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No, you'd be insane to make bets on Tesla, for the simple reason that there are a lot of people making crazy bets on Tesla. If you want to short TSLA you'd hav

No, you'd be insane to make bets on Tesla, for the simple reason that there are a lot of people making crazy bets on Tesla. If you want to short TSLA you'd have to hold that position long enough for the market to realize that you're right... that may take a long time, and you may not make it.

rumanator 6y ago
> No, you'd be insane to make bets on Tesla, for the simple reason that there are a lot of people making crazy bets on Tesla. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme.
- thefounder 6y ago
  It's more like a lottery because you "know" what you are doing
  - rumanator 6y ago
    > It's more like a lottery because you "know" the what you are doing So do Ponzi-scheme victims.
- harry8 6y ago
  I make no comment at all on TSLA. Shorting a ponzi scheme in general isn't simply a bet that you have correctly identified that the scheme exists. It is a bet on /when/ the scheme will collapse. Dotcom boom 1.0 was called a bubble (different name, same smell) by plenty of people who did their shirts on it. They were right. The valuations of all those dotcoms were ridiculous. I'm not sure many of those stocks are still around. Altavista, yahoo, bajizoobmalimba.com, walkyourdog.com etc etc. Going long you can easily play the long game. "I'm not vindicated yet, but this is good, I can wait." Going short is not a symmetric position the other way.
systemvoltage 6y ago
So then, what is a signal to go short on TSLA? It seems like no matter how irrational TSLA gets, there is always someone like yourself with a cliche defense with the exact same logic, no offense meant to you. By your logic, does that mean that a company can do anything crazy and insane - and it makes no sense to buy puts against TSLA...ever?
- brianwawok 6y ago
  Don’t go short on anything. Your gains are bounded and your losses are unbounded. If you think tesla will lose, buy Ford stock or VW stock.
  - diab0lic 6y ago
    You can take a bounded losses (though also bounded time frame) short position via stock options. Buying a put option achieves this for example.
    - brianwawok 6y ago
      Sure. You can also do spreads and all kinds of awesome investment tools. But it doesn't really make sense for 99.99% of the world to mess with that.
- klodolph 6y ago
  It's a cliche because people say it often, and people say it often because it's practical advice often. > So then, what is a signal to go short on TSLA? > By your logic, does that mean that a company can do anything crazy and insane - and it makes no sense to buy puts against TSLA...ever? I'm really just talking about individual investors here. If you're someone with a day job and a small pot of cash who wants to make money playing games with TSLA, you're going to have a bad day.

rumanator 6y ago

> No, you'd be insane to make bets on Tesla, for the simple reason that there are a lot of people making crazy bets on Tesla. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme.

thefounder 6y ago
It's more like a lottery because you "know" what you are doing
- rumanator 6y ago
  > It's more like a lottery because you "know" the what you are doing So do Ponzi-scheme victims.
harry8 6y ago
I make no comment at all on TSLA. Shorting a ponzi scheme in general isn't simply a bet that you have correctly identified that the scheme exists. It is a bet on /when/ the scheme will collapse. Dotcom boom 1.0 was called a bubble (different name, same smell) by plenty of people who did their shirts on it. They were right. The valuations of all those dotcoms were ridiculous. I'm not sure many of those stocks are still around. Altavista, yahoo, bajizoobmalimba.com, walkyourdog.com etc etc. Going long you can easily play the long game. "I'm not vindicated yet, but this is good, I can wait." Going short is not a symmetric position the other way.

systemvoltage 6y ago

So then, what is a signal to go short on TSLA? It seems like no matter how irrational TSLA gets, there is always someone like yourself with a cliche defense with the exact same logic, no offense meant to you. By your logic, does that mean that a company can do anything crazy and insane - and it makes no sense to buy puts against TSLA...ever?

brianwawok 6y ago
Don’t go short on anything. Your gains are bounded and your losses are unbounded. If you think tesla will lose, buy Ford stock or VW stock.
- diab0lic 6y ago
  You can take a bounded losses (though also bounded time frame) short position via stock options. Buying a put option achieves this for example.
  - brianwawok 6y ago
    Sure. You can also do spreads and all kinds of awesome investment tools. But it doesn't really make sense for 99.99% of the world to mess with that.
klodolph 6y ago
It's a cliche because people say it often, and people say it often because it's practical advice often. > So then, what is a signal to go short on TSLA? > By your logic, does that mean that a company can do anything crazy and insane - and it makes no sense to buy puts against TSLA...ever? I'm really just talking about individual investors here. If you're someone with a day job and a small pot of cash who wants to make money playing games with TSLA, you're going to have a bad day.