quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Interesting article on Musk.

Actually, I thought he has gone bonkers the minute he started dating that stupid, crazy bimbo, Amber Heard!

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
Elon Musk is a competent version of Donald Trump

Promotional egoistical machine that unlike Trump can and will deliver



Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
Elon Musk is a competent version of Donald Trump

Promotional egoistical machine that unlike Trump can and will deliver



Mike

LOL. That's hilarious Mike.

I think you have those two exactly backwards!

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
Elon Musk is a competent version of Donald Trump

Promotional egoistical machine that unlike Trump can and will deliver



Mike

LOL. That's hilarious Mike.

I think you have those two exactly backwards!

Don’t mess with Elon

https://www.google.com/amp/s/j...-musk-1827842961/amp

Mike

quote:

Tesla whistleblower to meet with SEC, attorney says
Tesla whistleblower Martin Tripp is slated to meet with the SEC, his attorney Stuart Meissner says.
Tesla and Solar City are facing ongoing SEC investigations, which the company has not yet disclosed, according to the independent research firm Probes Reporter.
Ongoing investigations into Tesla and SolarCity do not indicate a finding of wrongdoing, but could shake some investors' confidence.

Lora Kolodny | @lorakolodny

CNBC.com

Tesla whistleblower Martin Tripp — who CEO Elon Musk characterized as a saboteur and disgruntled ex-employee — is slated to meet with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, his attorney Stuart Meissner told CNBC. Meissner also shared this development on Twitter.

The SEC did not reply to a request for further information. Tesla declined to comment on the matter.

In his complaint with the commission, Tripp alleges that Tesla has made several "material omissions and misstatements" to investors and taken steps that potentially compromised the safety of its customers.

An interview with regulators could ignite a new SEC investigation into Tesla, could be used in ongoing investigations or could go nowhere at all. As a general rule, the SEC does not offer details or comments about ongoing investigations.

This is not the first time the SEC has tangled with the electric vehicle maker. According to public records attained by the independent research firm, Probes Reporter, Tesla faced but did not disclose an SEC investigation into the Model 3 in 2016, which closed without enforcement action. The firm is tracking additional, undisclosed SEC investigations into SolarCity and Tesla.

Probes Reporter CEO John P. Gavin said:

"The SEC would be irresponsible if they did not follow-up on a well thought out whistleblower complaint. However, that does not mean that anyone has done anything wrong or that wrongdoing will be found. But it could be."

According to the most recent available data, since August 2011 the SEC has received over 22,000 whistleblower tips, and last year received more than 4,400 tips. By the end of 2017, the SEC had only granted 46 awards to whistleblowers.

Meissner has a deep background working with the SEC, and whistleblowers.

He previously represented a former Monsanto executive who alleged accounting fraud at that company. The effort led to a settlement of $80 million between the SEC and Monsanto in February 2016, and netted a reward of $22.5 million for Meissner's client.

He also helped draft the SEC’s whistleblower rules, which allow it to run its bounty programs.

Meissner told CNBC, "Getting a call back is 70 percent of determining if there will ever be SEC action, in my experience, especially with regard to the statutes that are in play with regard to the Tripp submission."

Shares in Tesla closed up almost 4 percent on the day. The company is due to report its second-quarter earnings on August 1st.

quote:

Tesla Stock Is Way Better as Entertainment Than as an Investment

James Brumley 3 hrs ago

In November of last year, yours truly here quoted a line from the movie Gladiator to describe the roller coaster kind of trading action Tesla had had and that Tesla stock continues to dish out:

“Are you not entertained?”

The words mean little without the right context. So, just so you know, it was a line shouted at the Coliseum crowd from Roman general-turned-gladiator Maximus after he survived a match that was supposed to end the gladiator’s life.

Yes, he was being facetious. It was a poke at how Rome’s civilization had become a blood-thirsty mob.

Fights to the death aren’t a modern day reality any longer, and nobody’s spilling blood by trading Tesla stock. Don’t think for a minute that the Gladiatorial/mob mentality isn’t affecting Tesla shares though. And, it will continue to do so until Tesla either turns a legitimate profit or dies trying.

Can Tesla Stock Be Tamed?

The answer is no, at least not yet. Until Tesla becomes a more normal, at-least-potentially-profitable player, Tesla stock will remain subject to emotionally-charged trading action simply because investors have nothing else to use as an analytical basis.

“[Musk] has yet to succeed at anything but somehow spins every failure into proof of imminent success. His only accomplishment has been this decades-long Jedi mind trick,” adding for good measure, “Tesla is best known for blowing deadlines and consistently falling short on production.”

Her points are well-taken, even if dramatized for effect. There certainly is a kernel of truth in them.

On the flipside, while Musk has been a spendthrift, what enterprising young company hasn’t? Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is only marginally/questionably profitable thanks to Jeff Bezos’ willingness to spend heavily, and investors love to love AMZN.

Ross Gerber, CEO of research outfit Gerber Kawasaki, excused the lack of profits thus far in June, explaining of his bullish stance:

“When you compare them to other car companies, I don’t think that’s fair because, remember, these are highly advanced electric vehicles and it’s not like building any other car before. It’s not like building a cheap Ford. This is really an iPhone of cars.”

New Street Research’s Pierre Ferragu also recently chimed in, conceding that conventional analysis simply doesn’t work with Tesla stock:

“Sell-side analysts who don’t know the guy, who don’t understand the technology, who don’t understand what it is like to work at Tesla – they translate his ‘shot for the moon’ as ‘they missed it. Instead of translating it as ‘they started,’ they translate that into ‘they failed,’ which is a massive mistake. It’s just a wrong way of translating Elon Musk.”

And there’s the rub. Right or wrong, Elon Musk and Tesla are practically synonymous. And, neither can be or even should be judged like a conventional CEO or equity.

At least some of the industry’s observers are willing to admit it.

An Alternative Look at Tesla Stock

Still, the lack of conventionality leaves traders filling in their own blanks, leaving the door wide open to opinion-rich assumptions. It’s a revolving door too.

Callahan’s comments more than prove there are more than enough traditionally-minded investors who can’t help but notice Musk is taking a very, very long time to even produce even a scintilla of respectable, sustainable earnings.

We would have expected something to show for the effort so far.

The end result is, trading Tesla stock has become a guessing game. The ‘game’ is figuring out how other traders are going to feel about Tesla anywhere from two weeks to nine months down the road.

The good news is, trading mobs like the ones on both sides of the Tesla fence tend to behave in rather predictable patterns. The bad news is, the shape of the chart now suggests traders are collectively feeling worse and worse about its future, but that doubt has yet to hit capitulatory levels.

Take a look. The downtrend is well-developed, but has not yet run its full course. The shape of the chart seen since the middle of last year looks an awful lot like 2014-2016 lull, which ultimately set up a nice 2017 advance, but took a long time to get going (and dished out a handful of painful pullbacks before doing so).

Will the current action give us an identical result? Maybe. Maybe it will just be similar. Or, maybe TSLA shares will do something completely different this time around and rally right out of trouble. The momentum is leaning bearishly though, and turning things around is hard work.

Regardless, it can’t be ignored that traders are starting to listen and believe the naysayers again. That’s a red flag in and of itself.

Bottom Line for Tesla Stock

Frustrated that Tesla is such an unusual stock and practically impossible to handicap using the usual tools?

I’ll submit a thesis to you, and in doing so come full circle with my opening comments… are you not entertained? This is, after all, exactly what you signed up for, even if you’re one of those speculators that can’t admit it. You knew Musk and Tesla were question marks.

You were willing to take that risk though, enticed by all the broad, vague rhetoric about electric vehicles being the future. Whether or not there would be any actual profit in it wasn’t part of the discussion or equation.

It’s not a bad thing, mind you. Sometimes putting a little “play money” on a flyer is fun. Occasionally it’s even rewarding.

Don’t kid yourself though. Tesla was never an investment. It’s entertainment, and will remain nothing but entertainment until Musk can prove he can keep more money coming in than going out. That could be a while. Buckle up if you want to stay on board in the meantime.

quote:

The 'Big Short' Steve Eisman is now betting against Tesla
Steve Eisman, one of the few investors to successfully bet against subprime mortgage securities during the financial crisis, is betting against Tesla.
The portfolio manager called the company's founder Elon musk a "very smart man" but raised concern about the CEO's ability to follow through on his vision.
"He's got execution problems," Eisman says.

Kate Rooney | Published 2 Hours Ago Updated 21 Mins Ago

CNBC.com

Steve Eisman, the investor whose prescient financial crisis forecast was featured in "The Big Short," is shorting electric automaker Tesla.

The portfolio manager called the company's founder Elon Musk a "very smart man" but raised concern about the CEO's ability to follow through on lofty ambitions.

"He's got execution problems," Eisman, portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday. "He's nowhere in autonomous driving, as far as I can tell, and big competition is coming in his space next year."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Eisman is one of the few investors to successfully bet against subprime mortgage securities during the financial crisis, and was a main character in Michael Lewis' best-selling book "The Big Short." Eisman was depicted by actor Steve Carell in the movie, based on Lewis's book.

Tesla's cash position has been an issue in the eyes of investors.

The stock fell earlier this week after The Wall Street Journal cited a Tesla memo that asked a supplier last week to refund a portion of previous payments made by the company in a bid to make a profit. Following that report, insurance on Tesla's debt, which is sold as a credit default swap contract, rose to its second-highest price ever, implying that the company has a bigger risk of default.

Tesla has repeatedly said it doesn't need the cash, and Elon Musk responded to the report in a tweet, saying, "Only costs that actually apply to Q3 & beyond will be counted. It would not be correct to apply historical cost savings to current quarter."

Shares of the car-maker were down just 0.2 percent in premarket trading Friday. The stock is down 8.5 percent year over year, and has fallen roughly 1.7 percent in 2018.

The company is slated to report its June quarter earnings results on Aug. 1. Tesla lostnearly $2 billion last year and burned through about $3.4 billion in cash after capital investments. It had $2.7 billion in cash at the end of the March quarter.

Eisman is also short real estate listing site Zillow, which he said is entering a "terrible business" of flipping homes. Shares of the company fell more than 7 percent and were on track for their worst day since August 2017 after the interview. The portfolio manager is also betting against BBVA and UniCredit, he said.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Folks better take the money and run....


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/0...g-taking-compan.html