Become a Member

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

Keith Fitz-Gerald is dangling “The Biggest Upside Earnings Surprise in Two Decades” as an inducement to convince folks to sign up for a subscription to Money Map Report, which is the “entry level” newsletter for Money Map… so what is the stock they’re talking about? He calls it a “hybrid ‘dating’ stock,” and thinks that […]

The sturm und drang about the election is just about enough to make me stop watching television and turn off my Facebook feed… but it’s also generating some concern on Wall Street now, and as we get closer to what seems today to be an inevitable Democratic win in November there’s a lot of speculation […]

I’ve been seeing a groundswell of requests from readers to solve a teaser pitch about a little biotech stock, so that’s the plan for today… … and as usual with biotech, I’ll start with the caveat: I can ID the stock for you, I’m quite sure, but I can’t tell you much else about it. […]

I spent a day and a half in Manhattan to attend the conference run by Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and Jim Grant, and I’ll probably write some additional things about my take on the various presenters and the ideas they might inspire as my thoughts percolate… but these are my initial reactions. First, investment conferences […]

I’ve been seeing “teaser” emails coming around from Dividend.com for a little while now, and this latest one generated a few reader questions so we’ll get a quick solution out for you today. The spiel is that this “Dividend Aristocrat two times over” is doing great and has room to increase the dividend further… and […]

I’ve had a bunch of readers asking me to look at the ads for Chris Mayer’s new service, so that’s the plan today. We don’t usually see ads for newsletters that cite Stock Gumshoe, so that also helped catch my eye when I was browsing ads and deciding which teaser pitch to cover recently — […]

New investment advisory (2016) from Chris Mayer, investments Mayer recommends will be followed with real money from Bill Bonner and Mark Ford. Chris generally has a “value” focus and emphasized insider ownership, asset value, and strong and simple business models. Newsletter has closed.

I like the deal that Medical Properties Trust (MPW) did this week — thought he market was less enthused. They are purchasing nine acute care hospital properties from Steward Health, which is not far from Gumshoe HQ here in New England, and will also likely have an ongoing relationship with Steward as it tries to […]

Newsletter focused on readers in retirement, says it will provide “income generating and money saving ideas to help you make the most of your retirement.”

This week’s Friday File for the Irregulars won’t be finished on time for your edutainment — I will get that out to you either over the weekend or on Monday, depending on how my research progresses over the next few hours. Thanks for your patience!

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[...]

Go to Comment »
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/[...]

Go to Comment »
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?[...]

Go to Comment »
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.[...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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 [...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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 :)[...]

Go to Comment »
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![...]

Go to Comment »
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 :)[...]

Go to Comment »
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.[...]

Go to Comment »
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.[...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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 [...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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.[...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »
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,[...]

Go to Comment »
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[...]

Go to Comment »

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

More Info