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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: I started following the 5i balanced equity portfolio in my LIRA a couple of months ago, but to change it up I am thinking about taking a 5% portfolio position in one of these companies. I have a 25-year investment time horizon for my LIRA. If I wanted to replace one of the 5i balanced equity portfolio funds with one of SHOP, APPL, TSLA, GOOG or AMZN, what would you recommend (both the one I would sell and the one to replace it with)?
Read Answer Asked by Keith on January 21, 2020
Q: Hi 5i Team,

I have heard that the short sellers of Tesla stock have held the price from going up. Since the recent rise to +420, this is maybe a bit late to ask. However, I have always believed there are buyers and sellers, and that folks who short are simply believing the stock will go down. But, can a significant number of short sellers influence the market and actually help the stock go down ? Thank you for your superior service. Perplexed and curious 5i fan.
Read Answer Asked by Jim on January 03, 2020
Q: Hello 5i team. Laugh if you want, but I'm very tempted to take a small position in Tesla. On the one hand, the stock is up almost 70% in the last six months, they turned a modest profit last quarter as you well know, deliveries are at a record clip, and it definitely has the cool factor. On the other hand it has bled buckets of money for years, quality issues abound, and I'm torn between thinking Elon Musk is a pothead / space cadet, or a genius. Please act as my chamber of sober second thought on this one. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Asher on December 18, 2019
Q: Do you view Tesla as an auto or tech company? Would you focus on gross margin and production in the quarterly results or would you value the company based on its technology, considering the level of investments in autonomous self driving cars by the traditional auto manufacturers? Will the end game for Tesla is being acquired by a traditional auto manufacturer? Is it a buy for you at this stage?
Read Answer Asked by Rajiv on July 25, 2019
Q: May I have your thoughts on Tesla? I was considering buying it for a short term trade to try to ride any waive of short covering—the short float seems high at 30% and I assume that there will have to be some degree of covering if the stock continues to recover a bit on good news. Can I have your opinion on such a trade? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Jason on July 18, 2019
Q: With regards to cobalt prices, its difficult to get a handle on the scarcity/abundance of the metal. It was supposed to be scarce 2-3 years ago, now it seems every region has some and the prices have drifted off. Co $40-$14 yoy.
So is it scarce like quality gold mines, or abundant like cannibis grow ops (all of us can grow four plants)?
Conversely, lithium prices have gone up historically.
First, since its hard to get accurate info, have I got the price movement right? Then, is it better to invest in lithium companies or cobalt companies going forward with a view of increased electric car sales in the future?
May I have your insight on the space?
Read Answer Asked by Randy on February 27, 2019
Q: With more electric cars coming out I want to invest , but not with the car makers but what supports them. My questions are what companies I can invest in that make the charging stations, batteries , cameras and because these cars do not run on free energy what electrical produces will benefit from the higher demand in power to charge these vehicles.
Read Answer Asked by Tim on January 27, 2019
Q: I just saw Tesla’s Q4 production and deliveries numbers in an article on Cleantechnica. It looks to me like they were excellent and it sounds from coverage I’ve followed that they’ve maintained and grown numbers that impressed in Q3 and also have solved a number of issues in Q4 that should enable better production outcomes in future quarters.

On the end user side, the cars seem to be crushing the competition - Safety ratings are a step change vs. ICE cars and the performance of model 3 seems to beat luxury competitors or at least match with lower Running costs. Data is showing that they are stealing share from competitors rather than cannabilizing Model S and X sales.

My question for 5i: is this becoming a good company to invest in? I still fear the debt but Mr. Musk says they intend to pay it down substantially in the near future. Me. Musk seems to have settled down and recognized his importance to the company and the importance of his behaviour but I do fear that if something horrible happens to him that the stick gets crushed. What are 5i thoughts given the latest?
Read Answer Asked by Marc on January 03, 2019
Q: Hi 5i,

With the market correction, I am looking to add to some positions while things are on sale. I am looking at TSLA, which reposted good results last week and thus the stock started to rise. It also did pretty well today in a negative market. I have read your other answers on TSLA. Has you opinion become more positive after the recent results. Thanks 5i
Read Answer Asked by Jim on October 29, 2018