#35: The Last Catalyst For Tesla, With Mark Spiegel

Tesla entered the S&P 500 yesterday. What does that mean for the long-running bull vs. bear battle? A month after posting our interview with a bull - Rajiv Sud - we speak to Mark Spiegel, one of the longest-tenured, loudest, and most notorious members of TeslaQ, the short Tesla camp. The question, after a ruinous 1100% run over the past 14 months and a wild market in general, is whether there’s still electricity left in the bull case, or whether the bear case might finally bag its whale. Along with asking Mark about that and his portfolio management, we also touch on a few other topics ranging from micro-cap long ideas to inflation to Mark’s twitter presence, and I hope you’ll enjoy the conversation. Topics Covered 5:00 minute mark - The state of TSLAQ 9:00 - Tesla's Q3 - a sign of the bull thesis or dim hope? 17:00 - The competition bear thesis and what's taken so long? 22:00 - Last year's Q3 take-off for Tesla shares 25:00 - Tesla's advantage 29:00 - The regulatory landscape 36:00 - Managing a short Tesla position 42:00 - On the long side, a few micro-cap ideas - DAIO, AVNW, EVOL, JCS 53:00 - Twitter presence 1:01:00 - The broader EV bubble - why not short elsewhere? 1:11:00 - The Musk fervor 1:20:00 - Portfolio juggling 1:25:00 - Fighting Tesla's hero journey 1:29:00 - Tesla's broader influence and the role of the SEC 1:32:00 - The onset of inflation and the gold hedge (GLD)