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by epistasis 3 days ago
Let's go check on the cautionary tales of the Tesla shorts.... poor folks, we let them run around in the yard of the asylum without a fence because they have lost the motivation even to run away. They just keep mumbling about PE ratios....
2 comments

From my perspective it's more of a "stay away" type of stock (short or not). The price is not supported by business finance fundamentals, and seems to be pushed upward via the retail market, driven by Elon's gift for selling futurism to the masses. To me, the value of Musk's companies is dangerously dependent on one single person, in a way that I can't think of for any other current company. It makes "investment" in the company more speculative, and closer to other "retail mass" phenomena like "meme stocks" or cryptocurrency.

As an example here, in the 2022 (relatively mild) stock market downturn, when the S&P 500 gave back about 20%, TSLA dropped from a peak in the low 400s, to a low of 122... roughly a 70% drop peak to peak. It's back to ~400 now, and it could go higher again. But, in the next downturn, it could go a lot lower.

It doesn't mean it's a good investment. It's just a personality cult. I suspect it might take a generation or more to settle on some reasonable price.
The next time there is a real correction all of these “concept cult” stocks are going to get hammered.

“When the tide goes out we will find out who has no shorts on.”