I still have my money in TSLA, which is where I parked it back in 2020, been through two splits and we're still ok. The reason I'm not trading currently is highly personal, but I've got my eye on a return. 

I went all in investigating Tesla and the whole electric sector, there is so much to it. I went in to the communities, the "cults" as they are called, and my summation is that moniker is not entirely undeserved. I don't get the financial strategy of telling yourself bullshit stories, but ok. The reason I worry is because I don't want to think I know things that I don't really know due to bubble living. I despise bubble living. It's a huge problem in our society. 

I got really excited about the tech and the whole thing. I was, still am, excited about Cathie Wood prognostications, I mean if she's right, we'll have like nine million dollars in no time. I'll take her being half right! :D I don't believe her anymore. Yes, she's always been right in the past and is good at what she does, but it's difficult for me to maintain "faith" when it seems so outlandish and self serving. Although it's a great idea to watch what she does, and TSLA cult does watch. We know when she moves in and out of things. She's a fund that takes profits, so she sells a lot but then buys a lot as well. 

But things change. Just because she's right currently does not mean her valuations are anything but self serving. 

When I get back in "the game" I'm looking in to trading bots. A trading bot is only as good as a trader, for the most part... generally speaking. So I'm still intrigued with hearing from Tim and his teams. I think Tim is a great guy, he really seems that way. He's been around so many years, and he's still solid. That energy, my goodness. 

Today I shared Tim's new video to my socials because it's a great update on what's new from the perspective of now versus a few years back. Tim S. was saying for a long time the market is now good for capitalizing on short squeezes. Those happen at different times during the trading day than a typical long, or short play. That makes perfect sense, and Tim was right on that like the expert he is.  I would love to meet Tim some day, maybe there will be some meet up I can pop in to and say hello. 

I just logged in here on anxiety- thinking, what if I can't get in this site anymore?! So I fixed all that and decided to do a blog for posterity.  I was listening to Tim's 100K Great Summer Replay, and goofy ass Tim Bohen was talking, and I usually can't listen to him for too long, although it would be fun to do a Tim Bohen drinking game or Bingo for when he starts being really aggressive and shoving his Ben Shapiro, children of the corn politics in our faces, and saying things that are just blatantly wrong. 

Ahhh good times! I have a lot of experience with cults due to my past and many experiences in many arenas. I could write a book on it, but if I write a book it will be neuroscience, my first love, and just incorporate anything else I address in a neuroscience framework. Anyway, political cults make me sick. Cult members don't realize the extent of how foolish they are in a bubble and trying to push their own fantasy on to people in different walks, then wonder why they get pushback. Why is this paragraph here smack dab in the middle of talking about Tim Bohen? OH no reason... 

Anyway, the only reason I bring Ti-Bo up is because I want to address a couple things he said. First off, he's fun to listen to for as long as I can. Good energy, funny voice (I need to remember I watch on double speed, too,) and a strong presence! So I was smiling big for awhile getting my Sykes nostalgia on, ahhh good ole Bohen, but then of course he started in. 


Let's go over some of it. 
This first thing I wonder if I'm being too nit picky. He's characterizing the Warren Buffet recommendations and method in ways I would avoid. He makes it sound like Warren says to "buy what you love" 
"Buy a company that you believe in" 


I'm tempted to say this is wrong, but it's better to offer that it can be misleading. Buffett says you buy good companies at discounts, you do not make emotional decisions, ever. He's proud of never making them and touts that as a winning mindset. He does not speak of buying stock in this emotional manner. Yes, he did say to buy companies you understand. Understand and love are two different things. He also said to go for companies you believe will increase in value over the long haul. His advice reminds me of some real passive aggressive stuff my grandfather did to a Son-In-Law when pressed on what he should do. Grandpa took out the paper, this was the 80's we were at our Summering place in Incline, Tahoe, and he pointed to the stocks section of the paper and he said, you pick one of these, and you watch it, and then you buy it low and sell it high. 

The look on their faces was priceless. Both of them. My grandpa was like number one, f**k this guy, number two, that's kind of how it works. So they're both assholes and fools and they both know it in different ways. But my grandfather was the inventor of some surgical tool used in eye surgeries back in the day. I'm 53, he was born in the 20's. He was doing tech when there was no tech. He was investing in his own sector after forming a company around his invention and investing in medical stuff. He did things over the computer when nobody did things like that. He was an early adopter of things. He had his own jet plane, there were gas tanks in our driveway at Incline so he didn't have to go to the gas station. He was "self made", except that nobody is. Anyway, Buffett basically says almost nothing. Buy something valuable on discount, it's called value trading, it literally has a moniker, and that is 'value trading' not "buy what you love" trading. 

Here's what WB would rather be the takeaway from his advice: "Buffett follows three general rules when deciding which companies to invest in: “First, they must earn good returns on the net tangible capital required in their operation. Second, they must be run by able and honest managers. Finally, they must be available at a sensible price,”

So that's nit picky against Ti-Bo right? Because maybe we all know what he means, so he just misspoke, or could have used more precise phrasing. 

OK, the other thing is that he started talking about my area. Tesla. Hm. Here we go. And again, this guy is a good speaker! Also I think it's cool that Amazon recommended Tim's book to Tim and he got it, and it was the start of something. I like that story.  I like that Amazon did that for Sykes, that was nice. That might be a thing of the past and Sykes no longer gets recommended. I don't know, just something that made me think. Also Tim Bohen sounds like some sort of muppet I can't name. Or is it like shades of Kevin from The Office? Remember when they all said he sounded like Cookie Monster, and they made a video? Very important episode, please check that out, it has a great message. 

Moving on. Tim frames Tesla being hot when it was, to "the mainstream media", which I'm not interested in arguing with that, it's just how this is introduced. I really like that Bohen says they have the best AI. I mean that's what I hear, so that tickled my ears. But this idea that 'now the mainstream media hates him' , I don't know about all this framing. From what I can see, Elon made his own bed on all of it, and the media is quite kind to him, he gets rightfully criticized, like anyone. He's become a public villain, which is different than having the media "hate you".  These are only the same things to people heavily politically indoctrinated. But besides that, there are a ton of reasons the stock went down to a base level that have to do with the fact it would not move much in 2024 due to the necessities of growth. People put their money in big movers if they are going to move big. If they are not going to move big, they do not put their money there. 

Has Elon's conduct affected things? Very recently, I believe it's finally caught up with him because there was actually some nervousness around his pay package. I enjoyed that to be frank. He should be nervous. He's made bad decision after bad decision and expects to have just no repercussions from that.  I think it's odd to say that the stock is where it is because the media "hates him now".  There was an exciting bubble, they had another split.. things tank after a split and then we realize the whole year is about expansion and reinvestment and it's not a bubble year, so people move on. 

You know, he took 44 billion dollars from the company (sold his own shares, which .. that is another topic) and basically bought a sack of magic beans with it in the largest misallocation of capital in history, with the criteria that we look at billionaires and see if they really are better than the rest of us for allocating capital. Hey.. listen...society rightfully questions our capitalist system making billionaires. If this is good for anyone or anything, people need to make that case, because even in the arena of capitalism, this is just not really seen as a good thing, you know? It's called too much concentration, the way a monopoly can be bad. This is just not really good for society and to think so is an outrageous claim, and the burden of proof would be on the person defending that eccentricity of this system while we are printing more money all the time. Anyway, so to  defend this, Elon literally says:

We are better at allocating capital than you are. 

He literally said that, it's literally his argument for why billionaires are all of our daddies and they have earned their right to run the daddy state. It's not too much power at all, we are not "hoarding" anything. His argument is he, and all the other Lord Farquads are better at doing this than the rest of us. Imagine being an adult human being and believing this man, while simultaneously having a functioning neo cortex. Oh yeah right wingers, derp. I really honestly don't believe capitalism itself believes that is a good part of the system, you know like monopolies, lack of competition, etc. Too much power. But regardless of if capitalist apologists love billionaires now for whatever reason, we should at least admit these people are not gods who've earned a place to dictate our economy with inordinate amounts of power. At least admit these people are as dumb as anyone. 

His allocation of capital to buy a site worth a fraction of that cost is not a great business move. Not great, Bob. And someone with business knowledge might have marveled at a one of the most recognized brand names in the world, to the point where the main site function coined a new term for the global language, "TWEET" and he changes the name of twitter to X.  Wow, so smart, masterful gambit sir.  Is it a Xeet now?  Moron. 

So people can rightfully say, hey that was a bad business idea. This is not his only issue, but it's a big glaring one. 44 Billion. That should be his pay package. "we have twitter at home, no more eating out" we need Mae on this. 

And I know it's part of the "game" to hype up a new product, but I was absolutely blown away by the cybertruck specs when they rolled it out. Well silly me. As it turns out, ELON made up the specs, not his engineers. Had I known that I would not have been excited. I thought the specs came from his people.  Elon knows first hand how hard it is to manufacture profitably in this sector, he talks about it non-stop. Why on earth he would have a cybertruck design like that flies in the face of everything he's ever said, so no, I did not expect it to be basically a total lie. I knew the final product would have to be different than the prototype, because it wasn't even legal. 

Anyway, time will tell. I think it still might be a great rolling power grid? Maybe? Get some solar panels on that bitch. 

Whatever the case, he's a mess. His ego is out of control, his life is out of control, he basically threatened us to vote for his pay package or he was going to take his ball and go home. That might be ILLEGAL so don't be surprised if a year or two from now there's some law suit in the news about this whole time period. 

But it's still way up from when I bought it and if Cathie Wood is even HALF right, we can retire and I can still dabble in moving trades. I should probably learn options! I really did worry about the "key person" aspect of this company see, that's the thing it's a double edged sword. For one, that "key person" gives people confidence, and we can argue, as many have over the years, it's delulu confidence. Delusional. But they have created a reality and created value out of thin air. The down side to having a "key person" is that if the person falls either in death or by reputation as a falling star, then there goes the neighborhood. 

At this point, they are supporting him no matter what. I don't know what else he would have to do to shake confidence. I seem to be more like the big investors, and not one of the cult members. But it's the cult that might make my pay day? No, there can't be that many of them, it has to be institutions. 

Tesla is one of these topics where you can see people get in to bubbles, tell their own stories, and never the twain shall meet. I don't like the disrespect. I mean if someone reads BEAR or tesla Q nonsense, which is like Qanon... how they are always wrong. What I mean is, yes you can read a book on how bad tesla is, and what a scam it is, ok you can do that. But apparently some do this and that's it. Sorry folks, that's not how information works. You also need to know the other side. 

I can't be the only one that has this dynamic of being in disparate groups as a fly on the wall and noticing people are arrogant like religious nut jobs about information. You don't ignore information that contradicts a personal thesis you have because of your feels, or your ego, or whatever else. This comes from our sky daddy culture, its' a human thing. Information and facts come absolutely last in human evolution. They are almost offensive to some people because they are special snowflakes. Take an unconscious sky daddy foundation away via education, and this arrogance dissipates. You're not special. You don't know anything instinctually. 

I say like Qanon because how many times do they have to be wrong? They were wrong over and over and over again, yet people would still hold to what the Bears were saying. It's embarrassing. At least the tesla cult people have results to point to. Just look at the rebuttals to things. Avid Tesla boosters make videos lampooning bears all the time, they have over the years.  Look them up you can see how wrong they are, just all the time with these predictions and attacks. 

But TB's commentary on this is sloppy and imprecise and politically motivated. He loves to say "main stream media" like it's not something an embarrassing uncle would say. This guy makes me feel like I'm gen Z, I am not I am Gen X. At least he doesn't say "lame stream media'  he knows that would be crossing the OK BOOMER CRINGE line. 

Anyway, the stock is of course affected by media, there is no question, but what he says sounds so foreign to what is going on in detail. With that kind of analysis, one would continually be confused at what the stock is doing at any given time. It's good to check headlines and see how headlines are like your most fickle friend if your most fickle friend was AI to the point of it being comical. Tesla is down because of (N), (you check, the stock is not down), then the stock goes down: Tesla is up because of (Y). Tesla is now down...  It just goes on and on and there are multiple conflicting headlines at any given time. This can be good because it may force people to know more than just what these papers are putting out. 

As far as I'm concerned, there has been a breach. I noticed over the years that Elon Musk's antics did not seem to affect the company, Tesla. However, with everything up until the CT release, and then the CT deliveries, I would say there has been a breach. Yes, this has to do with his horrendous misallocation of capital on a losing venture, tanking a very speech friendly platform no matter what shrieking and arm waving was going on with some types.  I hesitate to mention things like the twitter files in an offhanded manner because I don't want this to be a larger discussion of all that in this already long post. But please look up information debunking what the right made seem like the story of the century, when it was nothing.  

Remember Russia gate? Yeah, Russia did not steal our election because 112K people liked a meme on facebook by a troll farm. That whole thing when you looked in to it was stupid. I have some news for you if you're impressed with this "twitter files" thing.  All it takes, is just hear the other side. Politics should not be religious indoctrination. Put your big boy pants on and stop being a scared baby about listening to people outside your bubble. 


My next move is I want to trade with a bot, but I don't know when I can get back in to it as it takes full concentration. My son is getting married this year, but also since 2020 I have been besieged by memories against my will, flashbacks. I've had things happen to me nobody would even believe, so it's getting sorted now, I don't know when I can get involved again. I am studying neurology, neuroscience, it's a love of mine since the early 90's. I'm now able to soak in and tear through stacks of science books because I myself am dealing with so many neurological processes. I had a map of how things worked, picked up my books and read that I was right. It helps the information absorb, and to me it seems like a fascinating and accessible field but I wonder if I'm over estimating how accessible it is, that is hard to gauge. I just know that neuroscience can be taught in grade school for sure. There are so many things about the brain and how it projects that could be fun exercises in school every day and from a very young age. 

So I'm in Tesla for now, still doing great, next step bot and using what I learn from Sykes and his team to program that.  Maybe 2025, as this year my son is getting married and I'm still sick with constant flashbacks I can't even talk about because I sound like Rutger Hauer's character in Blade Runner. He says I've seen things you people wouldn't believe but then he says something totally believable and not strange at all. "Attack ships on fire" ... oh no, not *attack ships on fire*, but anyway. 

Cheers, happy trading.