"You said awhile back that Elon acquiring Twitter was the reason the stock has been down and not recovering since"

Today, as I'm writing this, I don't believe that. I admit I wasn't happy that Elon sold $4 Billion in TSLA to buy Twitter, but that was then. TSLA already took a hit from the $4B sale and has recovered. Any sudden drops in TSLA has nothing to do with his past Twitter/X acquisition. Hopefully that's clear.

I generally agree with many of your points, but the question has still not been answered: does Elon's participation in earnings calls help or hurt? In other words, if he stuck to a script, or maybe let the financial experts on his team do the talking, would the stock still drop $50 in a trading session after the call ends? What's your take? Because it's still an unknown for me.

I agree fully with your assertion with Tesla hiring a PR Team 100 percent to do exactly what you stated. But do you think Elon would let them do their jobs? What's your take on that?

 

I've gone the opposite direction to an extent, Elon owing X has provided piles of ammunition for the haters. Which is the entire media industrial complex.
It is crystal clear.
I think a lot about this. Yes 100%, Elon being on the earnings calls hurts TSLA he is an engineer not a BS artist he tells the truth to a fault.
This is an easy one for me. Elon is hyper focused on pushing tech forward the rest to him is noise, irrelevant. That's why Tesla doesn't have a PR team. My gut says this has to change, you can only ignore FUD for so long before it becomes a ball and chain for Tesla. Here's one example, on this forum from what I've seen the overwhelming majority are giddy that Elon got his compensation package taken away. Why? Other CEOs have made 100's of millions of dollars and their companies are going nowhere. No growth, stock is static. Elon gets paid nothing, people cheer. Elon took a huge risk in that comp package, achieved the stated goals (experts mocked the mere possibility).

Tesla is the most American company making the safest cars on the road and people hate him for it. To distill it down, massive negative sentiment means TSLA sells off it is easily the top 10 most sold stocks in 2024. From a business perspective Tesla has never been stronger.

 

"I think a lot about this. Yes 100%, Elon being on the earnings calls hurts TSLA he is an engineer not a BS artist he tells the truth to a fault"

And there lies my dilemma. Nothing else. Elon needs to focus on what he does best, and that's push Tesla's innovative edge to it's limits. I don't have any other gripes with him. If I ever do, it's usually just me venting steam

 

Elon went from $1,000 in his pocket to Tesla, SpaceX etc. now ask yourself if it was all a fluke. Will the same person push the envelop in the next 10 years? That is my investment thesis.

 

Definitely we know it's not a fluke. Tesla has done the impossible under his leadership, and I think they have only just scratched the surface. Same with SpaceX and possibly Neuralink. You can be a genius inventor and engineer, but not know how to handle earnings calls, or how to talk to investors. Is that a fair assessment?

 

That’s actually what I like about him, he’s sometimes honest to a fault about how he feels about things. I don’t love everything he says but he doesn’t hide from what he believes in and he’s pretty witty on X which makes me laugh. Sometimes that is refreshing in this crazy world we live in.

 

i have immense respect and awe for what elon musk has accomplished, so far.

his idiosyncrasies and erratic behavior endeared him in the early days as 'eccentric genius'.

but tesla now is a massive company, and earnings calls are not the time for erratic unpredictable behavior. i think he should never be on an earnings call unless it's completely rehearsed for some prepared announcement, or q&a is handed off to others, etc.

i also think it might be time to get a less erratic ceo. musk could move into chairman, cto or chief nerd or whatever. since he'll be moving to mars soon might as well start the succession now.

 

That's the Technoking of Tesla, Elon Musk to you

 

Trevor Milton might be available in a few years.

 

Haha I was waiting for a response like this 🤣🤣. The dude was able to fraudulently raise $600 Million from investors, imagine if he actually put his skills to real work instead of taking shortcuts.

I say why not? 😂

 

At the time he was hyped up as the next Elon.
100%, get rid of that fraud Elon.

Or how about Mary Barra she's taken GM stock from $38 in 2018 to $39 now. No wonder a single investor with 9 shares sued Elon and the board he wanted Barra like returns.

 

I was joking, btw

You'd have to give me GM shares (for free) for me to even consider holding them. I'd probably sell them an hour later

 

So no on Mary Barra. How about a real CEO like Lisa Su? She's probably bored with AMD at this point.

 

Nope. BTW, I'm not the one advocating for Tesla to get a new CEO. Elon is Tesla, and is NOT without him. I read something from one Tesla investor who is an Elon critic, and he comes right out and says Tesla needs Elon, his complaint was the same as mine....keep him out of earnings calls

 

Agreed.

For those advocating that Elon should be replaced, name his successor.
Elon doesn't add anything to earnings calls so yea keep him off. Rest of the crew can give the same generic, boring non committal answers that every other company does.

I'm wondering if Tesla should stop doing all public presentations like battery day, demonstrating Optimus etc. turns out other companies are going frame by frame and picking out every bit of info they can. And then trying to copy it.