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Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

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Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#121
Oh good, TSLA is on sale at 10% off.

Setting aside the abject glibness of this comment, the likelihood of it recovering at this time tomorrow is pretty much guaranteed, and by his logic (not everyone should own this stock) it will be owned by the right people (those that believe in Tesla's ability to deliver a compelling product rather than healthy stock returns).

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#122
I have been investing a portion of my paycheck every month for the last three years and never sold TSLA. It's bothering me to see so many high profile departures particularly in finance/accounting groups. And yesterday's conference call was a disaster, I see it as dodging valid questions related to current state of the company and answering open ended interesting questions like "When will Tesla launch its own network of driverless cars?".

I just dumped all the $TSLA stock I have bought for the last few years.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#123
post #74
post #5

I was on this call. It was extremely cringey/embarrassing to hear Elon dismiss valid questions. At the same time, it was fantastic to see a young, smart, retail investor (Gali from Hyperchange) get to ask so many questions directly to the leadership team. I thought before the call that Gali would get to ask only one question, like the other analysts. He was able to ask almost 10! It was surreal. I was left feeling th…

There was a petition of sorts on twitter to get Hyperchange on to the conference call. I think Elon was trying to segue with a plug to these guys because they aren't the regulars. I'm asking seriously though, what would he stand to gain from hiding info about capex? Or do you think the reaction from investors is due to his attitude or signs of stress/things going wrong internally?

He doesn't want to admit they company will need to raise money later this year.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#124
post #5

I was on this call. It was extremely cringey/embarrassing to hear Elon dismiss valid questions. At the same time, it was fantastic to see a young, smart, retail investor (Gali from Hyperchange) get to ask so many questions directly to the leadership team. I thought before the call that Gali would get to ask only one question, like the other analysts. He was able to ask almost 10! It was surreal. I was left feeling th…

Disagree about it being embarrassing and cringey. I appreciate his no-bs and no-fluff candor.

Elon called out the press for writing misleading articles to generate clicks. He went as far as calling it irresponsible and dangerous.

He also called out day-traders, saying of you can't handle volatility then sell your stock. "I am not here to convince you to buy Tesla stock."

You can listen to the call at https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/nwvzygvo

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#125

Elon has always seemed to have the attitude of "not everyone should invest in this stock". I find this refreshing. God forbid a CEO do anything except try to drive the share price as high as humanly possible. I don't know if this carries the same weight in a public company, but setting expectations with investors is super important in a startup and prevents a ton of wasted time wrangling investors who don't get the t…

Actually as a CEO he has a fiduciary duty to maximise shareholder value.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#126
post #80
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been running it fine for 10 years. Does sound boring.

But time is a factor, especially in relation to milestones. I think everyone would agree that Tesla's Autopilot and full-self-driving aspirations were going extremely well in 2016 [0], and we can safely assume that progress is still being made into 2018. The more relevant part, though, is the amount of progress relative to Tesla's earlier assumptions [1], and of course, compared to its competitors' progress. [0] http…

Tesla barely talks about self-driving any more. Their no-LIDAR approach didn't work.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#127
post #114

>'the CEO said an analyst was asking “boring bonehead questions” that were “not cool.”' The thing is that he isn't wrong. I listened to one of these earnings calls the other day and literally fell asleep.

It's literally his job to talk to investors. He explicitly invited those questions, too.

Obviously it would be boring to you as a layman with no money on the line. I'm sure I'd be bored too. That's not relevant though.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#128

Elon has always seemed to have the attitude of "not everyone should invest in this stock". I find this refreshing. God forbid a CEO do anything except try to drive the share price as high as humanly possible. I don't know if this carries the same weight in a public company, but setting expectations with investors is super important in a startup and prevents a ton of wasted time wrangling investors who don't get the t…

> Elon has always seemed to have the attitude of "not everyone should invest in this stock". Sounds like the CEO equivalent of a movie director saying "I didn't make this one for the critics." Translation, "I know there are problems but I'd rather have my ego stroked by fans than face real criticism."

It's more like a movie director deciding to make something other than a superhero action movie, and telling critics not to expect one.

Not all investors have the same aims. Shaking off short-termist investors may be sensible to follow long term strategies. Sometimes public companies even have to become private again in order to pursue the course of action that's best for them.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#129
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he's Elon Musk and he doesn't care about investor returns Then he shouldn't be the CEO of a public company which continues to sell stock and debt to investors on the promise of a return. Also, Elon Musk very much does care about returns. He has a great track record in that department. He's just learned it's not something that's healthy to focus on in the short-term. Unfortunately, running out of cash forces the com…

I think what he did is awesome. Who cares what wall street thinks? They're mostly a bunch of leeches passing around paper and overreacting to news articles. Tesla will be fine.

Elon Musk cares what Wall St thinks when they supply the billion-per-quarter Tesla burns through. He just doesn't want to answer the questions that come with the money.

Tesla may survive, as there seems to be no end of people bad at math, but a company doesn't burn through a billion per quarter for too long before "fine" is no longer the correct word.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#130
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending Elon's behavior here, but speaking more generally: if you're in a place where you need to maintain maximum productivity for a while, because a deadline has slipped for example, meetings can turn into a massive time sink if you don't act like a total nazi during them. In so many meetings, people just want to hear themselves talk, whether to offer some opinion, reiterate some point, or ask some useles…

You know Elon doesn't actually like turn wrenches and connect wiring harnesses right? Talking on the phone with investors and making sure the company maintains creditworthiness is his actual core job.

Indeed.

It is obvious to anybody looking at the balance sheets of the company that TSLA will need to raise capital soon. Either late 2018 or maybe early 2019. A company with $3 Billion cash that's losing $1-billion per quarter will need more money. That's just the facts.

Musk is going to be either relying upon institutional investors / the stock market in general for another round of equity offerings, or relying upon banks for a loan. In either case, it seems like Musk just bit the hand that feeds his company money.

Another 300,000 reservations at $1000 per is probably not going to happen. There are fewer and fewer ways for TSLA to raise tons of money.

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