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GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

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21–30 of 122 posts

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#21
post #3

It's an incredible testament to the distortions of the capital markets that Nikola's current market cap is still $7.84 billion, and not zero. There's nothing that justifies that other than the hope that one will be able to leave others holding the bag.

The beauty of public markets is that you can make a handsome profit if this is your conviction, you put your money where your mouth is and it turns out to be true.

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#23
post #8

NKLA has nothing now, what we're left with is evidence of the new era of 'RobinHood' traders et. al. thinking they're on to something, or not realizing that it's really over, keeping some kind of valuation in place. We may be in a new era of equities, where the unfortunately under-informed masses are able to really move the needle on a lot of stocks, throwing all sorts of value-trading strategies out the window. In t…

He tried that already. Literally, if you watch his interview about the DJT ticker, you see him praising everything and blaming others when it went bankrupt.

That was before the RobinHood trading nation era of hyper speculative investors.

Just like ~15% of the US population believes Trump when totally fabricates facts about the election, he could take a run at perennially duping investors in 2020 and beyond.

"We're about to sign a huge deal for a Moscow property" ... and then it doesn't really happen. "We signed a huge deal with Macau developers" ... but it's not material to the company etc. etc..

There are a lot of people who command a lot of money that love to interact with, 'do deals with' important people, it elevates their status, much in the same way North Korea staged the US/N. Korean talks, ensuring the photo op had 'equal numbers of N. Korean flags to US flags' etc..

Even after all the loses and folly, people find the appearance of power irresistible - and no matter what happens to his business, DJT will forever be a 'Former President' which has formidable status.

The developing worlds has vast sums of money controlled by unsavoury figures without a whole lot of oversight there are innumerable ways to 'pretend to do business' or to 'do it poorly enough' that he can bleed small time investors for a fortune.

While 'Bloomberg' and every other bit of financial press literally spells out the disaster of the numbers, how none of it makes sense, he can literally tell his 'investors' that 'the media is out to get him and that they are lying' etc. etc..

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#25
post #18

I know we aren't supposed to judge a book my its cover and I can't even put my finger on exactly why I feel this way, but simply naming your company Nikola when your biggest competitor is Tesla has always seemed like a huge red flag to me.

I would have expected Edison to keep the theme consistent.

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#27
post #18

I know we aren't supposed to judge a book my its cover and I can't even put my finger on exactly why I feel this way, but simply naming your company Nikola when your biggest competitor is Tesla has always seemed like a huge red flag to me.

That's what others would consider a healthy amount of competitiveness when you literally run against one of the most innovative companies of all time. What a luxury to witness this narrative unfolding in real time.

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#28
Trevor Milton invited me to his headquarters to prove his trucks weren't fake. While we were having lunch I asked him about the longtime friend of his (15 years, went to his wedding) who he had framed for extortion. The friend later committed suicide when he got out of jail. This was all happening during the Nikola reverse-IPO process.

After a recording of our conversation was posted online, a bunch of women came forward with accusations against Trevor Milton. That and the Hindenburg report are why GM can't do this deal anymore.

They weren't investing anything. They were getting the equity for free essentially, just to let them use the GM hydrogen tech that GM was planning to throw away anyway. So why would GM back out of a deal that was so sweet for them? It was really that bad.

https://heyamifat.com/robb.mp4

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#29
post #18

I know we aren't supposed to judge a book my its cover and I can't even put my finger on exactly why I feel this way, but simply naming your company Nikola when your biggest competitor is Tesla has always seemed like a huge red flag to me.

You feel that way because you realize that it's a calculated attempt to ride the coattails of an infinitely more successful and reputable company, a deliberate confusion, like if you opened a coffee chain named 'Farbucks' (slogan: "We'll make your dollar go further!"), or the small pennystocks which aim for stock tickers deliberately similar to real companies (Matt Levine covers the occasional bumps in the stocks of 'accidentally' similar stock tickers).

Re: GM scales back partnership with electric truck startup Nikola

#30
post #26

I wish I had the balls to short this on IPO but I saw what was happening with Tesla and I chickened out.

There were Jan 20, 2023 puts on this guy. And there still are. The problem here is that I don't actually know anything about NKLA or the business they're in.

If you think they'll go under in the next two years, you could make bank on just debit spreads. And if you think they're a shite company but don't know where they're gonna go, do you really know anything?

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