KudzuRunner wrote:
I bought a few shares of Tesla about four years ago, and I occasionally buy another. I view Elon Musk as a genius on the order of a Thomas Edison. So I'm not the slightest bit worried by the ups and downs. He doesn't just think big, he thinks huge, and when all the chips finally fall into place--well, I'm holding aces.
You do understand that Nikola Tesla and Edison hated each other right? And that the Electric Chair was created by Edison to prove the dangers of AC power since he was so heavily invested in DC (which at the time was far inferior to AC). Edison was not technically a genius, he was just good at business and hard work, whereas Tesla was a genius who was poor at business.
Electric cars appeal to rich white people who are trying to clear their carbon conscience, not the public at large. They are a luxury item, and it is hard to imagine a luxury good being worth what the stock is valued at (especially since they are not a profitable company). With the high sticker price, very few mainstream Americans and foreigners will be buying these cars. They are a niche status symbol much like a Rolex or any other Luxury car. The stock is grossly over valued, and it is surprising that it is increasing in value with Trump in office, who would like to eliminate some of the tax credits that people use to buy these things and roll back a lot of Obamas climate regulations. It is wild that investors continue to flock to them even though their financials are worse today than they were in 2013 (in terms of how much money it is losing on each car it sells). All this in a bull market for luxury cars.
This isn't just a Tesla problem, but is reflective of the stock market as a whole right now. Stocks are inflated by speculation across the board, and the whole Trump rally has been fueled by the idea that he is going to roll back Obama era regulations on the financial sector and decrease taxes on capital gains and not by real gains in production, technology or industry. It looks like a bubble about to explode.