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Checking in on John Peterson

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Cattledog

Active Member
Supporting Member
Feb 9, 2012
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San Antonio, TX
As many here are aware, John Peterson is a famous naysayer on Seeking Alpha. On April 7/8 John Peterson wrote a Seeking Alpha article entitled, Is Tesla's Gigafactory Becoming a Gigafarce? To refresh your memory, in it he indicated if you invested in TSLA, you would make money 1 time out of 64, break even 1 time out of 64, and lose money 62 times out of 64. In the comments section I asked John to pick 64 data points for verification, and when he didn’t respond, I chose 64 dates being the next 4 Mondays of April and the first Monday of every month from May 2014 until April of 2019. Well, as of today we have 8 data points, with the reference TSLA value being the close on 4/7/14 of 207.52. Here’s the data to date:

Close on 4/7: 207.52
Close on 4/8: 215.46 Gain: +7.94 TSLA wins
Close on 4/14: 198.09 Loss: -9.43 JP wins
Close on 4/21: 204.38 Loss: -3.14 JP wins
Close on 4/28: 198.51 Loss: -9.01 JP wins
Close on 5/5: 216.61 Gain: +9.09 TSLA wins
Close on 6/2: 204.70 Loss: -2.82 JP wins
Close on 7/7: 222.66 Gain: +15.14 TSLA wins
Close on 8/4: 238.52 Gain 31.00 TSLA wins


So TSLA wins 4 and JP wins 4. Wouldn’t be bad for JP except for two things – he said he’d win 62 of 64 times (oops) and as of today, he’s $45 in the hole (oopsx2). I hope none of you invested with him. BTW, John edited out the section of that article where he said TSLA would lose money 62 of 64 times, so don't click there looking for it. Hmmmm…

I'll try to remember to come back monthly to update, but I think the rout is on.
 
He was always unimportant in my mind, except perhaps as a counterindicator of when and how to invest.

I think at one point, he was causing some damage to the brand. Not serious damage. But he got picked up but the investor feeds and such. Now he's just an ankle biter and seems to have become pretty much inconsequential. The best punishment of all, imo.
 
I really enjoy reading Mr. Petersen's articles. Not only do they demonstrate just how nonsensical so many of the short arguments turn out to be, but his articles usually presage a rise in TSLA stock price.
 
He's too busy worrying about his penny stock (that used to not be a penny stock), and trying to come up with reasons why lead acid batteries are superior to lithium ion batteries (good luck with that one, soon even the only advantage they had, cost, will also be gone)
 
Mr. Petersen, also made another pretty inaccurate prediction in the article with characteristically over the board title "Why Tesla's 'Not A Recall Victory Will Crush Q1 Earnings".

Mr. Petersen, accountant by trade and CFO of the ePower Engine Systems according to his Seeking Alfa profile, stated the following: Tesla's total cost for the "not a recall" underbody armoring program will be somewhere in the $20 to $60 million range.

As we all know the "crushing" impact of the under-body shields was around $2M, whopping 10 to 30 times less then predicted by the esteemed accountant (oopsx3).
 
I remember back in a days, when TSLA was below $30 John recommended to short Tesla and to invest in some lead-acid battery company. He was talking about long run, but for few months was creating articles showing how lead acid stock outperformed TSLA. Well, by now that company gone bankrupt and was delisted from exchange. And TSLA is not $30 anymore...
 
As many here are aware, John Peterson is a famous naysayer on Seeking Alpha. On April 7/8 John Peterson wrote a Seeking Alpha article entitled, Is Tesla's Gigafactory Becoming a Gigafarce? To refresh your memory, in it he indicated if you invested in TSLA, you would make money 1 time out of 64, break even 1 time out of 64, and lose money 62 times out of 64.
John might be right, in the following, limited sense: if you took the management teams out of 64 randomly selected Fortune 500 companies, then set them the challenge of executing Tesla's strategy (including the Gigafactory), 62 of those teams would drive down the stock price, one might hold it steady, but only one could make it work.

Good thing that one team is led by Elon and JB. :biggrin:
 
Resurrecting an ancient thread...I thought of JP this morning when I found this in my inbox:

Axion Power Announces 1-for-35 Reverse Stock Split

Company's Common Stock to Begin Trading on Split Adjusted Basis at Open of Market on July 14, 2015
NEW CASTLE, Pa., July 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Axion Power International, Inc. (Nasdaq: AXPW) ("AXION "), a developer of advanced lead-carbon PbC[SUP]®[/SUP] batteries, energy storage systems and frequency regulation systems, today announced that it has effected a 1-for-35 reverse stock split previously approved by the Company's stockholders at a special meeting held on June 17, 2015. The 1-for-35 reverse stock split was effective as of the close of business onJuly 13, 2015 and the Company's common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on Tuesday, July 14, 2015.
Sometimes smart people back the wrong horse, neh?
 
I feel ashamed because I used John Peterson's argument against a hippie's dream of sustainable purely organic farming. Which also made me realize that for any of these dreams of a green and sustainable business model to work, we need to revolutionize transportation first and switch away from coal power.

Well, it really comes down to:
1) Make lots of cheap batteries
2a) Enjoy better world
2b) Keep making renewables cheaper
3) Enjoy way better world

Making lots of electric cars (as opposed to lots and lots) is the key challenge. The rest, as they say, is technology.

(I'm not a technoutopian because people insist on getting in its way).
 
they had previously don a 1:50 split SO 50 x 35 = 1:1,750 reverse split, and it is down 21.5% already today (11am)

Petersen was right that you could make huge returns by buying long on AXPW:
wait for the stock to come close to getting delisted.
buy a single share.
wait for the reverse split.
sell immediately.

If you did that on both reverse splits, the way that they're rounding up, you could have had a rate of return of 5000% in 2014 and 3500% in 2015. You can't do that with TSLA.
Of course, you'd still only have $2.50 (not including brokerage fees).
 
A negative correlation is just as predictive as a positive correlation. Just do the opposite of what JP says and you will do fine!

Again, I thank the shorts for buying my Sig Perf Model S and now look forward for them paying for my Roadster 3.0 in 2018 :tongue:
 
Petersen was right that you could make huge returns by buying long on AXPW:
wait for the stock to come close to getting delisted.
buy a single share.
wait for the reverse split.
sell immediately.

If you did that on both reverse splits, the way that they're rounding up, you could have had a rate of return of 5000% in 2014 and 3500% in 2015. You can't do that with TSLA.
Of course, you'd still only have $2.50 (not including brokerage fees).

Maybe $2.50 isn't a big deal to YOU. I am getting ready for the next reverse split!

edit: on the other hand, I can probably outperform that by buying "forever" postage stamps.