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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

Stopped publishing abruptly in October 2020, when Del Real and Nick Hodge left Outsider Club/Angel Publishing to form a new publisher called Resource Stock Digest. A similar newsletter is being launched by Del Real under the new publisher, titled Junior Resource Monthly. Natural resources investment advisory, with monthly issues recommending junior mining stocks. Formerly titled […]

Throughout January these Friday Files are taking on the form of my “Annual Review” of my holdings, which will culminate in a clearer listing of what I own and focus on, including portfolio allocations that I have personally, and a clearer delineation between the stuff I write about because it’s interesting, and the stuff I […]

Newsletter publishers take advantage of catalysts, and what bigger catalyst could there be than a major political change? The Trump election surprise has inspired a whole raft of “buy this stock before President Trump takes office for big gains” and, if past is prologue, we’ll probably find that the catalyst and the Trump impact and […]

Today I continue my annual navel-gazing for you, as I look at each position in my portfolio — though this year, as I mentioned in our kickoff last week, I’m changing the way I describe, report and follow these stocks for you, largely so that I can be clearer about my preferences and opinions and […]

Today’s article was carefully harvested from the bones of an older Friday File, with some updates and additional thoughts thrown in. The pitch being covered here was that Andy Obermueller had identified the “Google of Energy Storage” and some other interesting battery-related stocks — I first covered the ad in this space back in February […]

Each year I check in on every company that I own and cover for the Irregulars, even those where my opinion doesn’t change much from month to month (or even from year to year, in some cases)… but we’re going to do it a little differently this year. This is all part of what will […]

This is the intro from the ad we’re considering today: “Jim Rickards: Halfway to heaven, in a location with life-threatening temperatures, a little-known company is about to unleash… “‘God’s Gold’ “15 TIMES the concentration of the average global gold mine, this deposit contains arguably the highest-grade gold on the planet. “And one company trading for […]

I’ve got a couple things to look at for you today as we close out our last working week of the year (Stock Gumshoe will be closed until after the new year, though we’ll probably have a couple quick articles for you next week). The first is a look at a Casey teaser that a […]

The latest pitch from Breakthrough Technology Alert, the high-priced tech “upgrade” newsletter from Agora Financial, is certainly over the top… this is how it opens: “Witness a Miracle Made Real “A shocking, exclusive video below reveals the most urgent market story of your lifetime. “Your fast action today could kick off lasting generations of wealth […]

I’ll write some more detail about this on Friday when I get to our Friday File for the week, but wanted just to note two personal purchases I’ve made. I bought some shares of Franco-Nevada (FNV), a very small position at this point as I wade into it during this fall in the price of […]

Today we’re looking at a pitch from Kim Iskyan, who for a brief while was at the helm of an emerging markets newsletter for Stansberry and is now starting his own publishing business focused on Asia. Iskyan is an interesting and thoughtful guy, judging from the free articles and interviews I’ve read of his over […]

Asia-focused advisory from Peter Churchouse (and now Kim Iskyan), based out of Singapore and Hong Kong and looking at Asian stocks for both US and international investors. Merged with Iskyan’s short-lived Asia Alpha Advisory in 2017 when Stansberry Churchouse Publishing was created. This newsletter is inactive.

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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