I’ve been thinking for a while about trying to be aware of how ideas or thoughts enter my awareness. I am not convinced that I have much original thought, so much is influenced by what is going on around me. Quiet times of reflection are few and outside messages remain. I am not sure how imaginative I can be, even if placed into a meditative environment conducive to stillness. Some of this is best observed in others as I am able to critique them or observe their thoughts better than my own. One of the areas that has provided a clear example of this is the opinions the world has of Tesla. As one who has obsessed over this company, at minimum since original roadster days, it is interesting to hear opinions of others and how clearly they lack original thought, and seem spit out by whatever media blurb they have caught onto. An easy sample of this just yesterday were neighbors talking about the ugly cybertruck or another neighbor that sounded more knowledgeable really just reiterating what sensational news media have said of late. Such opinions of the neighbors were stated as if that is what they thought, believed, but were really the exact stuff put out by popular press. Another example of this unoriginal thought by others comes from a group of generally well versed investors over at bogle heads. They post an annual hedge fund contest. Looking back at the 2019 contest it was amazing to see how many were short Tesla. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=268324&start=200 I don’t blame these folks, I don’t blame the peanut gallery of hacks here, just as well as I am not sure I can take credit for being long, holding all year, buying more all year. I’d really like to better understand how original thoughts permeate my brain and i’d Like to better control them apart from media.
Timing is everything, honeybun. In the first 5 months Tesla went from 320 to 180, a pretty decent return for any shorters. Now if anyone thought it would go to zero, that is their fault, but the point is that realistic shorts made money in 2019. If you were TSLA long a year ago, you didn't break even until late October....
Thinking the Tesla truck or the Aztek is ugly isn't being unoriginal. It's just a semi-universal truth. you didn't really make much in 2018 if you parked your money there. I don't really see the reason for the valuation jumping so high all of the sudden but haven't really kept up w/news much. Is it bound to head back to 200$ as quickly?
I am not convinced that many shorts closed out profitable trades. Certainly nobody in the contest posted exited their shorts. Their has also been someone here suggest a friend blew out on their TSLA short. Did anyone short TSLA and close out a gain? To be fair, most of my positions are in SP500 index funds which beat out holding TSLA long all year by about 5%.
No need to be defensive on what's blatantly observable on the graph. How many on here have exited on these Tesla tops for instance? The answer doesn't matter, as it still wouldn't change what's observable.