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Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

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Nope. The revenue from capturing 100% of the NN training market even if it was 10x the size now would not be that much. Tesla built a very good neural chip and Dojo has the potential to be great, but others are doing well in this space too. Tesla will not get anything more then 50% of the NN trading market. Most neural network training can be done on available equipment and does not need Dojo.

I would think Tesla’s Dojo , battery and network building experience will make Tesla robotics a much bigger deal then Dojo alone.

Tesla robotics?
 
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I always considered myself a super bull on Tesla, but the stock has gone up considerably faster than myself and pretty much everyone else imagined. I have several thoughts around this topic, but my general idea is that we have a massive conservative bias with our Tesla predictions.

Take a look back at some of the old super-bull predictions, which now seem like bear predictions: Super Bulls Only

Or take a look at ARKs 7000EV (1400) by 2024 target... starting to look kind of low, especially with FSD looking much closer now than people thought.

I think the reason for having a conservative bias is:
* Unconscious absorption of FUD
* Expecting the past flat period from 200-300SP to repeat, instead of realising we are on an S curve of ramping
* Struggling to imagine the scale of Tesla/EVs/renewables
* Struggling to imagine the new tech, and the changes they bring
* Underestimating FSD and more specifically the effectiveness of computation scale on AI (May 2020 news & 'On GPT-3' · Gwern.net)
* Not wanting to sound crazy

I think the most accurate predictions of Tesla will be top down based on total addressable market, across all the markets they are touching, with massive margins, growth and market share. From EVs, to AWS for AI and all 15-20 or so industries in between. In this regard you can think of Tesla as 15-20 companies, all which can end up leading their fields. 550B might seem like a lot now, but really it's just 20 companies undervalued at 30B each. Some of those startups perhaps could be valued at 550B alone... most notably FSD.

It has been on my todo list to attempt sizing up these markets and assigning a large percentage of them to Tesla. For now though, I can say the potential upside is so much higher than I see anyone putting numbers to.

I would like to see an analysis where:
* Tesla gets to FSD in next 2 years with high probability and has 5 years with no competition in FSD
* Tesla batteries/energy/EVs grows 20% faster than predicted at battery day
* Solar scales at similarly rapid rates
* Tesla's DoJo supercomputer and NN training farm has a bigger value than Amazon's AWS
* Decade long predictions take into account acceleration change: Accelerating change - Wikipedia
* And comprehensive valuation of all the other startup components like insurance, chip design, seats, etc.

Taking all this into account, I can see a case for a current SP of 2000-3000. I may sound crazy now, but check back in 5-10 years and see whether I was crazy, or perhaps even bearish in my outlook. Perhaps even 1-2 years will prove me right. I should say I am not 100% confident on any of these super-bull predictions, they are complete guesses and I haven't done the top down analysis which I think is needed to most accurately predict the 10 year stock price. It's not really necessary for a buy and hold investor like me.

However, I did want to point out a historical collective bearish shortcoming in predicting Tesla and TSLA.

Been a while since I've visited but just needed to say:

Wow. Incredible post. Glad more people know who Gwern is.

Anyway, I'm not selling even after today's, the week's, the month's, the year's SP action. You need to think a lot bigger if you're going to get my shares.
 
Tesla robotics?
A self driving car is a robot. The same kind of neural network structure amplified will probably power the first practical home robots. While I know of no work by Tesla in this field, Tesla is positioned to enter into this field in the future. And home robots could be the price of an expensive car. First sold to the rich.
 
Is there any way this can't keep going up until Dec 21? With a guaranteed pull back after that?

Only if history repeats:

8 days in August:

sc.TSLA.50-DayChart.2020-08-21.20-00.png

8 days in November:

sc.TSLA.50-DayChart.2020-11-27.20-00.png

Hint: the August run was 15 days (not 8), and was fueled by just $5B in forced buying (not $50B).

TL;dr We're just about half way into this run. And the end is Dec 24, not Dec 21 (Index funds can buy +/- 3 days of the effective inclusion date)

Cheers!
 
Does it turn long stock that was held long enough for long term capital gains tax into short term capital gains when those calls convert ?

Nope.

If you sold a call and it gets assigned you are required to sell them 100 shares at the strike price- how long you held those shares before said sale is how long you held em- the option aspect has no bearing on that.

In fact- even better-In a case where you get exercised- you add the premium you received when you wrote the call to the proceeds from the sale of the underlying asset at the strike price.

Your holding period for the underlying asset determines whether you treat the capital gain or loss as short- or long-term.

So you get to threat the premium as long-term cap gains if the underlying shares sold were as well.... (unlike if the option you sold expires worthless in which case the gain is short term no matter how long ago you wrote the option).
 
Very few will buy an ICE due to brand loyalty, when they want an EV. if they can't get an EV, many will simply delay purchase, that should be a trend 2025-2035.

Those buying an ICE in 2030 are people that want an ICE even though gas stations are closing, fast chargers are everywhere, and EVs are better than ICE on every single metric, including purchase price. The word for that is hobbyist, or someone with a strong sense of nostalgia.

Exactly. We speak of a lot here of Tesla trying not to "Osborne" sales of one product with another, newer, better product. But the real Osborne effect is that EV's Osborne traditional ICE autos as people gradually figure out how superior an EV is to ICE. That is why legacy auto is dragging their feet on offering compelling EV's.

Tony Seba, someone who has extensively studied technological disruption over the decades, has graphed what is (very) likely to occur with new car sales as people become aware that gasoline cars are slow, stinky and weak. Undesirable, overly expensive for what you get and inconvenient. Guess what? A shortage of EV's does not cause people to buy a car that will soon be worthless, it causes them to wait. New car sales will drop while EV sales continue to climb as people defer paying a lot of money for yesterdays technology and capabilities.

All this Tesla "competition" that the idiots continue to say will be here any day now will never really arrive. Don't get me wrong, the EV's will arrive but they won't impact Tesla sales, they will displace gasoline car sales. That's why they are taking so long to get here. They are not competitive with Tesla based on features/price and to make them competitive with gasoline cars requires the makers of these EV's to sell them at slimmer margins than they can achieve on their gas cars. What this means is that EV's really are likely to have well over 50% of new car sales by 2030. Because as the cost to make an EV continues it's historic decline, it will be much easier to make an EV that is competitive with ICE (which are becoming slightly more expensive to make each year). There is no chance these cost curves are about to reverse and thus sales of ICE vehicles are soon to be relegated to a niche market regardless of the potential lack of any government regulations or subsidies (however unlikely). It's a good thing that modern ICE cars can actually often run 200,000 miles without major overhaul. Because as electrification takes over the auto market it will get to the point where most ICE cars still on the road are old beater ICE cars. At that point they will probably be legislated away as the toxic nuisances they are.
 
Something that I hadn’t thought about until your post, Tesla robotaxis will probably us AI, like their Autobidder. Therefore, the taxi fleet will always be properly spaced and located to minimize travel time and distance to the next predicted clients. Perhaps, the fleet will be so efficient that most pick ups will be nearly instantaneous. With camera vision, maybe one will even slow down, and wait for that stupid, slow human to finish typing the request into the app.;):cool:
I foresee a time when I'm better at scheduling on my calendar and the system calculates when the Robotaxi should be at my door. It might even urge me to hurry-up because a traffic delay has been detected and I might be late. I rarely ever "call" for a Robotaxi it just knows when and where to be to haul me and my goods from one place to another. They don't even need to be close, they just need to know when to arrive. I think it would be cheaper to wait for me if I dawdle than to strategically place a bunch of cars "just in case."
 
This is from a few years ago - but they have done it before.

Canada Revenue Agency says it's still auditing high-balance TFSAs | Financial Post

"The tax agency contends that some Canadians are operating their TFSAs like a business and has set up eight criteria that can lead to an audit including frequency of trading, period of ownership, knowledge of securities markets, trading experience and time spent on an account. Some of those criteria tend to penalize people in the securities industry, say critics."

Im not an accountant, so perhaps some accountants like @st_lopes can chime in on this ?

A high balance in a TFSA could get you some attention (I suspect mine will). Though the bar for CRA to be able to recategorize your gains as taxable is fairly high. Note that the outcome of such a re-categorization is worse than just going from non taxable to capital gain treatment (eg 50% of gain being taxable), but rather they would treat the gains as business income (fully taxable).

In essence they would need to prove that you are trading on the account of income, or in other words that you have undertaken a business within the TFSA, which the examples you’ve listed would all be considerations.

Generally speaking those rules (which predate TFSA’s and are more commonly applied when trying to recategorize capital gains as business income) were designed to prevent realtors, professional money managers, and day traders from getting preferential tax treatment on their gains where their primary employment was already in that specific industry.

Where you are a passive HODLer, or even a more active investor with options and weeklies (though the line does get blurred here), but you continue to have a primary source of income unrelated to your investing, you’re generally on the safe side of that interpretation. Though I would suggest getting qualified tax advice if you are worried about that classification.
 
No offense to anyone holding FB, but I can’t understand how it’s STILL worth more than Tesla. It’s basically a webpage with a thumbs-up button and the most complicated logic is that if I know Joey, and Jesus knows Joey, then I know Jesus.

Meanwhile, Tesla is transforming the world and teaching cars to drive themselves. TSLA is clearly not overvalued at this level.

Personally, it's Apple I question the value of. Phone hardware is becoming commodity (how many pixels do you need in your image. Really.) And they don't get "it's the information, stupid" as well as Google. I know the vast majority will disagree with me on this (yeah, about $2T disagree!) Not an Apple hater. I just don't think they have done paradigm shift design in years. My $0.02 worth.
 
Indeed, 4th consequtive day of TSLA ATHs in all 4 categories:
  • Open
  • High
  • Low
  • Close
And, we're now up +43.5% over the past 8 sessions. :D

Cheers!
Yeah, kind of makes all the people saying "Who cares about the S&P? They need Tesla way more than Tesla needs them." look pretty dumb. It's quite clear that TSLA is better off (i.e. higher) now than before the S&P index committee admitted that Tesla exists.
 
Nope.

If you sold a call and it gets assigned you are required to sell them 100 shares at the strike price- how long you held those shares before said sale is how long you held em- the option aspect has no bearing on that.

In fact- even better-In a case where you get exercised- you add the premium you received when you wrote the call to the proceeds from the sale of the underlying asset at the strike price.

Your holding period for the underlying asset determines whether you treat the capital gain or loss as short- or long-term.

So you get to threat the premium as long-term cap gains if the underlying shares sold were as well.... (unlike if the option you sold expires worthless in which case the gain is short term no matter how long ago you wrote the option).

I was thinking of selling January 2022 at the highest strike price in 2 weeks. If I buy to close them after more than a year, you’re saying that it’s still considered a short term gain?
 
Personally, it's Apple I question the value of. Phone hardware is becoming commodity (how many pixels do you need in your image. Really.) And they don't get "it's the information, stupid" as well as Google. I know the vast majority will disagree with me on this (yeah, about $2T disagree!) Not an Apple hater. I just don't think they have done paradigm shift design in years. My $0.02 worth.

IMO innovation establishes market share, brand retains market share.

Apple doesn't (yet) have a disruptive competitor with a superior product, Apple has managed to remain the superior product, though IMO competitors have substantially closed the gap. Unless a competitor is clearly superior, brand will win the day.
Tesla has a similar advantage in EVs, first impressions count, and happy customers are loyal customers.

I'm not sure just a better smart phone is enough to disrupt Apple, it needs to be a better experience.

I still think there is a possible niche for Tesla in phones, with great battery life, great battery longevity, great security, great integration with the Tesla eco-system. But this doesn't relate directly to mission so it is a low priority, or no priority.
I would trust Tesla to produce a better experience, I'm not sure anyone else can, but it is so far down the priority list, that it may never happen.