By the way, technically I think those options expire only next summer, but the tax code is changing next year and since the rates will increase he wants to benefit from the 2021 rate.
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So what could have been the reason for the poll? Just to vent frustration, having to pay billions in taxes, which rendered his stock reward much less attractive? I don’t suppose he would have benefited from lowering the price through spreading fear. And even if he said nothing, we would still see, with a 2-day delay that he’s selling.
He had already said he would sell to exercise his options in Q4. Maybe the poll is about an additional 10%, who knows?
Could be a desire for additional (non-mandatory) disclosure (on that regard, he has handled the trades very well, others wouldn’t have said a thing and let their stockholders learn two days after the fact).
Could be to have some fun.
Could be that he is human, with his doubts and shortcomings and that he had started to second guess his plan and wanted to outsource the decision.
Could be that he wanted to divert the attention from something else.
It could be a lot of things, really. It’s Elon Musk so who knows?
Why not?
Didn’t you just tell us yourself?
- He was forced to sell, cause he lacks cash.
- Selling triggers capital gains taxes.
Selling at a lower price means less capital gains taxes.
May be naïve thinking on my side - but am I missing something?
Yes I think so. Let’s say, for simplicity, that he has the option to get 10 shares for $0. Let’s Imagine two scenarios.
- The market price is $1200. The tax rate is 50%, so he has to find $6000. So he sells 5 shares and 5 shares remain in his hand.
- The market price is $1000. The tax bill is $5000. Again he sells 5 shares and keeps 5.
Regardless of the price, the only thing that changes is the $ volume of the trades and the height of the tax bill. Ironically, the more panic, the lower the tax.
Makes sense? Or did I miss something?
Exactly.
You wouldn‘t miss out on making such statement against the greedy state either, would you?
Depends, often these options are not exactly valued at exercise but over a 30-day average period. So he might have saved a ton of taxes by dumping the price before excercise 
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S&P500 doubled in 7-8 years on average…
Interesting take. Will Tesla grow faster than the SP500 from now on?
I hope you don’t fail to see the logic. If 10 years from now, tsla has grown at the same rate as the market, then it wouldn’t make a difference if I sold. So this is the minimum that makes me not regret not selling. But of course I keep it due to the potential upside.
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Copilot would have been such a better name for the system, too bad they ended up not picking it. Would have been fairly descriptive and not so misleading.
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I agree with this. I think competition and additional exit option doesn’t hurt and will make some discipline pressure on the government’s inherent financial irresponsibility and totalitarian tendencies. This doesn’t say much though about the future of cryptos as a store of value or payment systems. It might be so that it will be useful for the black/grey market and at the same time it will be a terrible investment long-term. Who knows?
that’s a super-long article.
but what you might have wanted to say is this:
https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-full-self-driving-video-allegedly-faked/
The 2016 FSD video was a fake on staged, scripted, 3D mapped surface with a car that has hit the parking barriers while leaving the factory premises. 
5 years later, you can still hand over about 10k for Tesla for “full self driving” which is not even close to its name in terms of capability, putting Tesla last in this pile of companies (albeit, none of these other companies is a car manufacturer, actually)
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On a positive note: I’ve ordered a new Model S Plaid last Friday, now let’s just hope crypto goes to the moon a bit more…
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Whoa, you need to take me for a ride 
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What’s the process with Tesla? Do you go to their shop, test drive and place the order?
Or everything is online?
Both works but in this case it was another case of let’s just click the dream config together in the online store.
“And then just click here. There we go, thank you dear customer !” 
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