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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

Just a brief note here to let you know that I’ve sold a little over half of my Shopify (SHOP) options position. I was pondering whether to hold on to this speculative position in the April $60 SHOP calls last month, since the one clear remaining catalyst before option expiration would be their quarterly report […]

Just an FYI for folks who follow my personal “real money” portfolio — today, following Kerrisdale Capital’s short attack on Northern Dynasty (NAK), I sold an additional part of my warrant position when it hit my mental stop loss level of about C$2.50 (the stock was nearing C$3). That books a total profit of roughly […]

This little spiel caught my eye because Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) are in the headlines as a possible beneficiary of the next wave of healthcare reform — with plenty of early indications, at the least, that the Republican party’s “repeal and replace” strategy for the Affordable Care Act will rely to some degree on an […]

I’ve got one little teaser to look at for you in your Friday File today, and then some quick updates on the companies in the real money portfolio I manage. The teaser pitch that several folks have asked about is the “Project Ironman” teaser from Marin Katusa, which he’s talking up as a “totally new […]

“Upgrade” newsletter from Ian King, focuses on targeting 1,000% gains “on every single trade” in small cap stocks ($100 million to $3 billion) that are “disruptive.” Edited by Paul Mampilly until he left Banyan Hill in 2022.

This teaser is not particularly secretive — most people who follow mining stocks will recognize the stock they’re talking about almost immediately (and the shares are already rising this morning as a result). But most people don’t follow mining stocks in much detail, so when they read the ad it sounds like an incredible secret […]

More to come for the Irregulars tomorrow as I finish up my Annual Review, but since I did a little buying and selling today this is just a quick note to let the Irregulars know that I’ve made a small purchase of shares in Luna Gold (LGC.TO in Canada, LGCUF) following their decision to merge […]

New service introduced by Mark Skousen with claimed insight into Oval Office policies and decisions, goal is “turn politics into profits” with recommendations on stocks to flourish under President Trump.

We’re closing in on the end of my annual navel-gazing exercise in portfolio review, and today it’s time to look at the “income” stocks in my portfolio. During the week next week I’ll catch up with a few smaller positions that don’t fit into the neat sectors I’ve divvied up thus far, like Disney, for […]

Recent Author Comments

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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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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