

Investor's Corner
How Elon Musk’s biography led to a Tesla investor retiring at 43
In 2017, a Canadian accountant named Spencer was looking for something to watch on YouTube after cutting his cable, until he stumbled upon interviews with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Four years later, at the age of 43, he is retiring from his job because his investment in Tesla stock has solidified his finances for the future.
In what started as a routine evening on the couch, Spencer probably never could have imagined that stumbling across interviews on the world’s largest library of videos would lead to an exceptionally early retirement. Elon Musk’s mission always struck a chord with him, but that night, everything shifted.
“I have always been concerned with climate change,” Spencer said. “That night, I started watching YouTube and stumbled across Elon’s interviews. Then, I read the Ashlee Vance biography on Elon, and I watched other great Tesla related content creators. The rest is history.”
‘The Rest is History.”
Spencer is just one of many people who poured money into a small, relatively unknown electric car company called Tesla in 2017. It was a no-brainer. After doing his own personal research, he knew that it was the answer he had been looking for in terms of financial stability. “I began slowly building my position. The more I learned, the more I realized that Tesla was an extraordinary company and opportunity from an investment standpoint. It was something that could significantly change my life over the long term.”
And it has.
This morning I submitted my retirement notice to employer .. thx to @elonmusk and $TSLA I’m retiring at age 43 ..
— ?Tesla Army? (@TeslaArmy) January 4, 2021
At just 43 years old, Spencer decided to e-mail his colleagues who work alongside him at a Victoria, British Columbia accounting firm, tendering his resignation due to his gains from his Tesla holdings. It wasn’t a surprise to Spencer’s co-workers that he had made a substantial amount of money because of his Tesla investments. It was a surprise to see a 43-year old finishing up his professional career at such a young age; none of the fellow accountants or executives expected him to leave.
“Most of the coworkers close to me knew what was happening with my situation,” he told Teslarati. “However, others were caught off guard when I informed them I’m going to retire at the end of January 2021 by e-mail. I’ve provided context on how and why I’m retiring to my bosses over several phone calls.”
Spencer’s e-mail to his colleagues detailed the tumultuous year of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But while many around the world lost their jobs or were forced to retreat and call their place of residence their office, Spencer was thriving financially due to his investments. He was relatively unphased even though he never experienced a layoff because most mornings, his portfolio was going up in value.
“2020 was an extraordinary year thanks to C19, but it was also an extraordinary year for me financially from an investing standpoint to the point where I have spent that last month or so considering retirement. The end result is my plan is to retire at the end of this month – January 2021,” he wrote to co-workers.
Tesla’s Stock Surge
Tesla stock surged over 700% in 2020. At the beginning of the year, shares were valued at a shade over $86. On New Year’s Eve, Tesla closed at $705.21.
Some investors got in earlier than others. While some took advantage of the company’s $17 initial public offering in June 2010, some didn’t get in until a few years later when Tesla launched the Model 3. Regardless, if you got in before January 2020 and held on, you’re probably pretty happy with your earnings. Where it goes from here, well, that lies in the eye of the beholder.

Credit: Yahoo
Tesla is still among the most shorted companies on Wall Street, despite the surge in price in 2020, casting $38 billion in losses to those who have bet against it. Some bears have taken such a big hit that they have admitted defeat and lowered, or even sworn off, their short positions on the stock altogether. One of them is Kynikos Associates founder Jim Chanos, who stated that he had trimmed his short against the stock.
“It’s been painful, clearly, Chanos said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “I’d say, ‘job well done so far,” Chanos said when confronted with the question on what he’d tell CEO Elon Musk.
Moving forward, Spencer plans to consider contract work with accounting firms, but most of his focus will lie on bettering himself physically and financially.
“After my retirement, my plan is to focus on my mental and physical health, as well as developing a strategy for managing my investment portfolio to generate income. Both are near-term areas of focus. Long-term, I’m not sure what the plan is yet,” he said. His days will probably be filled with joyrides in the Model 3 he purchased in 2018.
When I asked Spencer what he would advise anyone reading this article to do about TSLA stock, his answer was simple.
“I’m not a financial advisor, and everyone’s circumstances are different. But, my view is TSLA stock will likely be the most profitable stock investment of all-time by a long shot when it’s held long-term.”
Spencer operates the @TeslaArmy Twitter feed. Be sure to give him a follow!
Investor's Corner
Tesla bull writes cautious note on Robotaxi launch: ‘Keep expectations well contained’
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas is more cautious about Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi launch.

Tesla analyst Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley is telling investors to be wary of the Robotaxi details CEO Elon Musk revealed this week, after a report seemed to land on the prospective launch date of the platform in June.
Earlier this week, a report from Bloomberg indicated Tesla had internally landed on a tentative date of June 12 for its Robotaxi launch in Austin. Shortly after, Musk detailed the successful testing Tesla has already performed without anyone in the driver’s seat.
He also indicated Teslas would self-deliver to customers in June.
Analysts are now sending out investor notes on the announcement Musk made, along with the Bloomberg report. Jonas’s note is more cautious than others.
Jonas believes Tesla needs to shed more details before investors and fans of the company get too excited. He believes there is more information that could be released, but until then, he is suggesting investors “keep expectations well contained.”
He wrote:
“As is typical for highly anticipated Tesla events, we would keep expectations well contained for the (reported) June 12th Cybercab launch event in Austin. However, we would look for a continued stream of updates for the performance and growth of the network thereafter (numbers of cars, miles, trips, etc.) in the days and weeks that follow.”
The tone of Jonas’s note contradicts that of Wedbush’s Dan Ives, who believes the “golden age of autonomous” lies in Tesla’s hands. He seems to believe Tesla will come through on its June 12 launch.
Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush
Morgan Stanley’s note is slightly more
Jonas is obviously still bullish, but is much more tentative to move forward with an attitude that communicates skepticism about what Tesla has revealed.
Jonas and Morgan Stanley have a $410 price target on Tesla shares with a ‘Buy’ rating. Tesla stock is trading at around $358 at 12:15 p.m. on the East Coast.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst’s firm has sold its entire TSLA position: Here’s why
Tesla analyst Gary Black revealed his firm, The Future Fund, has sold their entire $TSLA holding.

Tesla analyst Gary Black of The Future Fund revealed today that his firm has sold its entire $TSLA holding, marking the first time since 2021 that it has not had a position in the company’s stock.
Black has been a skeptic of the company and relatively pessimistic regarding some things many investors would consider catalysts, outlining his concerns and reasoning for selling the shares.
Much of Black’s reasoning concerns Tesla’s price-to-earnings ratio, delivery results and potential delivery figures for the future, and other near-term projects that he does not believe will yield as much value as others perceive.
We will break down each concern of Black’s below:
‘Disconnected from Underlying Fundamentals’
Black says that The Future Fund sold its holdings at $358 per share. The firm’s current price target is at $310, and he says it will remain there based on “our forecast of 2030 Tesla volumes of 5.4m and 2030 Adj EPS of $12.
Main Concern is P/E Ratio
The main concern Black and The Future Fund have is that TSLA “now sells at a 2025 P/E of 188x as earnings estimates continue to fall (-5% in the past week, -40% YTD) driven by weak YTD deliveries, including weak April results.”
Black says he believes quarterly deliveries will decline by 12 percent, and full-year by 10 percent.
This compares to Wall Street’s estimates of a 7 percent decrease for Q2 and a 5 percent year-over-year.
Robotaxi Skepticism
“We believe the risk/reward associated with the Austin robotaxi test remain asymmetrical to the downside,” Black writes in his post on X.
Tesla Robotaxi deemed a total failure by media — even though it hasn’t been released
Many believe the Robotaxi platform could be Tesla’s biggest catalyst moving forward, especially as other automakers do not seem to have even close to as robust a solution to self-driving as Tesla.
Tesla’s Affordable Models
Black says there are concerns the affordable model will be “a stripped-down Model Y priced lower and funded by lower costs rather than a new form factory that expands TAM.”
This is confusing, especially considering the cheaper price tag would expand the total addressable market (TAM) to begin with. The Model Y has been the best-selling vehicle in the world for the past two years.
Tesla still on track to release more affordable models in 1H25
Introducing an even lower-cost model with some missing features would still likely be a significantly more attractive option than a base model ICE vehicle, especially because the value Full Self-Driving provides would make the car more beneficial.
“This increases odds that FY’25 estimates decline further, risking a repeat of 2023-2024, when TSLA reduced EV prices supported by lower costs, and TSLA saw little or no incremental volume growth,” he finishes with.
Elon Musk
Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush
Tesla is set to win big from the launch of the Robotaxi platform, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to kick off its own “golden age of autonomous growth” as its Robotaxi platform nears launch and a “dark chapter” for the company has evidently come to a close, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Ives has jostled his price target on Tesla shares a few times already this year, usually switching things up as the market sways and the company’s near-term outlook changes. His price target on Tesla has gone from $550 to $315 to $350 back to $500 this year, with the newest adjustment coming from a note released early on Friday.
🚨 Wedbush’s Dan Ives is raising his price target on Tesla $TSLA from $350 to $500 as the “golden age of autonomous” nears:
“We believe the golden age of autonomous is now on the doorstep for Tesla with the Austin launch next month kicking off this key next chapter of growth for…
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 23, 2025
As CEO Elon Musk has essentially started to dwindle down his commitment to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) altogether, Ives believes that Tesla’s “dark chapter” has come to a close:
“First lets address the elephant in the room…2025 started off as a dark chapter for Musk and Tesla as Elon’s role in the Trump Administration and DOGE created a life of its own which created brand damage and a black cloud over the story….but importantly those days are in the rear-view mirror as we are now seeing a recommitted Musk leading Tesla as CEO into this autonomous and robotics future ahead with his days in the White House now essentially over.”
Ives believes Tesla’s launch of Robotaxi should be the company’s way to unlock at least $1 trillion in value alone, especially as the Trump White House will fast-track the key initiatives the automaker needs to get things moving in the right direction:
“The $1 trillion of AI valuation will start to get unlocked in the Tesla story and we believe the march to a $2 trillion valuation for TSLA over the next 12 to 18 months has now begun in our view with FSD and autonomous penetration of Tesla’s installed base and the acceleration of Cybercab in the US representing the golden goose.”
There are some concerns moving forward, but none of which relate to the AI/autonomous play that Ives primarily focuses on within the Friday note. Instead, they are related to demand in both Europe and Asia, as Ives said, “there is still wood to chop to turn around Model Y growth” in both of those markets.
Nevertheless, the big focus for Ives is evidently the launch of Robotaxi and the potential of the entire autonomous division that Tesla plans to offer as a ride-sharing service in the coming months. Ives also believes a 50 percent or more penetration of Full Self-Driving could totally transform the financial model and margins of Tesla moving ahead.
Aware of the setbacks Tesla could encounter, Ives still believes that Tesla will establish itself as “the true autonomous winner over” and that investors will recognize the AI vision the company has been so bullish on.
Ives pushed his price target to $500. Tesla shares are down just under 1% at the time of publication. They are trading at $337.88 at 11:45 on the East Coast.
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