

Tesla Posts Surprise Profit - zdean
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100946535

======
chatmasta
Tesla is building the infrastructure for a supercharger network. If Tesla has
any common sense at all, eventually all electric cars, not just Tesla's, will
depend on this network. To me, this makes TSLA an obvious buy. Who cares if
Tesla sells any of its own cars? It will control the national, and likely
global, infrastructure for all electric cars in the future. That is worth a
lot of money.

I'm young. I have $4,000 in my IRA account. Based on my earning potential, in
15 years $4,000 will mean relatively nothing to me. So it's in my best
interest to invest in high-risk, high-reward stocks with my current funds. I
am going to invest 100% of this $4,000 in TSLA. I'm in this for the long play,
and I believe in the company.

~~~
turkeybone
Yes, when you're younger you (general you) typically are less risk-averse, so
you can invest in these high risk high reward stocks.

That being said, whether it's TSLA or AAPL or some other "sure thing,"
exposing yourself to such a large amount of unsystematic risk isn't really
wise. What if Elon Musk dies tomorrow? What if a plant catches on fire? Then
your $4,000 could be decimated. Yes $4,000 will not mean much to you in 15
years, but compound interest average returns for 15 years hopefully should.

I love TSLA and I have money invested, but I don't think it's wise to be 100%
in anything, no matter what it is.

~~~
chatmasta
$4,000 compounded at 5% interest in 15 years is $8,315. (Ignoring further
additions to the IRA, since those are irrelevant to current decisions). $8,315
will be about as meaningless to me in 15 years as $4,000.

------
mikestew
I'm curious why the expectation was a loss of 17 cents. TSLA made a profit
last quarter, what changed to not expect some of the same this quarter? As
most (if not all) of the pre-orders are filled, perhaps there was worry that
folks wouldn't buy them off the "showroom" floor?

Oh, well, I obviously thought differently as I bought call options yesterday,
as well as held on to the shares we already have. And I'm glad I did. :-)

~~~
turkeybone
Well, profit was not expected last quarter either, and analysts are generally
pretty slow to act. Also there may be various cyclical or one-time charges
involved; a negative income isn't necessarily a sign of being down on a stock.
Especially comparing this quarter to last year's same.

