And I stand firm by my comment: Elon should be banned from talking at ERs - Zach should do all the talking.
Product road-maps, etc. should be given alternative platform where Elon can talk. He does so anyways on Twitter to his 71M followers, podcasts, interviews etc.
To be clear: I am 100% all-in on TSLA. It is the only stock I own and, apart from my home, my only asset.
My ASP is in the $170 region and I've never sold a share - I would suggest that this qualifies me as a HODLer, especially in the eyes of the "if you don't like it, sell" crowd here.
I have a full-time job, a family with two kids, and I trade options on TSLA to generate additional income. I use a part of this income to add to my TSLA position. I always make bullish trades - means, I am bullish on TSLA and attempt to profit from those that are not. If anyone cares, you can head over to the other thread and see my posts there - I'm not a high-risk trader.
In the days leading up to ER, the close we got, the number of you here - and many of the long-term, high frequency posters included - were posting (humorous?) comments about being afraid of what would happen if Elon said the wrong thing during the ER.
And then he goes and does just that - and a critical post on just the carnage that that caused is shot down by the very same posters.
I really think many of us who are on TMC a lot forget that we are in this hyper-informed, hyper-concentrated microcosmos of Tesla / TSLA. The amount of information (good and bad) that is disseminated here is staggering. It is far beyond what 99% of TSLA investors have access to. It provides outstanding levels of depth and insight, and a truly 4D-chess level of differing views and opinions. Some of you have been HODL'ing since IPO (or before?), some of you worked in meaningful positions at TSLA, some of you have had very long lives with impressive experience which you share here, the very large majority of us are fanbois of Elon, Tesla, SpaceX etc (myself included), and we all believe that this is the single greatest company of our times and the investment of a life-time. I do not believe Elon is responsible for generating or losing my income. That is on me.
A generational investment. I buy TSLA for the benefit of my kids.
I stand by my opinion that for 99% of investors out there, the TMC microcosmos of information does NOT inform their decision making.
Institutionals, analysts, etc. base the majority of their opinion on dry numbers presented in ERs etc. , and the media (which as we all agree is predominantly biased against Tesla - and let's not talk politics) provides the color to the mass of TSLA investors. We are not the mass.
As such, when Elon comes on an ER call - which ostensibly has the purpose of periodically informing shareholders on Tesla's financial performance along with income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheets, usually comparing QoQ or YoY, and providing an outlook for the next period - and talks over the topic on hand, everyone on TMC goes nuts, because this is exactly the information we like to receive, we need to hear, it confirms our bull-cases and opinions.
It does not translate well to the actual audience of the ER call. It does not translate well to 99% of investors that consume this information through the media.
The result is that the consumers of this media read: Robots!?, FSD, no Cybertruck, no cheap Tesla, production is hard, supply chain issues. And we experience carnage the day after ER, over 10% down, uptick-rule triggered. Yes, a lot of this is macro and algos (that feed off of the ER and media - 100% not off of posts on TMC), short-sellers, market-makers, bears, hedge-funds, etc. But at the end of the day, there are more sellers than buyers and so the SP is obliterated. Folks that are new shareholders in TSLA see their holdings in negative territory.
These consumers of media do not read: $2.8BN cash flow, 50% YoY growth, $2.87 EPS (if you back out the one-times), over 50% growth projections, the highest margin of all automakers, an unbelievable average cost of production per car, no more cell constraints, two other GigaFactories opening soon - I could go on, but all of you know this better than I do.
So, allow me - and those that did not downvote or ridicule my post - an angry opinion on what was a disastrous earnings call, if measured by the purpose of an earnings call. A call that should have been run by Zach and focussed on the stellar results and the stellar outlook, and should have provided honest, market-calming answers to the questions posed. By shareholders.
The market does not get Robotaxis, FSD, Optimus sub-prime. The market does not want vaporware. The market wants to see in the dry boring numbers a reasonable, plausible way to calculate the projected 50% YoY growth that was presented, based on tangible goods and services they can see Tesla selling today.
