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1/ WARNING: Gratitude thread. One thing I've been meaning to write about lately is my incredible experience with Twitter, FinTwit, and $TSLAQ as a whole. April was approximately my one year anniversary with $TSLAQ. I had a Twitter account for a while but cleared it out to
2/ start over with Tesla, as I knew how rabid their fans were and I didn't want to open myself up to doxxing and harassment. So I scraped my old account clean and started over. I started with about 20 random followers. A year later I have 2,500+ and hit 2.1 million impressions. 
3/ I'm a simple guy. I'm not a Wall Street hotshot, I'm not an equity analyst in any official capacity. I didn't go to B-school, I don't even have a college degree. The bulk of my background is in construction administration/mgmt, and automotive repair/diagnostics. As Albert
4/ Einstein once said; "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.". And so it goes with me. My interests, studies, and hobbies span an eclectic, motley array. I first became interested in econ and finance after the GFC turned my world upside down and led to the
5/ end of my career in construction as well as being homeless for a spell around 2009. I needed to understand why all that had happened to me. After that episode, working my first minimum wage job, and transitioning to the automotive field, I once again became interested in
6/ capital markets, and more specifically, the unstable aspects of them. Whether it was over-leveraging, gross over-valuations, or fraud. I read books, watched videos, listened to podcasts, etc. I sponged it all up as I could in my spare time while I blossomed in the automotive
7/ world. This is about the time I realized the most valuable thing any one person can do is diversify their skill sets. I still tell younger people that all the time. The more ways you can make yourself useful, the less likely you are to face hardship. Anyways...
8/ Time goes on. I continue my self-education. I start to notice that I'm bringing up publicly traded companies in casual conversation and realize that I'm becoming a weirdo, but I don't care. I move from paper trading to using my own real money once I feel I'm ready. I manage to
9/ build up a pretty respectable account that's no longer subject to PDT, from a very pitiful beginning amount, over a year or so. I get cocky and blow it up. I rebuild. I blow it up again (somewhat on purpose) during my divorce. At this point, Elon is seriously pinging my
10/ shitbag radar. I originally called bullshit sometime around 2016 but knew he was untouchable and pushed it out of my mind. But here he was again, promising the impossible in what was clearly a drawn out version of a classic Ponzi scheme. I start to notice $TSLAQ on FinTwit...
11/ So, as is congruous with my character, I dive in full force and start examining the arguments. It's painfully clear that it's a 50B dollar penny stock with bulls betting on moonshots and logically impossible goals. I had already driven both a Model S and Model X at this
12/ point. I had poked around a Model S as a technician and dug into it. I thought they were cool cars, but novelties, nonetheless, with extremely questionable build qualities and systems. The Model 3 is about to begin production. With what I've already seen, I know it's going
13/ to be a disaster. It is. Production targets are missed. Quality is downright awful. I open my first $TSLAQ short position. At this point in the story, I become more involved with $TSLAQ. I recognize that the warranty expense of these shitboxes is going to overwhelm Tesla once
14/ they start selling a lot of them, given their current warranty reserves, and the outlandish repair costs. I send out an abbreviated thesis on this as an unaccounted risk factor, via DM, to several notable $TSLAQ figures, based on my personal experiences in the auto world.
15/ It's well received and everyone seems to agree. Time goes on. At some point, I'm fortunate enough to be welcomed into an inner circle, of sorts, with some of the best and brightest of $TSLAQ. It's an immense privilege. I continue to leverage my extensive automotive
16/ knowledge and experience, along with my amateur capital markets interpretations, eclectic background, and humor, to create value for those I interact with. I begin interacting with journalists from major outlets. Another thing this experience has completely changed for me,
17/ was the realization of how incredibly difficult the jobs of journalists are. The vetting, verification, and fact checking gave me a newfound respect for the entire field. They do NOT get paid nearly enough for the amount of shit they endure. It's truly a labor of love and
18/ what I imagine is a feeling of indebtedness to the absolute truth, above all else. Time goes on. I begin to interact with members of the financial community in person, on the phone, via video chats, etc. Another big realization I have is that not everyone with money is an
19/ asshole. When you grow up poor, it sure feels that way. But I begin interacting with people that entirely overhaul my thinking and personal stereotypes on that matter. The people I talk to that have wealth are exceptional individuals of generosity, accommodation, and
20/ class, who are happy to help as long as I'm eager to learn. Even when I have little to nothing to offer. That's the definition of integrity. The friendships, and connections I've formed through this incredible journey are something I could never assign a value to, and are
21/ something I'll be eternally grateful for. They've opened up entirely new worlds and opportunities to me. My favorite aspect of the financial world will always be the fact that it's one of the final bastions of meritocracy in this world. Because the beauty of capitalism is
22/ that everyone will set aside petty personal differences, politics, and whatever else, when it comes down to the almighty dollar. Some people see corruption in that, but I see a purity and desirable granularity in that filter of intellectualism and humanity.
23/ Well, that's pretty much it. I just wanted to give some background and express my gratitude to so many people in a single attempt as possible. I consider all of you my friends. I'm not even going to bother tagging anyone, since I know that anyone who's read this far knows who
24/ they are. My only wish is that one day I can help recoup the value of the time you've spent on me. And I'm not going anywhere. Long live $TSLAQ, and may our collective ventures and experience continue with fortune, far into the future.
Thank you for the kind words, everyone. It's all very humbling and flattering, as usual. Y'all are the best.
