Tesla share price

Thrugelmir

Username999 said:

Thrugelmir said: 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel. 

Virgin Galactic failed last week too.

Perhaps Branson would have been wiser to keep his empire financially secure. 

AnotherJoe

Username999 said:

SpaceX will be a cash cow IMHO and it's good to see that you can part invest in that company via 'Baillie Gifford US Growth - symbol: USA'.

Maybe a full stock market listing is not too far away and Elon will overtake Jeff

Thanks, didnt know that will check it out. I'd definitely invest if they IPO'd but i think Musk will not do that.

EDIT: I didnt know that SMT owned some as well so i have it via that. The two funds look v similar except SMT isnt constrained by geography. Maybe I'll just buy more SMT.

BananaRepublic

Alistair31 said:

AnotherJoe said:

Break out the popcorn ....

Wealth before health. 

I doubt it is wealth before health. Musk is driven by ambition. On at least one occasion in the past he had so little money that he was living in a friend's house having ploughed his money into his companies. It was at times touch and go as to whether or not SpaceX and Tesla would survive.

I happen to think he is underestimating Covid-19. However it is also true that many if not most of those wanting a longer lockdown are in nice secure jobs (university professors for example) and won't be affected by the resulting mass unemployment. I suspect none of them have substantial industrial experience.

BananaRepublic

Thrugelmir said:

Malkytheheed said:

Thrugelmir said:

Sailtheworld said:

I know every politician, newsreader and commentator wouldn't ever talk about the data without prefacing with words like 'sadly' and 'every death is a tragedy' etc. but Coronavirus is pretty trivial and it won't be allowed to get in the way of American business for long. It's not as if it's Ebola and when the President is actively encouraging this sort of action there should be no surprise that Musk has done this.

With an election on the horizon. Trump's booming economy has hit the buffers. With it all the social divisions within US society that exist are surfacing. 

As clever as Musk & co are. They seem oblivious to the real threat to people from the virus. Concerning in itself. 

America didn't have a booming economy pre-covid! It had a booming STOCK MARKET. stock market and economy two very different things. America has over 1 trillion dollars in personal credit card debt. It's economy is AWFUL. And that's pre covid! 

To the average American in the rust belt. Having a job is a booming economy!. 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel.

I suspect you don't understand SpaceX's approach to designing rockets. They use agile methods which Musk took from his software days. Basically rather than have a rigid design and test process, with lots of paperwork, and formal approval stages, with lots of meetings etc (the traditional appoach), they do rapid prototyping. What this means is that they create a prototype component, test it, change it, until it works, then integrate components, test, change and so on until the complete product works. They are known to try several different versions of a component to see which one works best. A fundamental part of this approach is that sometimes there will be a 'Rapid Unscheduled Dissassembly' (an explosion in Muskese) during testing and they will carry on until they understand the reason for the explosion and are sure that they have cured it. Note that the reliability of production SpaceX launchers is very high. This process is one reason SpaceX launchers are much cheaper than competitors. However, Tesla is not up against companies supported by pork barrel politics, so it has its work cut out.

Interestingly their approach is not so far off the method used for the original moon programme led by Werner Von Braun. If you want to see the opposite, look at the space shuttle which was a very dangerous vehicle.

BananaRepublic

Thrugelmir said:

Username999 said:

Thrugelmir said: 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel. 

Virgin Galactic failed last week too.

Perhaps Branson would have been wiser to keep his empire financially secure. 

They reckoned the probability of success was 50-50. It was a test rather than a commercial launch.

Username999

Linton said:
The question isnt whether you like Elon Musk, but rather would you trust him with your life savings.

Anyone that entrusts their life savings into one individual deserves to lose it all.
If Musk died tomorrow I'm sure it will have a big impact on the share price of his companies, but Tesla and SpaceX will still carry on. We WILL have autonomous vehicles and will travel to other planets.
I wouldn't say I 'like' him, I like his track record and what he gets done and his ideas. (he's an awful husband and probably father too IMHO).

His endeavours with Neuralink are probably the most controversial and beneficial to mankind in the long run!!

Thrugelmir

BananaRepublic said:

Thrugelmir said:

Username999 said:

Thrugelmir said: 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel. 

Virgin Galactic failed last week too.

Perhaps Branson would have been wiser to keep his empire financially secure. 

They reckoned the probability of success was 50-50. It was a test rather than a commercial launch.

At the end of the day. Many great ideas come to nothing due to the rate of cash burn. Commercial backers demand a return on their money. 

Barry_Bear

If you're stick picking Tesla or any other, just invest only what you're prepared to lose in any individual stock. Long term Tesla may generate big returns, but in case it doesn't just make sure you are also invested in a wide range of other stocks, or a global index tracker.

BananaRepublic

Thrugelmir said:

BananaRepublic said:

Thrugelmir said:

Username999 said:

Thrugelmir said: 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel. 

Virgin Galactic failed last week too.

Perhaps Branson would have been wiser to keep his empire financially secure. 

They reckoned the probability of success was 50-50. It was a test rather than a commercial launch.

At the end of the day. Many great ideas come to nothing due to the rate of cash burn. Commercial backers demand a return on their money. 

I'm not sure what relevance your post has, are you saying companies should not test equipment, or that the tests should always succeed? Many test 'failures' are in fact successes, because they highlight a failing in the system(s). SpaceX has had loads of 'failures' and yet it has created very successful products including reusable first stages, a world first. The idea of tests is to shake out the glitches before the real launch and to understand what is going on. Repeated failures of the same module or component do suggest an inherent problem.

Many speculative ventures do fail after burning through cash, that's why of course you should spread investments over many such companies. The potential returns are high, as is the probability of failure.

Sailtheworld

Thrugelmir said:

BananaRepublic said:

Thrugelmir said:

Username999 said:

Thrugelmir said: 

See Space X lost yet another prototype today. Hopefully getting to Mars won't prove to be Musk's achilles heel. 

Virgin Galactic failed last week too.

Perhaps Branson would have been wiser to keep his empire financially secure. 

They reckoned the probability of success was 50-50. It was a test rather than a commercial launch.

At the end of the day. Many great ideas come to nothing due to the rate of cash burn. Commercial backers demand a return on their money. 

The first company to launch humans into orbit seems a significant moment for the markets allocating capital to meet a demand. Got to be more efficient than a government committee deciding where to allocate (taxpayer) capital. What it means for Tesla I don't know but all backers demand a return whether they be the taxpayer or shareholder.