TINA Turner: Elon Musk’s Favorite Badass Beat
TINA Turner: Elon Musk’s Favorite Badass Beat

Photo by Artem Bryzgalov on Unsplash

The acronym TINA, which stands for There Is No Alternative, is often used by investors to explain a less-than-ideal portfolio allocation.

The boring part about TINA?

It’s a phrase that originated with the Victorian philosopher Herbert Spencer and later became a slogan for British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

The awesome part about TINA?

For Tesla shareholders, it’s been a party with the sound of Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the best’.

People like Ron Baron, one of the biggest and earliest investors in Tesla, have to be proud of his ability to believe in Elon Musk and his dream.

In 2014, Baron’s fund bought 1,006,000 shares at an average price of $219. Well, this was pre-split.

So, I’m gonna let you do the math, for you to feel the real impact on numbers when you invest on the right horse.

7 months ago, in a CNBC interview, Chamath Palihapitiya was facing a graphic on Tesla stock where it was down 27% that day. The price was $270 pre-split.

The journalist was looking for blood and asked a question to put him at a dead end. Chamath made a pause and shared his feelings about Elon and Tesla.

If you want to take a step back, in a 3 to 5 year-view, and say where can I compound my money? and particularly with the converts, what’s so beautiful is that they are downside protected because it sets on top of all the equity and the other dept. So, if you have any concerns about liquidity issues, they get paid first. To me, it was a riskless option on the Edison of our generation.

Let me underline this phrase again, cause it’s remarkable.

It was a riskless option on the Edison of our generation

Tesla is currently valued at $650B. It’s 18.5 times price/sales. 78 times price/gross profit. And 203 times price/EBIT.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. Warren Buffett would have an aneurism if he saw these numbers a few decades ago. I get it.

But that’s where comes TINA. Forget about the party, it’s not ‘Simply the best’ Tina.

It’s about There Is No Alternative TINA. If you think about it, there’s a deep philosophical issue within TINA and money itself.

What is money today?

Money can be interpreted as a technology store of value over time. Elon Musk would call it an allocation system for labor.

If labor is all on technology for the future 10 to 20 years, technology can and probably will be a store of value. And I’m not even talking about Bitcoin. Let Bitcoin be quiet for a second.
['Nuno Fabiao']
['Elon Musk', 'Bitcoin', 'Asset Management', 'Tesla', 'Technology']