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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

Entry level newsletter from Frank Curzio’s new research company (he previously wrote the somewhat similar letters Small Stock Specialist and Disruptors and Dominators for Stansberry and Weiss, respectively), aims to focus on stocks of any size (most of his previous newsletters were small-cap focused) and on large trends.

Yesterday we looked at one of the stocks Navellier has been pitching for his Ultimate Growth service, and today I’m moving on, as promised, to look at the second pick. And perhaps I should have swapped the order, since the ad actually called this one his “#1 Stock to Buy Today”… but, well, it seemed […]

High cost small-cap newsletter that looks for “explosive profit potential.” Currently edited by Grant Wasylik, who had recommended “safe” investments in previous work at Palm Beach Letter and also helms Wall Street Front Runner for Weiss. Adventure Capitalist was previously edited by Frank Curzio, who moved on to launch is own publishing firm.

The first version of this story was published on July 28, 2016 under the headline Palm Beach: “Issuing a strong ‘buy’ recommendation for ‘the next Bitcoin.’” Tom Dyson, Teeka Tiwari’s publisher at Palm Beach, has a new pitch out for these cryptocurrencies, which he calls “Bit Shares,” again touting Ethereum and Bitcoin but also adding […]

Today I’ve gotten bogged down in a couple articles that haven’t yet reached fruition, but I also have some good news — the redoubtable Lynn, who keeps so many things running smoothly here at Stock Gumshoe despite my best efforts to gum up the works, has gotten our initial 2017 Spreadsheet up for your consideration. […]

I’ve gotten a few questions about Jason Williams’ free Wealth Daily article on Friday that hinted at “Warren Buffett’s Next Target,” so I thought we’d take a moment to throw those clues into the ol’ Thinkolator for you. There is a cottage industry on Wall Street right now that really demonstrates the short-termism of the […]

Marijuana-focused stock advisory launched by Jimmy Mengel at Angel Publishing in early 2017, he has been recommending marijuana stocks for his much less expensive Crow’s Nest advisory since 2015 or so.

Recent Author Comments

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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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)

Indeed, that's certainly the flavor of the month... there won't really be any SMRs in operation for five years or so, though, even if they proceed without hiccups it will take quite a while for them to be meaningful contributors to the grid.[...]

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

It wasn't the permit that drove it up to $8, it's been moving up pretty steadily for a few months -- they just didn't bother to update their ad.[...]

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

I imagine a lot of folks still doubt the permitting will come through, so maybe that doubt will ease over the next 6 months or so. But investors often find it hard to hold on to mining stocks once it gets "real" -- when they're borrowing and spending and[...]

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