[partiallypro]

I'm a fan of Musk and his projects, but I also understand finance... And Tesla's cash burn is unsustainable... He uses tactics to keep his stock over a certain value in order to protect company debts. I can like what the man is doing in terms of innovation and also see that he's gaming the system in a way that could end in ruin. He's playing a dangerous game and it's he has a lot of shareholder money on the line. He can afford the losses, others can't.

[jwlake]

An equity holder by definition signs up for that risk, and all it entails. Musk is playing a dangerous game but anyone that doesn't like it can just get out of the equity. He also has a responsibility to employees, but I'm guessing he has a very high approval rate internally.

[partiallypro]

You could have said the same thing about Enron. Some people have Tesla stock and don't even know it, because of their mutual funds and pensions.

[c0vfefe]

Those who own so little Tesla stock as to not be aware of it will also not be noticeably impacted by their failure. One could say that's the whole point of diversification.

[mobilefriendly]

Portfolio theory largely eliminates specific-company risk by having funds hold many companies.

[stevievee]

The problem is the purposeful deceit that causes retail investors to incorrectly assess risk. It's common in investor/public relations so I don't mind that Tesla and Musk do it better than everyone else.

[tim333]

It depends on how the company grows. The bull case is they grow exponentially taking share from incumbents because their technology is better. They sold very approx 40k cars in 2015, 100k in 2017 and talking 400k in 2019 and maybe 1.5m in 2021, 3m in 2023. (https://youtu.be/Y8dEYm8hzLo?t=252)

I remember with Amazon they were growing fast but the conventional analysts were saying but they make zero profit and then after a bit they are the worlds most valuable public company and Bezos the richest person. If Tesla keep up the growth it shouldn't be too hard to get finance.

Of course it remains to be seen if TSLA deliver the growth and self driving etc.

[baby]

I remember a time where people were saying that Facebook would never manage to make money or monetize.

[wesammikhail]

> He can afford the losses, others can't.

Then don´t buy the stock. Period.

I don´t like this idea of trying to protect every fool with 2 bucks. If you´re not qualified to make your own opinion about a stock then you shouldn´t be allowed to invest in the first place. Or at least, you loose your right to complain if you´ve not done your DD properly.

Some stocks are more risky than others; this is one of them. Hence why the returns might be amazing 10 years from now or be completely garbage. Pick a side and make a bet, or don´t. Either way, talking about protecting people from "risk" is a dead end.