Bill Gunderson Review: Beware Performance Claims and News Mentions of Money Managers

I get a lot of "junk" mail but I do take the time to peruse it so that I can see what is out there. I get many messages from various folks wanting me to write about them and while there's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned p.r. pitch, I quickly delete most of it.

Yesterday, however, I got the following pitch via email (see below) about which I feel compelled to warn you and others.

From:	Dan
To:	Eric Tyson
Cc:
Date:	Wednesday, May 18, 2011 10:33 am
Subject:	A new talking head and a good article

Hi Eric, So I am kind of addicted to financial news. Especially news about the stock market. So I see and hear all the talking heads with all their predictions. Not many turn out that well. I was telling this to my investment advisor the other day and he just smiled. The fact is, I cannot tell you the number of times I heard him say something one day, then a month later, I hear it on the news. He got me into some good stocks -- and kept me there. Panera Bread. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. CSX. Priceline. And a few others. Each time he recommended them, I said 'huh?' But I went with them I am glad I did. He recently wrote an article about how green stocks are lousy investments. I told him he should be one of the talking heads. And that I was going to write a letter to a few financial reporters in the New York area and tell them. So that is what I am doing. His name is Bill Gunderson. He lives in Oceanside, California. And oh yeah, he just wrote a book about stocks. Next time you need to talk to someone about stocks, I hope you talk to him. Dan Auld New York p.s. Here is a link to his web site , a story about him in the Street.com, and something he wrote recently in the LA Business Journal.

As you can see by reading the email excerpt, it looks like a personalized email to me from some investor who claims to have been fortunate enough to be under the guidance of a California-based money manager by the name of Bill Gunderson. The first time I read the message, I thought for a moment that it was legitimate until I got to all the articles appended to the end of it which quoted or were written by Gunderson. In going back and re-reading the message, I became suspicious of the independence of or even the existence of the message's supposed sender Dan Auld.

Then I had an idea. I emailed Dan Auld back and said the following:

Hi Dan

Can you produce your account statements substantiating that you made these investments?


Not surprisingly, I haven't heard a peep from Dan Auld which told me everything I needed to know. Bill Gunderson the money manager should be ashamed of himself for his bogus claims and now you know one of the dishonest ways such folks seek and gain publicity for themselves.  

All of this reminded me of the scam perpetrated by the Beardstown Ladies investment book which claimed super high stock market returns. When I interviewed those club members, they were unable and unwilling to provide any documentation to support their performance claims.