Absolutely. Scarcity is what crypto currencies are built on as well. Many of these are self imposed scarcity though. Crypto uses computer power to limit crypto coins. Diamond mining is, as I understand it, limited so as to not flood the market. Even with gold backed dollars though, as populations grew and more dollars were needed, we can just change the exchange rate. Same amount of gold, more dollars. Either that or you impose deflation as the number of people buying and selling goods and services grows. E.G. Congratulations, last year you earned 1000 gold coins. This year we are paying you 750 gold coins because we have more people working.
No longer a stockholder, sold TSLA to buy a home solar system, I won’t be able to vote the way I did twice before. But even if I did, my vote would be different. I sold my stock because Elon has become distracted by Twitter/X and politics. I’m not casting sand on his previous efforts as much as seeing Elon distracted from his only public company. Bob Wilson
I do have some left. If I still have it when/if a vote comes up I’ll be voting against. This has been a very clear indicator that the BOD is not independent at all.
i still have my 30 shares. i'm not as concerned about tesla as i am about trump/musk trying to pull a one two punch against democracy
not just if you were a jewelry maker ..... but also a builder of telecommunication / Aerospace / satellite components. Gold is used as a type of insulation, reflecting heat in space as well as one of the best conductors of electricity. Silver too, has a lot of commercial use which means it's not just bling. Then there's spoilage. 10 or 15 years from now that gold will keep its value against inflation. That 15-year-old loaf of bread? Not so much .
gold and other precious metals have value because they are a finte resource. paper can be printed and is almost unlimited.
The beauty of paper moola is (better conceptualized as adding ever more zeros to the Fed reserve's ledger - it doesn't even have to be printed) that, unlike any other Ponzi scheme, when paper Moolah is concocted out of thin air, it diminishes the value of your lifetime of savings. It's impossible to get worthwhile taxation programs approved, but print more fiat money? That's WAY too easy. Even worse though is that if that lifetime of savings doubled or triple over 30 or 40 Years of savings, it might cover the cost of inflation but you still have to be taxed on it again! (ROTH being one of the few exceptions)
Pretty silly. I never claimed to be an expert at all. Everything I said is very basic and historically accurate. To wit: It is true that P/E ratios are historically a lot lower. (median <18) S&P 500 PE Ratio - 90 Year Historical Chart | MacroTrends It is true that Tesla's current P/E (106) is significantly higher than the current average P/E ratio of all S&P500 companies <40. Using P/E Ratio to Determine Current US Stock Market Valuation It is true that the recent gains are not based on the company's financials - their earnings have not change significantly. It is true that the recent gains are widely considered to be based simply on the potential of Elon Musk to succeed, and specifically because of his political connects in the incoming administration. All of which strongly suggest that Tesla stock's P/E can't be sustained - no stock can sustain a P/E more than twice the industry average without financial performance to support it. Only an idiot would believe that P/E can be sustained long term on that basis and without an improvement in it's earnings. At some point, without huge earnings increases, the game of musical chairs will stop, and some will be left without a seat. That you rolled the dice and won means nothing except exactly that - you rolled the dice and won, and that there are a lot of other people rolling the dice on the hype and hoping they jump off before the stock regresses to the mean. It's insane to think that investors will continue to pay +2x for the same dollar of profit they can buy from 499 other companies. It's like saying a Ponzi scheme can last forever. It even makes less sense when you know that EVs are facing tough headwinds right now. Sales are down, prices are down. That's not a recipe for better earnings. It's not even the biz strategy of the internet stocks that accepted losing money for a long time as they locked in massive market share knowing they could monetize after they controlled the market (FB, Google, et al). That's not to say that Musk won't pull something out his rear to create a new source of earnings, but there's nothing to suggest that, in fact, today. It's simply buying into a belief in Musk. And, I've never said to buy or not buy. I'm simply pointing out those truths. No different than buying BitCoin - there's no financial basis for doing that, it's all just a Ponzi play with literally no earnings to support the valuation at all. BitCoin is only worth, can only be worth, what people "believe" it's worth.
He's pretty upfront with his plans. No reason to guess. And yeah, Wall St. doesn't seem worried about it. On the other hand, you have to guess what the Fed is going to do. I expect it'll try to keep rates as high as it can, which will defeat Wall St and consumer confidence.
i believe the musk/trump relationship is an indicator of good times in the short term. most stocks are now overvalued because so much cash poors into the market everyday from peoples 401k's and etc. betting on the winners has become much more than financial statements
Your comments are on the money as far as investing in individual stocks and the comparison to betting/gambling rings true also.
Doesn't that turn on how far back you gauge earnings by? And isn't that success in great part because the CEO has foreseen the need of so many ancillary products? Solar products? Massive energy storage facilities powering large swaths of various countries? Satellite connectivity? Massive/largest charging Network? Spaceships to get his satellites into orbit? That is a HUGE generalization. Can't the same thing, for instance, be said of our Fiat dollar that has been floating since the early 1970s? Yet here we are ½ a century later. That too, can't go on forever, equally generalized. Another huge generalization that has been true historically since markets began. Aren't pretty much all Auto Transport compaies in the crapper currently? Last check, w/ few exceptions most manufacturers were looking at 5 to 6 months inventory - languishing in back lots of remote locations. That too has been the roller coaster of the industry since those products became available. For some - the glass is ½ full & others it's ½ empty. In 2009 we invested in Massachusetts battery manufacturer A123 which ultimately went bankrupt. The US let China buy it for pennies on the dollar. We didn't give up on risk-taking & eventually have had more wins than hits. It's the nature of the beast. If it's too hot some will have to get out of the kitchen. .
Tesla has passed through the $400 per share mark today. Not that high since November 2021. Out of the market entirely now. Seller's remorse? Hmmm could have picked up an extra $4,000 if we'd waited a few more days when it was $350 - but that's the nature of the beast. .
True, but the vast majority of 401k funds are invested in mutual funds and ETFs, and not individual stocks. Many 401(k)s don't allow immediate reallocation, so those would be a poor choice for investing in highly volatile, high P/E shares. You need to be able to bail on those shares fast. As I posted above, only 46% of Tesla shares are institutionally owned, i.e. mutual funds and ETFs, so that's not where all that money is going. It'd really be a poor choice for 401(K), almost malpractice for the fund manager.
TBC, I don't invest in stocks. Game is rigged, IMHO. And I'm not even very knowledgeable and would never claim to be, Just common sense and objective observation. For example, I see the headlines about Walgreen's today. Without any research, it sounds like a real estate play to me, like when Eddie Lampert bought Kmart, but that's not what the analysts are saying. Time will tell, but I wouldn't be betting on the company growing very fast.
Our Fidelity 401K was through Disney's measly 2% max contribution. We could put it into risky stocks, low yield markets, or historically safer stocks - which is what we did. Between Market highs and lows over the decades we barely bested inflation by just a tad. Fidelity would take days & days to get our wealth released & in the market free fall, that's not good. Now the Lions share is invested in insurance annuities. They are guaranteed income unless the country (and the fed) completely collapses. Got to play it just a tad safer now that we are into retirement years. .
Hmm, what do you think those punches would be? I've never understood how Democrats could get caught running a shadow government behind senile Joe and claim to worry about others threatening democracy. Maybe if Biden was like Reagan and only went senile in the last year of his term, but the Dems were literally trying to run him again - a senile dementia patient. It's like the Weekend at Bernie's presidency. And then screwing all their primary voters over with the Harris switch, who never received a single vote to be nominee. Literally making a mockery of the nomination process with the excuse that the Biden drop-out was a huge surprise and they didn't have time to do it any other way. Everyone knows they all knew he was senile - how could they not? And the Republicans were saying that was exactly the Dem's plan way back in Jan/Feb. Everyone in DC knew what was coming, and they still did it. smh IMHO, those are treasonous acts. But what do you think Trump can do? He can't run again, he's a lame duck from day 1. Do you really think he's going to stage a revolution and name himself King? That's TDS land.
i'm not smart enough to even conceive what they might do, but i trust them to come up with something spectacular that will blast musks adventures into the next century and provide trump with everything his heart desires. i don't agree that he's a lame duck, but time will tell.
I got screwed big time in an employer's re-fi, after literally saving the company so it could re-fi. Without my monster sale to Lockheed Martin, they would have gone bankrupt - that's not an exaggeration. But I did close the deal, and they were able to recapitalize the company. All the employees got to buy the new shares with our 401k money and they promptly went up 500%. But, it was a shark who bought the shares, with some friends to hide what they were doing, and got controlling interest. Then, they took over. Surprised everyone, fired the CEO and other execs. Sold enough of their shares at the 500% profit to make money and keep control. Then, they let the shares drop. All the old employees had a waiting period before we could sell and ended up making very little on them. They also fired me to get out of the $900k they owed me. I sued but had to settle for half bc I didn't have the money to fight. I quit trying after that. Cost me my marriage, my career, the big house I bought because I'd be able to pay if off immediately. Ugly time in my life. That was the 4th company that fired me after I was their Salesman of the Year. I've had several other sales buddies who had the same kinda thing happen. Oracle owed my best friend $1.5m for closing a $75m deal and fired him. I quit sales and finished my career as Corp Dir of Marcomm for a Fortune 500, but got hosed again when the CEO I reported to got fired in the backdating of options scandal back in '05. I'm retired and happy though now. Ate some 'shrooms in Amsterdam that completely changed my outlook on life. It was amazing.
