Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#11

Post by enraged_camel » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:17 PM UTC

3am wrote: post #7

A couple of interesting statistics about stocks that are easily available are related to how many people are shorting it (ie, someone borrows a share, sells it, and makes a profit if they can re-buy it at a later date to close the short position). In the case of TSLA the stock, as of Apr 15, almost 31 million shares were lent out to short sellers ("sold short"). That is out of 72 million shares on the market ("float"…

The most amazing thing about your post is that 95% of your post went right over my head. And I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. :P

(There's probably some interesting commentary in there somewhere about the complexity of financial markets and how it is probably bad for society to have a vast portion of our economic growth riding on something most people don't get.)

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#12

Post by revelation » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:20 PM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #9

A good article to help understand the massive afterhours movement: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-idUSL2... High-Level Summary: There was a ton of short-selling interest on TSLA (due to expectations of a big earnings miss). Almost 27% of the 115mm shares outstanding are currently being borrowed by short sellers. TSLA has more short interest by percentage than 98% of US stocks. Everyone was real…

Short levels have been that high for much of the existence of TSLA. Noone was expecting the price to go down with this announcement specifically.

What you are describing is a short squeeze, and it's still unclear if that is indeed what we are seeing. Many shorts have been unwilling to cover, even when having to pay up to 85% lending rates for stock. A proper short squeeze would not only spike the price, it will make it explode; Volkswagen became the most valuable company in the world at a share price of 1k$ through a short squeeze (even if only for a short time).

Remember also that a short squeeze depends on long investors not taking profit. It only worked in VW because the majority of shares were held by institutions unwilling to reduce their stake and of course Porsche, who manufactured the squeeze.

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#13

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:20 PM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #9

A good article to help understand the massive afterhours movement: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-idUSL2... High-Level Summary: There was a ton of short-selling interest on TSLA (due to expectations of a big earnings miss). Almost 27% of the 115mm shares outstanding are currently being borrowed by short sellers. TSLA has more short interest by percentage than 98% of US stocks. Everyone was real…

Elon Musk several days ago:

EDIT: My mistake, this was said much longer ago (September 2012). I just read it recently. Thanks to batbomb for pointing this out. My apologies.

“It’s doing pretty well actually given that we’re such a huge short position. In fact I think the short position may be as high as one can actually go. They literally hit the ceiling on the short position. The shorts are in it to the hills. I think it is very unwise to be shorting Tesla, it’s very unwise. There is a tsunami of hurt coming for the short."

http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/09/13/video-elon-musk-tells-...

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#14

Post by mrchucklepants » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:21 PM UTC

cloudwalking wrote: post #8

This is the first of many profitable quarters for Tesla. The Model S is a better car in every single regard (except for range), than any other car on the market. It is safer, faster, roomier, more fun to drive, has more storage, quieter, more convenient, and less polluting. Electric vehicles will displace combustion vehicles. Everything that makes a car, the electric car does better. Right now the electric vehicle ma…

Everything but engine sound. I will miss the deep, throaty growl of a large V-8.

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#15

Post by ncavig » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:22 PM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #9

A good article to help understand the massive afterhours movement: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-idUSL2... High-Level Summary: There was a ton of short-selling interest on TSLA (due to expectations of a big earnings miss). Almost 27% of the 115mm shares outstanding are currently being borrowed by short sellers. TSLA has more short interest by percentage than 98% of US stocks. Everyone was real…

This might be a stupid question, but as a Tesla stock owner, and (becoming more apparent ever day) naive investor, how do you find out this information and/or digest it so well? I'm mainly a google finance guy and had no idea so much of the stock was being shorted.

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#16

Post by EvanKelly » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:23 PM UTC

cloudwalking wrote: post #8

This is the first of many profitable quarters for Tesla. The Model S is a better car in every single regard (except for range), than any other car on the market. It is safer, faster, roomier, more fun to drive, has more storage, quieter, more convenient, and less polluting. Electric vehicles will displace combustion vehicles. Everything that makes a car, the electric car does better. Right now the electric vehicle ma…

Did you mean to qualify your first statement by saying "electric car"?

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#17

Post by mikeyouse » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:24 PM UTC

revelation wrote: post #12

mikeyouse wrote: post #9

A good article to help understand the massive afterhours movement: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/autos-tesla-idUSL2... High-Level Summary: There was a ton of short-selling interest on TSLA (due to expectations of a big earnings miss). Almost 27% of the 115mm shares outstanding are currently being borrowed by short sellers. TSLA has more short interest by percentage than 98% of US stocks. Everyone was real…

Short levels have been that high for much of the existence of TSLA. Noone was expecting the price to go down with this announcement specifically. What you are describing is a short squeeze, and it's still unclear if that is indeed what we are seeing. Many shorts have been unwilling to cover, even when having to pay up to 85% lending rates for stock. A proper short squeeze would not only spike the price, it will make…

The straddle on May 10 announcement was something like 15%.. people were definitely expecting some movement.

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#18

Post by stdgy » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:26 PM UTC

mrchucklepants wrote: post #14

cloudwalking wrote: post #8

This is the first of many profitable quarters for Tesla. The Model S is a better car in every single regard (except for range), than any other car on the market. It is safer, faster, roomier, more fun to drive, has more storage, quieter, more convenient, and less polluting. Electric vehicles will displace combustion vehicles. Everything that makes a car, the electric car does better. Right now the electric vehicle ma…

Everything but engine sound. I will miss the deep, throaty growl of a large V-8.

In the future, I suspect we'll see aftermarket outfitters touting externally facing audio equipment to imitate the sounds produced by high-powered combustion engines.

I also suspect the majority of them will be sold to teenagers with fairly under-powered vehicles ;)

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#19

Post by rdl » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:27 PM UTC

If you've been in Silicon Valley for the past 6 months, this was obviously going to happen -- virtually everyone I know who could afford virtually any production supercar, and cares about cars, has or wants a Tesla. Not an R8, not a GTR, not a California, not a Panamera, not an M3, but a Tesla. As they ramp up their production (I think it's down to a few months wait),

The only rich people (who own cars) not getting Teslas seem to be either totally non-car people (or just cheap on capital costs vs. cost-efficient on total costs), or those who live in the City without a garage parking spot. Solving the Tesla street parking charging issue would be the next big win -- you could probably get away with 480v supercharging at work for 2-6h/day and street parking at home, although weekends might be tough.

Re: Tesla Smashes Earnings And Revenue Expectations

#20

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, May 08, 2013, 10:29 PM UTC

olefoo wrote: post #10

Meh, Teslas are boring status mobiles now. If you like your electric cars to be interesting and exciting. Order an Arcimoto [1] instead. 1. http://www.arcimoto.com/

Are they even in production? I know if I write a check I can get a Tesla.