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Comment by jvreagan | Hacker News Reader

What the others already said; also, I am reminded of Enron and the stories almost 20 years ago of people being wiped out due to the Enron collapse. My internal reaction at the time was "diversify a little."

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Or hedge with some puts, or something, to limit your downside risk.

Due to the volatility and the extreme short interest, those puts are quite expensive, and have been for years ;) You could certainly buy out-of-the-money options at 50% of the current market cap expiring in the next quarter, and been doing so regularly during the last five years during which Tesla's prospects have seemed quite dodgy.

But it would have more or less have wiped out your upside. So if that's the insurance you would have liked for such a risky investment, it would have been better to just invest in something else.

I was thinking that one might partially cover (e.g. buy puts for 25-50% of the value of their portfolio) but you're right. the risk premium should be exactly equal to the expected profit on the asset, if the world works the way theory predicts.

Just FYI, but when you hedge with puts your holding period to realize long term gains instead of short term gains gets reset immediately, then you have to wait another year after you close the put position before you can sell as long term gains. Just something to keep in mind.

Interesting, yes, since the ownership of the put is an equivalent to a sale, yes?

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