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Great! and Musk hopes for a launch in India this summer. Bad news for $TSLA short sellers. They have piled up more than $9 billion. http://finance.yahoo.com/ne

• artursapek 10y ago
  It seems like TSLA is one of the most tirelessly shorted stocks out there. Why are there so many people betting against them?
  • Fej 10y ago
    Tesla is going up against an old, entrenched industry. Competitors have been around for many decades. Their odds have been slim. They have made mistakes. But it's looking better for them as time goes on.
    • 2curious 10y ago
      Somehow reminds me of Tucker Corp.
  • sandworm101 10y ago
    Because they are a fledgling car company. Those are generally doomed. A few wrong moves, a few bad models, and you disappear. Either that or one of the established companies uses their resources to launch at competing product. Frankly, the likes of Honda and Toyota are probably laughing at tesla. Once their ducks are all lined up their size will allow them to produce electric cars at an insane scale. Shortsellers bet on this happening sooner than later and have so far lost that bet. But that doesn't mean it cannot happen tomorrow. Telsa is still on a knife's edge, will be for a decade or more. Tesla knows this an so is trying to leverage its battery know-how into other fields, a hedge against a decent honda electric hitting the US market.
    • deepGem 10y ago
      Yep. I am a Tesla shareholder and the growing short interest makes owning the stock all the more exciting. Just because Toyota, Honda and the like manufacture gasoline cars at a large scale, one cannot postulate that they will overnight produce electric cars at the same scale. Assembly line retooling is a big deal.
      • yessql 10y ago
        It's the batteries. Tesla has a big lead over other OEMs in battery cost. This is obvious in the energy storage space. Also, if some new battery tech comes out, then Tesla will get their hands on it, being half the world's battery supply.
        • Gustomaximus 10y ago
          Plus alternates. Toyota is pushing strongly for Hydrogen. And if petrol station chains are forward thinking they will encourage this too. Electric is too easy to make the petrol station redundant. If I was Caltex/Shell/BP/Exxon etc I would be forming a group to drive support to hydrogen, both via govt and manufacturers. Should consumers largely go electric not many people will turn up to their shops any more.
          • bjarneh 10y ago
            It is going to be difficult to make money with hydrogen filling stations; both liquid and compressed hydrogen come with huge challenges in terms of transportation and storage. Petrol stations will not make much money on electricity if they install chargers, but they will sell a lot of food to customers waiting to charge, even "supercharging" is quite slow..
            • Gustomaximus 10y ago
              Food/waiting thing is a good point but I imagine the bulk of people, if electric, will charge overnight and rarely need out-of-home power. According to wiki the cost to put in Hydrogen fueling infrastructure would be about 20% of electric: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_station
  • closeparen 10y ago
    TSLA is one of the most hyped companies out there. To vindicate the short-sellers, TSLA doesn't have to flop, it simply has to justify slightly less exuberance.
    • s0ulphire 10y ago
      I'm very new to the stocks game so excuse what's probably a simple question, but would vindicating the short-sellers require TSLA shares to drop back down to around $180-190 or whatever level they were at before the shorts were in place?
      • fnbr 10y ago
        Yes, exactly. Ideally (for the short-sellers) the stock would fall even further, as if the stock is at the exact level it was when they bought, then they'll only break even.
        • laichzeit0 10y ago
          It would have to fall more than that to make up the interest they're paying on the shares they borrowed as well as brokerage fees.
          • fnbr 10y ago
            With current interest rates, it wouldn't have to fall much more, but yes. Plus opportunity cost, and a return to compensate for the risk [1], etc. [1] It's very risky to short a stock as you can end up losing a very large amount of money, as stocks can increase many times in value. When holding a stock, your risk is finite, as it can only lose 100% of it's value. When shorting, the stock can double or triple in price.
            • kgwgk 10y ago
              > With current interest rates, Borrowing costs for TSLA stock have been over 20% annualized (I don't know the current situation).
  • yessql 10y ago
    Because the valuation is insane. Tesla is worth as much as Nissan, yet has no sign of the ability to turn a profit. I have a hundred shares. I wouldn't bet against Elon.
    • pseudometa 10y ago
      But they do turn a profit... then turn around and invest in growth.
      • vkou 10y ago
        Only via particularly tortured accounting.
        • _ph_ 10y ago
          No, the profit after all investment costs is thin and may depend on accounting, but the car production itself produces the money they are investing into e.g. the Gigafactory.
          • dragontamer 10y ago
            Tesla sold stock several times to fund the Gigafactory. Then they got Panasonic to pay for half of the Gigafactory. That's not from profits, that's from shareholder investments. Its the power of the stock market to dump money into an asset. But don't pretend that Tesla managed to scrap together like $3 Billion from their years of operating losses. https://media.ycharts.com/charts/aa2e00215ae08b27274cafbb493fd6e8.png https://media.ycharts.com/charts/aa2e00215ae08b27274cafbb493... Here's Tesla's stock offerings, diluting Tesla shareholder value: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/tesla-to-offer-2-billion-in-stock-to-meet-model-3-production-goal.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/tesla-to-offer-2... http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/15/investing/tesla-stock-offering/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/15/investing/tesla-stock-offeri... http://ir.tesla.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=927533 http://ir.tesla.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=927533
• goseeastarwar 10y ago
  Bought 200 TSLA @ $90, sold half when the price doubled, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Thanks Elon!
• 2sk21 10y ago
  Given the bad (although improving) power situation in India, its mind boggling that they are even trying to sell their cars there.
  • isolli 10y ago
    India is a diverse country. You would be surprised at how many (in absolute numbers) are richer than you or me. E.g. http://www.forbes.com/india-billionaires/list/#tab:overall http://www.forbes.com/india-billionaires/list/#tab:overall
  • konschubert 10y ago
    The people that they are selling to are not the people that are affected by power cuts.
  • geodel 10y ago
    They can definitely sell. It is upto buyers figure out how to charge. Considering the prices it is almost certain most Tesla sold there would be chauffeur driven. So it would not be big deal once the owner/family is dropped to work/shopping/home driver can spend hrs in getting car charged.
    • 2sk21 10y ago
      Agree about the chauffeur but consider that many wealthy people have diesel generators to handle power cuts. Would it really make sense to charge an electric car from a diesel generator?