ben k Profile picture
Small business owner. Top tier vehicle technician/diagnostician. Trading and markets. Amateur investigator. Critical thinker. Violence pro. Not financial advice
Oct 20, 2023 12 tweets 4 min read
1/ Alright, so with the Cybertruck launch near, more and more initial specs/estimates starting to roll in, it's time to make some predictions. Electrek posted an article about the VIN decoder which gives us GVWR of 8k-10k pounds. So, according to the original specs, the Image 2/ payload capacity was supposed to be 3500lbs. I don't think it'll quite clock in there. Probably closer to 2500. Not that Elon has a history of underdelivering or anything...

But the Lightning PC tops out at 2200lbs, and the EV hummer and R1T are significantly less. Assuming a Image
Sep 10, 2023 7 tweets 2 min read
1/ Passed my series 65 today 🥹

I HIGHLY recommend @deantinney (aka the Series 7 Guru) and Brian Lee of Testgeek Exam Prep for all of your NASAA/FINRA exam needs. I really went through the ringer with various test prep vendors until I found them.

They provide everything you 2/ need and nothing you don’t. They’ve perfected the art of distilling hundreds of pages complex textbooks into much smaller and digestible chunks that get straight to the point.

I feel like I spent months wandering a desert with Pass Perfect while they tried to turn me into a
Dec 18, 2021 22 tweets 5 min read
1/ To expand on this a bit further, used car prices are up an insane amount. Most of us know this. Which is counterintuitive, since virtually all vehicles are depreciating assets in nature. The flight to suburbia along with a global new vehicle/IC shortage led to a completely 2/ unprecedented run on demand for both new and used vehicles. Elasticity and all that. Frankly, as someone who works on cars for a living, my eyes have been popping out of my head when clients tell me how much they've been paying for ten year old, 100k+ mile vehicles. It is in
Aug 13, 2021 12 tweets 3 min read
Some market ramblings while the chicken for dinner is marinating...

1/ I would love to publish short ideas. The one thing I consistently say is that I can just -smell- when money is being lit on fire, from a mile away. I'm a shitco bloodhound. The problem is that until fed 2/ policy changes, the trades are just too difficult. I have a huge list of shitcos who's GROSS income doesn't even cover their interest expense, and are STILL trading at big multiples. But they just keep refi'ing debt and rolling shit down the hill. The capital markets have
Jun 20, 2021 7 tweets 2 min read
1/ I've been reading quite a bit about Tether. All the red flags of fraud you could want are there. But then the big question becomes, how do you short it?

So I've been researching that and brainstorming.

Well, if it really is a true ponzi, it would significantly drawdown the 2/ entire crypto space since you could reasonably assume that it would shake everyone's confidence in the space, and because it's used to back about 50% of BTC transactions (and a huge percentage of other cryptos as well), and it's also the most traded crypto asset, period.
May 17, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
1/ This is one of the most enduring and falsified myths around Elon.

Come sit around kids, it’s time for an unflattering history lesson, because frankly I’m getting sick of repeating myself and correcting fanboy revisionist history.

He didn’t create PayPal. Not even close. 2/ He COfounded “x.com” along with three other individuals, which was then merged with their biggest rival at the time, Cofinity. Cofinity was led by Peter Thiel and a handful of other SV types who knew what they were doing. In fact, PayPal itself was originally
Apr 30, 2021 12 tweets 3 min read
1/ Rambling Friday thoughts: Recently I've been talking about how Ford's been ramping up their public war with Tesla and how hardly anyone is taking it seriously. Read a bunch of domestic auto history books and you'll realize that big boys like Ford and GM love to get down in the 2/ mud and beat people at their own game. That's not a bad thing. It's expected when you're in a highly competitive business with razor thin margins, and brand loyalties/images that can and do shift overnight. What you're seeing from Levine (someone who's publicly fighting back
Apr 28, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
Fun fact:

In Inception, there's a scene where a guy pulls a grenade pin out with his teeth. Granted, it's a dream, but it's still a common movie trope.

IRL, pulling a pin out of a grenade takes significant effort, for reasons that should be obvious once you think about it. Also, the “spoon” which initiates the fuse, is springier than you would probably expect.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
Dec 12, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
@EconomicManBlog 1/3
This is all approximate:

5lbs russet potatoes
2 yellow onions
1lb bacon
1 stick butter
4 cups heavy cream
5 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup flour
Salt, pepper, a little Italian seasoning, and about 2tsp of chipotle powder. @EconomicManBlog 2/3

Cook bacon. Put about 5 tbsp of the grease in your pot. Mince onion and throw it in there with a stick of butter. Cook until almost clear and then add garlic. Cook a little longer and add flour to make a Roux. Then add stock, cream, seasonings, and 3/4” cubed potatoes.
Jun 29, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
1/ Nope. I'll preface this by saying I am not a lawyer, but IMOP is IMOP. Intent, means, opportunity, preclusion. The Missouri law for brandishing says nothing about private property making it OK. Think of it this way...

Your neighbor shows up for dinner unannounced and 2/ uninvited. Maybe he has boundary issues. Idk. But you tell him to leave, and he calls you an asshole. You get mad and point a gun at him and tell him to get the hell out. Congratulations, that's felony brandishing in virtually any state. Intent is very important in the eyes of
Apr 19, 2020 11 tweets 3 min read
Welcome to Quarantine Kitchen™️!

Today I’m going to give you the guide for the best damn garlic-butter-cheese-herb mashed potatoes you’ve ever had in your life. I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting this one.

I start off with about 5 pounds of potatoes. This will all be “to taste” so just taste as you go and you probably won’t mess it up. But here’s the guide:

Peel and halve your potatoes. Or even boil them whole. The smaller you cut them up, the more water will end up in the final product, and you don’t want runny
Aug 29, 2019 10 tweets 1 min read
Jack and Elon are on now.

Ma just dunked on Elon for being too focused on Mars and not enough on the Earth. It was the first time the audience has clapped so far.
Jun 14, 2019 25 tweets 5 min read
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.
May 21, 2019 5 tweets 4 min read
#SGFreport Las Vegas 5-19-2019 - Reversion to the Mean™️ edition.

Model 3's sold: 12
Inventory S&X: 68

Sheet:

dropbox.com/s/eme43ba26l04… The gap between VINs has never been more egregious. Note that both cars have a 5/19 build date.

Hope this doesn't make @tsrandall nervous about his tracker being way off again.
Apr 18, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
*CLOWN STUFF
1/ Guys, this isn't anything new. The $TSLA bull camp has been attacking and mischaracterizing $TSLAQ as long as I can remember. We've heard it all before.
We've been accused of getting paid by:
-Big oil
-Big auto
-Wall St.
-"insert random villain here" 2/ And now we're being accused of aligning with white nationalists. Don't take this serious. Don't pay any attention, let alone cave into this desperate and pathetic tactic. The purpose of the clown meme in $TSLAQ was established from the start:

Apr 14, 2019 17 tweets 5 min read
$TSLAQ couldn't ask for a better sign of distress than the same childish lashing out that we saw last summer and fall when the company was "single digit weeks from death".

What's going to be the last minute savior this time? BREAKING: Drug-addled narcissist scam artist doesn't care for the media outlets that expose his lies and terrible companies.
Mar 18, 2019 17 tweets 9 min read
***Invasion Of The Short Range Shit Heaps***
1/ Las Vegas #SGFreport

This is gonna be a little long since I have a lot of thoughts on this that are a little nuanced. Also, apologies for missing last week's check. For starters, here's the updated VIN sheet. 2/ The sheet is getting pretty long but they still have some ancient inventory sitting around that hasn't rolled off the sheet yet and keeps reappearing, so I broke it into three sections above to make it easier to see. So, first off, you'll notice several sequential and nearly
Feb 25, 2019 9 tweets 3 min read
Thread. 1/ An important part of the dynamic in these Tesla fires is the G48 coolant. It's a pretty standard coolant that BMW used to use as well as a few other OEMs. It has a relatively high autoignition temperature, but will instantly ignite if it hits an open flame. See video: 2/ It's typically diluted 30-50% with distilled water. Tesla's service manual states a 50/50 coolant/water mix. But even with that being the case, it's still a very flammable solution in the presence of fire. See video below:
Dec 19, 2018 13 tweets 4 min read
Alright, here's a summary of all of the technical shit that was wrong with the presentation tonight. $TSLAQ, please feel free to chime in on anything I miss or get wrong. Guys like @CoverDrive12, @ex_Tesla, and I instantly see all the issues with the bullshit idea that was proposed tonight. This is never going to fucking happen. He should have been more patient and held out for the electric skate concept that he originally sold people on. Something that the car just simply sits on top of. That way, the energy being used to transport the vehicle
Sep 7, 2018 5 tweets 2 min read
1/ Nope! TC systems are activated/controlled using the ABS module, which has tiny solenoids that move crazy fast. I can't say if one is better than the other without a really, REALLY detailed insight of how exactly the TC would work on a Tesla. But from the way he described it, 2/ there's no operational benefit. The TC system on ICE cars uses the ABS module to apply pressure to individual calipers (all four wheel speeds/torque outputs are capable of being independently controlled without user input) which, when paired with open or limited slip
Jul 25, 2018 12 tweets 3 min read
1/ Someone poke holes in this for me, if you can. Right now we have:
- Thousands of cars just sitting in storage.
- Cars at stores that have been there for weeks/months.
- Said stores are increasingly filling up with with cars to brink of capacity.
- Tesla is now advertising. 2/ - Tesla just began hiring at a call center in Las Vegas which is described as "communicate with current and PROSPECTIVE buyers"
- TMC Delivery tracker numbers are still very, suspiciously low.
- People are reporting initial order to delivery times as low as 2 to 3 weeks.