Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#131

Post by ltdanimal » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:30 PM UTC

txsh wrote: post #88

kneel wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he's Elon Musk and he doesn't care about investor returns, he wants to build rockets, cars, tunnels, and explore space. No matter what he does he'll more than likely be fine on the money side.

He doesn’t want to do those things. He wants people to give him billions of dollars on the promise to do those things. Musk survives on putting in a minimal ammount of effort and having a great marketing team. The guy is a fraud.

Ha. Pretty weak attach. The dude literally sleeps at work at times, and his companies have produced things that have never been done before. Stuff that you can't really do as a weekend warrior, like rockets and the fastest/longest range EVs that people wait in line to buy

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#132

Post by haberman » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:30 PM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #106

olivermarks wrote: post #20

Musk sounded exhausted. If Smith & Wesson launched a consumer flamethrower there would be outrage...Musk has been able to distract with lots of shiny objects but the clock is ticking, even amongst his niche fan base...I hope all the people who are working so hard in Musk's various companies come out of this ok...

It's not really a flamethrower, it's a glorified propane torch with a plastic gun shell, it's a toy. Can't say S&W wouldn't get flak for making something like this given our current climate but it's really not a weapon.

What is the difference between a flamethrower and a propane torch? I find myself inexplicably delighted at the prospect of understanding this distinction.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#133

Post by xkjkls » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #8

mephitix wrote: 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…

Letting one person ask 10 questions means less time for other investors to ask their own individual questions.

It's a filibuster.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#134

Post by danso » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:31 PM UTC

mephitix wrote: post #53

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but his questions weren't really that great. The two questions from analysts he skipped before throwing it to the youtube guy were tough questions asking about specific details that Elon obviously didn't want to answer. Youtube guys questions were softer which is why Elon stayed with him for so long. I have to say I think letting someone like Gali ask questions at all is pretty bad, it specifically degrades what…

I disagree - I thought the questions were good. I wish both sides were able to answer questions, as Elon had promised in the beginning of the call! (He said something along the lines of, we want extra time for Q&A, will keep the call running until there are no more questions) Having a retail investor at the table is a great thing for Tesla shareholders, IMO because so much of the public is interested in the company.…

These are interesting questions, but for the most part, don't require concrete answers in the same way that "Do you have enough money?" do. Musk has plenty of places to talk about his bold ambitions and predictions. But the earnings call is one of the few regularly scheduled occasions when he and other executives can be demanded answers about current realities.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#135

Post by xkjkls » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC

historylurker wrote: post #77

mephitix wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree - I thought the questions were good. I wish both sides were able to answer questions, as Elon had promised in the beginning of the call! (He said something along the lines of, we want extra time for Q&A, will keep the call running until there are no more questions) Having a retail investor at the table is a great thing for Tesla shareholders, IMO because so much of the public is interested in the company.…

> IMO because so much of the public is interested in the company What do you mean by "so much of the public"? Outside of tech circles, Tesla isn't as well known as you imagine. Why do we need to hear about all of their ideas and potential on the conference call? I can read Twitter, Electek, Teslarati, Reddit or others for that.

It is the most popular Retail investor stock, so it's not just tech folks.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#136

Post by 3pt14159 » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #124

mephitix wrote: 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.med…

Yeah I agree with you nodesocket. Musk comes off as focusing on the right things, not getting bogged down by a x% difference on capital outlay here or there.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#137

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:32 PM UTC

zmk_ wrote: post #125

rawrmaan wrote: post #50

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.

In the long-term.

"Fuck off, I know what I'm doing, and I'm not chasing short-term single quarter results" can easily be fulfilling that duty.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#138

Post by bdamm » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

s2g wrote: post #101

kneel wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he's Elon Musk and he doesn't care about investor returns, he wants to build rockets, cars, tunnels, and explore space. No matter what he does he'll more than likely be fine on the money side.

Then he should be fired because he doesn't care about his job. I am so sick of the cult of Elon. There is no defending his behaviour here.

You've been downvoted but I don't know why. It's clearly true. He wants the power that comes with CEO, but not the levelheadedness to run what is now a large company making large promises.

What he's done is remarkable. But he should step down, assign himself a founder/chief scientist title, and move forward with "fixing" his company. No fear of ejection; I suspect he's a major shareholder.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#139

Post by reid » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #93

askl56 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-dyiASgGkk

There's also a transcript on Yahoo Finance. [1] [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/edited-transcript-tsla-earnin...

The link refers to the Q3 2017 conference call.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#140

Post by dsfyu404ed » Thu, May 03, 2018, 6:34 PM UTC

xkjkls wrote: post #111

kneel wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The west coast bias in Hacker News is always shocking. The capital markets exist for a reason, and the people he's mocking on this conference call are the ones that he's going to need to be begging for billions if things don't deliver in Q3 or Q4.

It shoudn't shock you. It should be expected based on the demographics of the people who read HN.