Traders can be a rough crowd when it comes to stocks that challenge convention…
… especially for a company like Tesla Inc.
Team Musk is under severe pressure, and as a result, I think there's a great trade brewing.
Tesla has never turned an annual profit, has never paid a dividend, and has racked up cumulative losses of nearly $6 billion since 2010.
Which, of course, begs the question… why is the company trading at nearly $300 a share?
Because CEO Elon Musk is a genius, a visionary, and a pied piper.
He is capable of rallying investors around his vision of the future. Just this morning, for example, Tesla "leaked" a memo outlining plans to boost Model 3 production, to add a third shift at the company's Fremont assembly plant, and to hire roughly 400 folks a week for several weeks running. And, not surprisingly, the stock jumped in early trading.
Here's the thing. Like many investors, I believe he is the single most innovative and visionary executive on the planet. Even the smallest rumor that he's interested in an idea is enough to send competitors packing.
It doesn't matter whether you're talking about solar power, rocket ships, or tunneling machines. If Musk is interested, you can take that to the bank. Earlier this year he stopped taking orders for a $500 flamethrower after selling 20,000 units… a flamethrower!
To call Musk a provocateur would be an understatement.