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Tesla stock reaches $2,000 amid soaring interest in EV companies:
Tesla's stock closed at a record high of $2,000 on Thursday, pushing the company's market capitalization to $370 billion. Tesla has been on a weeklong rally since announcing a five-for-one stock split. The split will be distributed to anyone who holds the stock tomorrow—Friday, August 21.
A little more than two months have passed since Tesla's stock first reached $1,000 per share. Last month, Tesla announced a solid second-quarter profit of $104 million. It was the fourth straight quarter of profits.
That could qualify Tesla for inclusion in the S&P 500 stock index. If Tesla wins a slot in the S&P 500, funds that track the index would need to buy Tesla shares. That could push the stock price up even further.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:00PM (23 children)
Handy hint, boys and girls, it might actually just be the fiat currency that's dropping, rather than the value of pieces of paper soaring. What's that 'brrr'-ing sound I hear?
I foresaw this years ago (as I watched Mike Maloney's /The Hidden Secrets of Money/), and bought silver (at bullionvault.com, so real silver, not ETF fairy stories), et je ne regret rien. Other metals are available (OK, one other metal, you can guess which one).
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:10PM (8 children)
If you foresaw it, why did you buy those metals then? Shares are both resistant to inflation and are productive, whereas raw material is not productive and it is also subject to fluctuations due to actual use. Historically, shares gain 7% per year. They might perform better due to the tremendous inflation we have at the moment (why don't figure show it? The numbers are made up, see hedonic calculation).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @03:12PM (6 children)
One of the details that people forget about is that even if you bought gold at it's lowest point and sold at it's highest point, the result is still a fraction of what buying an index fund for the same period would have netted. Plus, if you're buying metal for the apocolypse, other metals would be far more useful, gold is nice in that it is resistant to chemical processes, but it also makes it largely worthless for anything other than it's coloration and shininess. On top of that, the few uses it has chemically are limited greatly by it's relative rarity. The end result is a metal that sucks as an investment.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday August 22 2020, @06:50PM (3 children)
Neodymium?
Now that is valued by what it's used for.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @07:48PM (1 child)
Ah, like for when spending 20k per speaker isn't a completely ridiculous idea.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:49AM
I was thinking more down the line of the electromechanics for wind turbines, electric cars, modern appliances, planes, etc.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 22 2020, @08:59PM
Neodymium, tantalum, even cadmium is valuable until the SHTF, afterwards not so much.
Afterwards, you'll be wanting more of your basic iron, copper, maybe aluminum and some of the simpler, better known alloying metals.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:29AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:21PM
When index funds don't do well, damn near everything else doesn't do well. That tends to be when tons of businesses are going out of business taking any bonds they've issued with them and employees are being laid off in droves leading to a lack of money with which to buy other things.
You'd never want for that to be your entire portfolio, but you'd have to be a genius with bad investment timing to lose money with one.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:18AM
This is not financial advice, do your own thing.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:52PM (6 children)
I agree with shrewdsheep above, but I did take a quick look at gold last week.
Markups are enormous, like 20% and up for 1 oz US gold coins obtained from the US mint (site was confusing, do you buy from mint directly, or do you have to go through local coin dealers?), and worse for fractional sizes. If you should decide to sell, I'll bet the markdown may actually be worse. The market is just not liquid enough. If you should make a profit, then the US government will be at your door to collect a punitive 28% tax.
Silver on the other hand has a different industrial demand profile, and at ~$30/oz is too cheap for being a convenient value store.
If you're not holding the metal in your hand, how can you be sure governments won't just haircut it from you, or the principals of the company absconding?
If you're looking to protect against inflation, my choices would be either (value) stocks or land. Those assets have been historically privileged by governments. Gold could be useful if you are willing to pay the premium to have the metal somehow save your life in the future, but if the SHTF hard enough, I wonder how you will be able to effectively use it. Silver is just too cheap and heavy, and the price is driven more by industry than investment. Finally, with the metals, you have to contend with new discoveries and improved production methods increasing the supply.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:09PM
You can't buy it direct unless you are a registered dealer.* After all, can't just put that unnecessary layer of middlemen inserting themselves in the transaction out of business now can we?
*Exception is for proof coins, but the markup is astronomical if you are buying for bullion value.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:58PM (4 children)
Back in the late 1970s local coin shops would sell 1.0oz Krugerands for exactly the price per ounce quoted on the evening news. When it came time to sell them, those same shops would only pay 90% of the quoted price, so that's a big margin to overcome, but not impossibly big if you're holding for a couple of years.
The true value of anything is what people are willing to pay for it. In the right circumstances, a ham sandwich is worth more than a gold Rolex.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday August 23 2020, @12:53AM (3 children)
A lot of people don't get this. Gold merchants make money on the *transactions*. A lot of them even have it right there in their names, e.g., Joe's Gold EXCHANGE.
The spreads on physical gold transactions are stuck in the past--fixed percentages of quantity, like stocks used to be. The introduction of ETFs has changed that somewhat. You can buy and sell ETFs with no transaction fees, just like stocks; but you generally don't get physical delivery unless you jump some really high hurdles (in the case of the GLD fund, you must be a registered broker-dealer capable of moving 100,000 shares). Then there is Kitco Pool [kitco.com] which is more within the grasp of small investors. Note the spread between buy and sell prices... followed by "small premium" for conversion in to physical metal, which ain't so small.
Turns out, the best way to make money with gold is to facilitate transactions with it [youtube.com]... as long as you don't cheat and/or piss off Eddie Murphy and his friends because of a stupid bet.
.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:36AM (2 children)
At time of clicking, spreads here are between 0.02% and 0.55%, depending on the market and currency:
https://www.bullionvault.com/market-depth.do?previousCurrency=USD&considerationCurrency=EUR&securityId=AUXZU&marketWidth=8&priceInterval=10&unitOfWeight=KG
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:37PM (1 child)
Those spreads are low because it's "vaulted gold" -- no better in security than the Kitco Pool. If I were in that market, I'd just buy GLD with zero transaction costs. It's just as trustworthy, if not more. You can get coins from there too, but only to a UK address, and then you're right back to bigger fees. [bullionvault.com]
Oh, and while we're still on the topic I forgot to mention that in the USA the IRS taxes physical gold as a "collectible" with a much higher capital gain rate.
Gold really brings out the toll-takers!
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @09:38PM
And why do you you say "vaulted gold" as if it's inferior? It's in a guarded vault and ensured. That's unimaginably safer than, and thus superior to, having the metals on my own property, and I'm perfectly happy to pay the absolutely minuscule fees for that storing. guarding, and insuring.
And regarding Stupidoland, all I have to do is mention 1933 and Roosevelt. The US govt. either hates or loves gold, depending on your point of view. I live in a country where there isn't even any VAT on gold or silver, so if I did want stuff in my hands, I could historically get it at about spot + 2-3%. Of course, actual metal now is as rare as rocking horse shit, so good luck with that, anywhere in the world.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:50PM (2 children)
Did you buy bars of actual metal or did you buy a digital paper that says you own a bar of metal? Those would be two very different things. If the apocalypse comes one might have value while the other one just became toilet-paper.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @03:15PM
Ironically, toilet paper is likely to have more value in that scenario than gold. At least one of those two things has some actual utility. Gold just sits there and stares at you.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:24AM
You've got a car in your garage? If someone steals it, all you're left with is the car keys. Does that mean that you don't actually own the car because all you have in your hands is the keys?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday August 22 2020, @07:22PM (3 children)
These amazing numbers come from Wall Street's 30 billion dollar a day habit, courtesy the Fed
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @08:25PM (2 children)
I expect Trump to ask the Fed to discontinue the support on his reelection. It's time for the market to discover price and value again.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 22 2020, @08:55PM
I expect Trump to lose, and do everything in his power to crash the market as fast as possible afterwards. It's pretty incredible the lengths and they went to and temporary short term measures they used to pump it up when he got in.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:59PM
Of course not! He will double it. In fact, they stopped counting. It's just wide open. This is no more a "Trump" thing than the 2008 heist.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..