TSLA % of Your Portfolio

[Jonathan Hewitt]

Forgive me for being ignorant since I never followed gtat. But what was the result of your research on GTAT's CEO?

If you aren't being sarcastic he had run a prior company close to bankruptcy. I had the belief that after doing something like that once you wouldn't do it again as most people who function at an above average level learn from their mistakes. Huge mistake.

I guess the point here is that it's not enough to do the research, you have to make the right analysis of you reserach (aka not be an idiot like me).

 

[Causalien]

Not sarcasm. I just need data for my brain.
I base my investment decisions solely on the CEO

 

[Jonathan Hewitt]

Not sarcasm. I just need data for my brain.
I base my investment decisions solely on the CEO

Just making sure as sarcasm can be hard to read online sometimes. Some people like to play Monday morning quarterback and it all looks so obvious in hindsight. It sucks bringing back up poor investment decisions but I think it's important to learn from and want others to learn from my mistakes, too.

I didn't think CEO's played that big of a deal but now I have to agree with you. If I had placed a bigger emphasis on who the CEO was and his history I probably wouldn't have invested a dime in them.

 

[spentan]

Gtat was one I was researching for a while too. Everything looked ok. Bought in at 17ish, sold out at 12. Just thought I'd cut my losses. Have a look again and it's dropped to 0.20.

Dodged a bullet,

 

[linkster]

I'm merely overweight in TSLA, and I justify that because I have substantially better information about the company than the market

Same thinking (rightly or wrongly) here as down-easter Robert.

40% TSLA
28% VOO, QQQ
32% SCTY, FSLR, AAPL, TASR, MBLY

i will shift back towards a 50-75% stake in VOO, QQQ over the next 5 years to make it idiot (me) proof

 

[theschnell]

TSLA is the only stock I own. However, I am invested in a real estate partnership, have a significant amount (percentage wise) in cash, and hold a small minority position in a non-public company. So when taking all that into account, my investment in TSLA is around 13%. Right now I feel incredibly underexposed to TSLA. I have brought it up with my wife multiple times, requesting to buy more, but she is not ready to do so. I will continue to bug her about it. We both have retirement accounts at work, and we have a college fund for both of the boys, significant equity in house for our age, so we are not anywhere close to betting the farm, so to speak. As I said, I feel very underexposed. I will be buying more. I may have to wait until TSLA hits $300 so she can taste some success and get a little greedy (our basis is around $230). In the very long-term, the difference between a basis of $300 and $230 is going to be relatively small, if things go the way most of us expect it to. One way or another, I will be buying more.

 

[dmckinstry]

To clarify your intent, is the % of total wealth, liquid wealth, or something else?

In my case, it's the current cash value of my portfolio. That includes stock in my IRA, my ROTH IRA, Scottrade, and the rest (which is not managed by me).
Keep in mind that 3 years ago, the number of shares of TSLA was about twice as many. I sold about half the shares to pay for my Model S. However, the percent of the cash value of TSLA in my portfolio was about 25%.

P.S. I answered 61-70%.

 

[AlMc]

Not sarcasm. I just need data for my brain.
I base my investment decisions solely on the CEO

What are your thoughts on the CEO of Solar City?

I am also a casualty of GTAT. Luckily after their last ER I sold all my stock at a slight loss and held onto $10K worth of options which I recouped enough on to buy a Venti vanilla latte at Starbucks.

 

[xhawk101]

I thought I was overweight TSLA. Have about 8% of portfolio in it.

 

[glhs272]

oops, misread the question. It's about 50% of my stock portfolio. I guess I lack creativity in stock picks. Just TSLA & SCTY 50:50.

 

[Causalien]

What are your thoughts on the CEO of Solar City?

I am also a casualty of GTAT. Luckily after their last ER I sold all my stock at a slight loss and held onto $10K worth of options which I recouped enough on to buy a Venti vanilla latte at Starbucks.

I did not do any research on them. It takes on average 1 month to do this, since they are two, it will be 2 months. As some of you remembered a bit after in IPO day when I joined. It involves a lot of analysis of their video, history and upbringing in order to have a model of their personality. Elon's was very straight forward as most of his life is public so I didn't have to pay anybody for info.

Like we all knew before it was a once in a lifetime company. TSLA forced to IPO before they were ready. Usually a small shady $2 bil companies are run by small shady CEOs

- - - Updated - - -

TSLA is the only stock I own. However, I am invested in a real estate partnership, have a significant amount (percentage wise) in cash, and hold a small minority position in a non-public company. So when taking all that into account, my investment in TSLA is around 13%. Right now I feel incredibly underexposed to TSLA. I have brought it up with my wife multiple times, requesting to buy more, but she is not ready to do so. I will continue to bug her about it. We both have retirement accounts at work, and we have a college fund for both of the boys, significant equity in house for our age, so we are not anywhere close to betting the farm, so to speak. As I said, I feel very underexposed. I will be buying more. I may have to wait until TSLA hits $300 so she can taste some success and get a little greedy (our basis is around $230). In the very long-term, the difference between a basis of $300 and $230 is going to be relatively small, if things go the way most of us expect it to. One way or another, I will be buying more.

I recommend reading the GTAT forum. And also about Zacky on Apple before you go any further.

 

[theschnell]

"I recommend reading the GTAT forum. And also about Zacky on Apple before you go any further."[/QUOTE]

I've generally heard about GTAT and its epic demise, but I have not read the forums. What do you mean by "Zacky on Apple"?

 

[winfield100]

have a substantial amount of my stock portfolio in TSLA, SCTY, WLCDF (5 lenses of Li N of Reno) and ALB, another co that bought ?rockwood? who specialize in Li. 8% in stocks, rest much safer investments, but weighted TSLA (80%, SCTY (12%, ALB 7%, WLCDF (tiny bit)

 

[Causalien]

"I recommend reading the GTAT forum. And also about Zacky on Apple before you go any further."

I've generally heard about GTAT and its epic demise, but I have not read the forums. What do you mean by "Zacky on Apple"?[/QUOTE]

Andy Zacky.

 

[Jonathan Hewitt]

I recommend reading the GTAT forum. And also about Zacky on Apple before you go any further.

Thanks, that is much better reading than "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options" as far as understanding how things can and do go horribly wrong.

I hadn't heard about Zacky before but after reading a writeup it's very similar to what happened with GTAT.

I think we do a pretty good job here at TMC from ending up in a similar scenario but it's something that can't be taken for granted and we must be on guard for at all times.

 

[AlMc]

Thanks, that is much better reading than "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options" as far as understanding how things can and do go horribly wrong.

I hadn't heard about Zacky before but after reading a writeup it's very similar to what happened with GTAT.

I think we do a pretty good job here at TMC from ending up in a similar scenario but it's something that can't be taken for granted and we must be on guard for at all times.

Some very smart people from this forum (while I lost some $ it was a small amount...and I am not smart:wink were heavily into GTAT. One of our best previous TMC analyst was one of them.
While TM/TSLA has increased my paper wealth substantially I would never go 'all in'......a black swan event can hit any company.

 

[theschnell]

Very interesting reading. I appreciate the caution. I know I sounded exuberant in my previous post, but I do realize any company or any investment strategy can fail. However, right now, with 13% in TSLA, I'm losing more sleep thinking about how mad I will be in 10 years when its worth 10 times its current value, than I am thinking how mad I'll be if it goes to zero. I have had at least one investment go to zero. It was some solar company, I can't think of its name right now. But it was a small amount. Right now I could lose all that I have invested in TSLA and it would only be somewhat painful, but no where near devastating. I feel like I could risk a little more, and still bear the financial pain of a black swan event without it being destructive to my financial or emotional health. I guess I feel the risk of missing out is still, for me, greater than the risk of it going to zero, and the risk of me kicking myself from missing the upside is greater than the risk of kicking myself if tesla were to somehow fail. I have been averaging in to TSLA and stalking this forum for over a year now, so I feel I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into.

 

[Causalien]

Very interesting reading. I appreciate the caution. I know I sounded exuberant in my previous post, but I do realize any company or any investment strategy can fail. However, right now, with 13% in TSLA, I'm losing more sleep thinking about how mad I will be in 10 years when its worth 10 times its current value, than I am thinking how mad I'll be if it goes to zero. I have had at least one investment go to zero. It was some solar company, I can't think of its name right now. But it was a small amount. Right now I could lose all that I have invested in TSLA and it would only be somewhat painful, but no where near devastating. I feel like I could risk a little more, and still bear the financial pain of a black swan event without it being destructive to my financial or emotional health. I guess I feel the risk of missing out is still, for me, greater than the risk of it going to zero, and the risk of me kicking myself from missing the upside is greater than the risk of kicking myself if tesla were to somehow fail. I have been averaging in to TSLA and stalking this forum for over a year now, so I feel I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into.

Here's the question you need to ask. You have 1 mil. By retirement they will probably grow to 3 mil. 3 mil and 10 mil will not make much of a lifestyle difference in retirement. If you are risking 1 mil. It means you will probably never get 1 mil in returement , let alone 3 mil. Is what you are risking now going to prevent you feom at least having 1 mil?

 

[Cattledog]

We need another choice that states "% going up every day"

 

[c041v]

What are your thoughts on the CEO of Solar City?

I am also a casualty of GTAT. Luckily after their last ER I sold all my stock at a slight loss and held onto $10K worth of options which I recouped enough on to buy a Venti vanilla latte at Starbucks.

Another survivor here. My losses were small in magnitude compared to some of the Contrarians, and I wasn't as heavily into it as other were. Still a very painful period and I keep getting the message when I try to sell my $10K 'worth' of options that "The commission from this transaction will exceed the net proceeds." or something to that effect. That glaring, unsellable shipwreck in my account is a sobering reminder to keep my risk tolerance in check. I've since reshaped my strategy and nibbled back into TSLA.

It's a small percentage (maybe 5-10%, if that) overall now. I'll be increasing it over time, but I've also bought a significant amount of my company's private stock, which has eaten up all free cash.