Tesla continues to defy gravity.
The company currently has an $834B market cap, up from $75B at the start of 2020. The stock has already gained 24.7% in the first week of 2021 and is up more than 950% since 2020.
The move has given Elon Musk enough rocket fuel to launch himself into the stratosphere as the richest person on Earth—and Mars—and at this trajectory, possibly the world’s first trillionaire in the near future.
Some would call the recent parabolic rise a bubble—some even still calling it a fraud. Bubble or not, it’s on an unprecedented bull run that continues to baffle everyone—except Cathie Wood and some of the hardcore Tesla fanatics that aren’t surprised in the least bit.
This brings us to a tweet that went viral late last week:
The tweet originated from Jason DeBolt (a fitting name for an EV fanatic), a 39-year-old cloud engineer and long-term Tesla investor currently living in Los Angeles.
In his tweet, Jason shared a screenshot of a nearly $1M daily gain on Thursday, January 7th, with a backdrop of a nearly $12M portfolio.
Remarkably the tweet was sent on Thursday—before Tesla serendipitously ripped another 8% on Friday, netting Jason another +$900K on the day.
Jason’s ride to riches hasn’t come without bumps on the road. On September 8th of last year, Tesla dropped 21% and Jason lost $1.3M on the day. It was Tesla’s worst single-day drop in history after they were excluded from the latest S&P 500 reshuffle.
These kinds of stories are captivating to me—not the penny stock pump and dumps or the YOLO option hit-it-big types. But rather the ones that had the grit and determination to buy and hold through thick and thin—while having faith in a single company and god-like CEO in the face of all odds.
You’d struggle to find a financial advisor on the planet that would approve of Jason’s path to riches. While many will chide Jason after reading about his strategy and refusing to cash the lottery ticket, you have to admire his resolve.
I was so galvanized by his tweet that I reached out to Jason to ask a few questions and share his story.
What’s your background? Do you have a family?
I graduated from UCLA with a business economics degree and worked for Google for about 10 years, then at a few startups after that. I currently work for Amazon Web Services, but I'm retiring very soon. I'm not married and I don't have children.
How many shares of Tesla DO YOU OWN?
I currently own 14,850 Tesla shares with a cost basis of $58 per share. My initial was 2,500 shares at $7.50 per share in March of 2013. This initial purchase cost me $19,000 and is currently worth about $2.2 million.
Have you ever sold any shares?
I've never sold any shares for a profit, but I was forced to sell about 10,000 shares, split-adjusted, in 2018 from 6 margin calls. Most of these shares were borrowed. Of these 10,000 shares, I lost 1,600 shares that I originally owned outright to cover losses from borrowed shares. This was an extremely stressful time in my life, and I'm lucky to have been margin called when I did because the stock tanked 40% more after that and I could have lost everything. Other than that, I've never sold any shares.
Do Your Coworkers know how much you've made on tesla?
Yes, some of them follow me on Twitter and they can see my screenshots.
How much is your current position worth?
As of this writing, I currently own about $13 million in Tesla shares. About half of that is in my individual account, 40% is in my rollover 401K, and 10% in my Roth. I contributed only $39,000 to my Roth and now it's worth about $1.2 million. I contributed about $100,000 in pre-tax earnings to my 401K that's currently worth about $5 million. None is from inheritance, only earnings from employment.
In your tweet, you mentioned you were never planning on selling. Is there a price that you would ever sell? Why not take some chips off the table?
That's correct. My ultimate goal is to avoid selling any TSLA shares, even if I have to go back to work. I plan to finance retirement with a margin loan at a less than 1% interest rate. I'll only borrow up to 8% of the value of my marginable securities to withstand an 80% hit in Tesla's stock price without having to sell shares to cover. I don't plan on selling any Tesla shares in the foreseeable future. I believe Tesla is worth $4000 per share today.
Have you spoken with a financial advisor about your position? Has anyone advised you on what you should or could be doing with it?
I've spoken with several financial advisors just for fun. They all think I'm nuts. Ross Gerber tried to get me to sell $1 million of TSLA a few months ago on a Zoom call. Ross is a great guy and a big Tesla bull, and I can totally understand why he would say that. It's not his fiduciary responsibility to tell a client to remain 100% allocated in a single stock. That would be incredibly irresponsible. Countless individuals have told me what to do with my TSLA position over the years, but I used independent, first principles thinking and I did a ton of research on Tesla. The vast majority of people still don't know about Tesla's mission and where the company is heading.
Is Tesla a bubble?
No, I don't think so. The energy and transportation sectors are being disrupted, and Tesla's stock price reflects that. 8 of the top 10 companies in the world by revenue are in the energy and automotive markets. There are 2 billion internal combustion engines in the world that will eventually be replaced by electric drivetrains, and Tesla only produced 500k vehicles in 2020. All of this ICE infrastructure will need to be replaced. This is just the beginning.
What is your ultimate price target for Tesla? What price/market cap do you see it reaching and in what time frame?
It really depends on Tesla's execution with autonomous robotaxis, software margins, and how quickly Tesla can scale battery production. I think we could eventually see $20,000 to $30,000 per share by 2030 if they can execute, assuming no more stock splits.
Do you have a bear case for Tesla? What would cause you to change your mind and sell?
I worry about something bad happening to Elon or a fleetwide hack across Tesla vehicles, but I'm not worried about competition right now. I'd only sell if Tesla dramatically slowed their pace of innovation, even if the financials were good.
How often do you pray to our overlord Elon Musk?
I think future generations will understand Elon better than most people do today because Elon's impact on the world and on Mars will be undeniable. There are a lot of people and industries that want to see Elon fail, and they're insanely good at smearing him.
Are you the next Warren Buffett?
I'm more of a Peter Lynch investor than a Warren Buffett investor. That's funny of you to ask that, but no, I'm definitely not. I'm just another Tesla millionaire who's been patiently holding the stock since 2013 while nobody wanted it. Tesla's stock went nowhere while FAANG stocks exploded around us between 2014 and 2019. What's crazy is that retail investors had five years to buy TSLA at $40 per share between 2014 and 2019. All you had to do was go for a test drive during this 5 year period and not be dumb to see the opportunity.
What is the next Tesla? (Don't say Bitcoin)
Tesla is the next Tesla. This company is just getting started. We might not see a company like Tesla in the next 50 years. SpaceX is another great company that I've been trying to invest in.
Since you claimed you are retiring from the corporate world, what are your next plans? Disneyworld When it reopens?
Several of my Twitter followers have asked me to create my own YouTube channel. My channel will probably focus on independent thinking and how to be a diamond handed long term investor, although I'll never encourage going all-in on a single stock like I did. That's a personal decision, but I generally think holding fewer stocks is better. I want to help people take advantage of opportunities that they might not otherwise see to build generational wealth. I'm not just talking about financial wealth.
What a hero.
Let’s just hope this story has a happy ending. I know I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing my financial future was tied up in a single company not named Ramp Capital. Maybe someday Jason will get around to reading my post about concentrating to get rich (which he’s already done) and diversifying to stay rich.
If only we were all lucky enough to have our name lead us to our dreams. If there’s a Jason DeNetflix out there you may want to put your life savings in Netflix—definitely not investment advice.
If you have any more questions for Jason, just ask him on Twitter.
Jason DeBolt, one of Elon’s disciples, shoots a Not A Flamethrower.
This is post #60. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram or sign up for my free newsletter here. Also please check out my Amazon page for a full reading list.