street Firm Will be Forced to Buy at 3:59pm on May 31 Get there […]

It always sounds impressive when someone says they’ve got a “million dollar bet” on the line, right? That’s the attention-getter from the Motley Fool that I started seeing this morning, with a promise that they’ll reveal to you their biggest single holding… as soon as you sign up for Stock Advisor ($49/year) to get the […]

Have a question in mind that you think is so dumb you’re embarrassed to ask it?  That’s what we’re here for today! This bonus post was inspired by a reader who wanted to know “where to ask a dumb question” here on Stock Gumshoe… and while his question was not actually stupid, and I’m happy […]

Income and retirement focused newsletter from Nilus Mattive at Agora, started in 2018 following Mattive’s departure from his similar newsletters published by Weiss.

We’ve seen a long stream of earnings reports and other worthwhile bits of data on Real Money Portfolio stocks since I last wrote to you, including some that actually included some interesting news, so prepare for a lot of quick updates…. Medical Properties Trust (MPW) reported another quarter of ho-hum… pretty much met the forecasts, […]

The number of questions about this one is going off the charts, so I’ll look into it for you — even though it’s related to not one but two bubblicious sectors that are designed for the manipulation of investors, so I might get a little grumpy. Bear with me. Here’s a little tantalizer from the […]

What’s Moe Zulfiqar pitching as “The one tech stock to buy and never sell?” I’ve seen a couple versions of this teaser ad come rolling into Gumshoe HQ over the past week or so, and it’s time for a quick Thinkolator answer for you… The ad is peddling subscriptions to America’s Redemption, one of the […]

Recent Author Comments

On Microblog: Fed's First Rate Cut in Four Years Could Propel This Sector To New Heights, Banyan Edge

Haven't seen a new ad from him lately, but earlier this year he was pitching DFH as an "echo boom" pick (https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/charles-mizrahis-8-figure-fortunes/reveal-mizrahis-16-trillion-echo-boom-stock-pick/) -- I'll look for any newer a[...]

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On "The Casino That is Rigged For You" (Better than Berkshire!) -- what's Porter's hinted-at pick?

I haven't looked in the last month or two, but last wrote about it here:https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/green-zone-fortunes/the-next-google-answers-eccentric-billionaire-makes-a-big-bet-on-a-tiny-ai-company-tease-from-green-zone-fortunes/[...]

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On "The Casino That is Rigged For You" (Better than Berkshire!) -- what's Porter's hinted-at pick?

Have never heard of that one, but I'll try to take a look. Anything in particular you like about them?[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

BTBT, per Altucher. Don't know whether he actually made the investment yesterday or not.[...]

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On Microblog: 320,000% DNA stock

Sounds like that's the second coming of Adam O'Dell's "Imperium" pitch -- I did indeed cover that back in 2021 and 2022, the stocks did terribly... and I covered the updated version, which teases some different stocks, a few months ago:https://www.sto[...]

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On Microblog: What are two of George Gilder's MOONSHOTS?

I've written about Verses a couple times since it went hyper-promotional in the first half of 2023 -- they have finally gotten revenue growing, but I still don't trust the business. It might work out, but with them borrowing money and issuing shares at a [...]

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On Microblog: Any opinion on how I should vote my BOC shares?

Sorry for not getting back to you... I don't have a problem with the current proxy and executive compensation, after being relatively reassured that it was in line with what they were doing before.I will be interested to see what's said at the meeti[...]

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On Microblog: Trading volatility of DJT

I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear, but that stock is so dramatically over-followed that there aren't really any cost-effective ways to trade it -- you can buy puts or calls to bet on huge changes of direction, but so many people are already doing t[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

Thanks for acknowledging my noble sacrifice :)[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

We love you, too, David. Thanks![...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

Thanks! Glad to have you here, stick around and tell all your friends :)[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

Pretty low, I think, which is why I sold the $10 options to reduce the cost of the $2 ones to roughly "in the money" levels.[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

Thanks... guess they're not promoting Scheidt as much as the old Agora did.[...]

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On What's Altucher's $5 "Big Buy Alert" Stock? Pick teased as, "I'll Invest $50,000 into this $5 stock before 2pm on Wednesday"

Thanks for the confirmation... and the GDOT news, which I guess he must be teasing for a different letter.I know some of the Paradigm folks don't really get into individual stock picking, like Jim Rickards, but didn't know Zachary Scheidt was one of the[...]

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On Answers: Tilson's "Nuclear Renaissance" Tease for "Recession-proof stocks"

He's been running with that one since the Spring of 2023 (https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/the-big-secret-on-wall-street-this-week/de-tease-porters-secret-energy-grid-obamas-screw-up-and-reagans-premonition/), but yes, the ads continue to roll teasing [...]

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On $4 Gold Stock -- "Greatest Gold Trade Ever?"

Will take a look, but that sounds a lot like New Found Gold, which Williams' colleague Luke Burgess was pitching a while[...]

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On Friday File: Pangea's Wizard for Gold Riches?

That's a different type of firm -- more of a commodity trading company, right? Interesting call, sort of a play on the interest in gold rather than the gold price itself.[...]

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On Friday File: Pangea's Wizard for Gold Riches?

That one has certainly demanded some patience. I remain somewhat assured that Nolan Watson has been saying that they've already bought their growth, so they'll likely just be paying down debt and holding off on major deals for a while... but there's alway[...]

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On What's "The Last Retirement Stock You'll Ever Need?" (Called "NVIDIA's 'Secret Royalty'" in teaser pitch from Dylan Jovine's Behind the Markets)

Several SMRs are in early stage development, none of the US ones are permitted or under construction yet. BWXT works on most of the naval reactors and does other nuclear contracting for the government, including building a microreactor for military bases,[...]

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On What's the Stock Behind Simpkins' "Project Wingman: Tiny AI Defense Stock With 20x–50x Potential?"

Could be, a lot of the smaller defense contractors have been acquired over the years. Don't know if any of their technology is particularly valuable or proprietary, but they are doing some interesting things with rocket engines and other stuff in addition[...]

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