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Don, I have no idea what you are talking about. Does it involve an added risk or payments to a third party? I don't do shorts, don't really understand them either. I am fine long with Tesla. Been with them ten years but only got be a backer three years ago. They just went into the black this quarter. A little soon to worry dontcha think? Remember I got in at the start and again twice more for additional blocks at 22.5. I don't feel I will lose, in fact my doubling was at around 43-44. If it goes back down I will buy more. I don't think they will go away. They are like the proverbial genie that got out of the bottle. They aren't going back in. The opposition did not manage to keep the lid on it, not even with the help of O'Reilly with two year old data showing his ignorance as usual, or Palin comparing them to Solyndra and big Gov't when they are paying the loan off earlier. And most did not know of the billions the previous administration gave to Nissan and GM to develop sustainable energy low pollution vehicles in what was it, 2004-7? I truly believe they are the next Apple from an investment perspective, but what do I know? But I do not believe I am in danger of any losses in the near to midterm. I am backing the new global American Car company, and helping to make solar recharging and EVs a reality. I may even buy a Smart Electric in September when they arrive in Dallas. Cash.

Jack, Same thing I said when it tanked and I got in my last two buy opportunities at ~ 22.50 after getting my first small block at 17. My SH was freaking that we had lost money when it dropped from 27 to the 22range. I told her you don't make or lose money until you sell. Both possible when you buy. Only loss possible when money sits. I explained that taxes, both government and greed based like the price of gasoline, and continued surtaxes on electricity called fuel surcharges, do to savings at the current no interest interest rates like the small drains from clocks and memory chips will eventually drain a car of power if not moved to generate more once in awhile. (while they have stopped production of natural gas down here because the price has gone way down and they don't make as much. Then what is produced is not benefitting us here where it is produced because they make more selling to overseas markets and thus the giant gas ships seen at our ports) I am thinking of selling half my shares at 100 and may put a sell order in. However, regardless of the rest of the market, I am long on Tesla because they aren't even close to finished yet. I know that the Model X SUV will be in production in 2014. I also know they will have their consumer version out by 2017. I may very well sit out the short squeeze, which is not over by a long shot. In any event, I am not your typical investor, and Tesla is not your typical company. No start up car company, ICE or electric has ever gotten into full production, let alone at a profit. Let alone with reservations for all of them made. Let alone been declared the Car of the year against the ICE big manufacturers. Let alone getting a 99/100 from Consumer Reports? ( When asked the CR evaluator said it was not given that for only the electric car group, but against all cars, the best of which get 80s. Let alone with solar free charging stations already built in CA and expanding across the nation that are solar powered. Let alone having Elon Musk at the helm who also owns their solar installation company Solar City. So it is difficult for me to treat it as a conventional stock. I am more likely to ride it to the top, which I see as in the 300-600 range. I could have sold half and had each 10k block plus another 15k for a total of 25k for every 10 I have invested. But I may put a sell for 100 in. Whether that takes a few weeks, or the rest of the year makes no difference to me. I know that will happen. The greedy part is my belief in much more. So I am really in the same position I was before. There is another side to it. I am not paying up to 15% to the IRS until I cash in either. That 15% is still earning while invested. Please don't worry for me. If I lose, I am not broke. The idea is not the money, as I have said many times before. The idea was to help get us off oil, reduce pollution, and help make energy sustainable, cheaper, and renewable. Musk is doing those things in ways that already can't be reversed. Musk will be joining the other great engineers in the history books like his company namesake. He has already done to the auto industry what Bill Gates did to the personal computer and saving Apple from bankruptcy in 1998 , if I remember correctly. He is not done yet. His company is not done using my money. I am not done being part of it, albeit vicariously through my small investment in the overall scheme of things. In September the Electric Smart will be for sale at the Dallas store, and if Tesla does go over 100, I will take out enough to buy one and use the 7500 tax credit. I don't drive 100 miles a day ever anymore. They get 119 miles per charge. Now my dream if it does go over say 300, is to use Solar City to put in state of the art solar here for my vehicles and house, and buy a 500 mile range Tesla Model X to go along with my electric Smart, and keep my diesel truck for hauling. I drive it so little I have only put 4k miles on it hauling things and bringing the lawnmower in. I mostly just drive it once a week to full operating temp for that day's rat killing errands. A 35 gallon tank lasts me a couple of months or more. So my answer Jack is I know. That is why it will all likely stay there.

Unbelievable, it has been up to 75 several times and trades are up Thursday from the previous average of 2m plus to 28million trades in one day! I have more than tripled my investment as of now, at 68.

Wow! I could not post that last edit, then clicked on advanced after editing, and it was still there but the paragraphs were gone and it became one long para? I am leaving it alone. These forums have the most glitches of any of the ten or so I use online. I know, we get what we pay for. But the others are free too. And several don't have advertising or a membership to sell either. I stopped commenting and reduced my participation here instead. Never know what I'll find.

Doc, One more thing. MS included Money for free and while some used it, most of us went with Intuit Quicken and QuickBooks. Microsoft includes drive cleaners and defrag but people like me download and use CCleaner. The MS system tools are good. I prefer the MS defrag over third party ones like defraggler. Microsoft's Windows Media Player is my choice for organizing and playing my music and movies, not media center. Many folks use VLC or the Apple programs to handle their music. MS includes a photo management program that is very good in Office and a live photo organizer that is as good as Picasa in my opinion. But most folks download and use Picasa. Skydrive/photobucket? And the biggie! MS includes Internet Explorer, which I love and use, but many many folks go and download FF or Chrome. I think today Bing is far superior to Google and use it exclusively. When it sucked wind I used Google. Now I remove Google and not only is Bing my only search engine, it is my home page and desktop background because I love the daily pictures used. I could go on. But my point is that the original "MS is criminally unfair!" rant was over knocking Netscape out of business with IE. I was there then, and even owned an ISP at the time in 95-96-97. Netscape was not better than IE, but Netscape did have lower prices for new customers than for renewals for a bit and royally screwed us, so we moved to IE. That was in the days I also used DR DOS in the late 80s early to mid 90s. See, MS can include a free program that does the job, sometimes better than the competition, and still fail to capture the market segment. I give absolutely no credence to any hint of unfair practices, not as a fan boy, but as a user who was and is there and used all the better programs myself. Before today's Google navigate on my phones I used Garmins. Before that Delorme Street Atlas with a GPS dongle on my laptop while fulltiming before there was a Google. I do agree that inferior programs should lose whether from MS or others. I try them all and decide for myself. Look at all the Windows 8 frustration. Wait till Windows phone become mainstream and they will. See I have owned Android and now Windows RT and full Windows 8 touch tablets. I compared both before I sold my galaxy tab side by side. Android lost. We still have Galaxy Smart Phones, but as soon as we can get Nokias for straight talk verizon towers we are so there. BTW we renew our Straight Talk service three months at a time with an eBay vendor at $35 bucks a month per phone for the retail 45 buck service that is unlimited and uses Verizon towers. I won't post the link as there are many alternatives. Paying several hundred a month and being on a contract are not my preferences. I have cable ?Internet so can deal with 3G. See our phones use our WiFi at home faster than 4G. I do like most of what MS makes. I also get a grin when folks tell ne how bad their software and monopolistic practices are, and imply that they should give away all their products including Windows. Funny, those folks still use Windows instead of being internally and externally consistent by moving to Apple or Linux with few exceptions. By few I mean less market share than the Windows OS has in the low to mid 90th percent of market share.

Doc, I agree that it is odd. But remember that in your case, Dell gets paid by Kaspersky to pre-load that trial. Go to "search" in the "charms" bar and enter "Windows Defender." You will find it there. Or you can go to "start" by pressing the windows key, then right click in a blank spot and a new bar will come up on the bottom that says all apps. Left click on that and it changes the view from the start page, to the new equivalent to clicking on "programs" in the old start button menu. You should see Windows Defender on the far right. I like that all apps view because it shows all my desktop only programs and tiles apps on one page that scrolls, and opens in the appropriate mode, desktop, or tile app. For example, Outlook is a desktop program, not a tile app, so when I click it in the all apps view from the start page, it flips over to desktop and opens Outlook there. My new Acer AIO desktop came in with Symantec two month free trial. I removed it and activated Defender which is on every Windows 8 system I have set up. They also have DVD burner and playback third party programs because only windows Pro, which costs extra, can accommodate Windows Media Center, which itself costs a bit more. 8 or 9 bucks. I believe, and this is just a guess, that MS is not paying the computer vendors like Dell to exclude other Anti-Malware products because they then come under fire as being monopolistic and bribing their way to the top. But it is OK for their competitors to pay Dell to include theirs. I loved Kaspersky back before MSE and Forefront, and now with Windows Defender used as the name for the new Windows 8 designed variant, I am back in the MS security camp for my windows 8 computers. AVG and Kaspersky both bogged my systems down noticeably, and made boot times 1/3 longer. That was true of McAfee, and all the rest were worse. As well they were always popping up annoying reminders that I am protected. Unless there is a bad page or an infection happening MS programs stay quiet as they should. People use pop up blockers then don't feel secure unless their security program does pop ups. <sigh> Doc, I find more infections from Kaspersky, AVG, McAfee, Avast, Symantec/Norton users who get started with a free month or year, and then do not pay to renew. These are the people who bring infected computers to me. As well, many have active subscriptions and are too impatient to allow them to update, or have very slow or limited connections and think not updating security is OK. And a majority who get infected, get reinfected more than once regardless of whether they use a free resource hog, a paid resource hog, or a free resource light program like MSE, Defender, or Avast Free. Anyway Doc, have a look on your Windows 8 system and let me know if you have any trouble finding it, for later. I see infected folks with all programs. All it takes is social engineering of the attack vector in a way that fools them. Or a driveby using a known patched vulnerability on computers that are never allowed to do Windows updates, which are about 60% of Windows computers worldwide. It is those idiots that keep Internet crime profitable and inexpensive. The very well written rootkits and key loggers are rarely found by average users because they are supposed to stay hidden. The scans that make folks feel secure will not catch those except during a reboot before Windows loads, and some require safe mode. Again, anti-malware programs are the third tier of security. One is keeping windows and third party programs either updated, or off your computers. Like deleting Adobe reader and using one of the better, lighter, faster, and free readers like FoxIt Reader instead that are not under daily attack. Two is user practices and awareness. Three is anti malware. Fourth are good recovery tools including system images whether using what I do, the very easy Windows 7 create a system image found on 8 under Windows 7 file recovery, or using third party programs like Acronis that cost money and in actual use are less reliable when doing restores. I used to use Ghost, the later Acronis and they can be very user unfriendly, and can fail on a first attempt. I have never had an image creation using an external drive or dock fail. Unlike most it seems I have also routinely made and restored dual images for my computers until I started using external drive docks and two drives per computer. Three until I finished personal testing of Windows 8 on portables and desktops. Then I had three drives for each. A clone of the 7 original drive, and a working 8 drive, and a data drive to manually sync both systems. On my laptop which has since been replaced by this hybrid touch 8 Envy X2, I made an image of my Windows 7 OEM system, and loaded a clean install of all three Windows 8 previews as they happened. Then every month made a fresh image of the preview, restored the Windows 7 system, updated it so if I stayed with 7 it was current. Then I imaged the updated 7 system, and restored the Windows 8 image, AND UPDATED THAT. So instead of making images and not knowing if they would restore, or what to select in the repair disk environment to restore an image, I do images AND restores routinely. I used EaseUS Todo for the Windows 8 system images on both the XP and Win 7 systems, Acronis TI 10 for the XP netbook image, and Windows 7 create a system image for the Windows 7 laptop image. I have had several folks here who never tried to restore an image made with Windows 7's program claim it would not work, when they did not know to select the second option in the restore environment, which clearly says to select that to restore a previously made image. They also did not have the external drive connected and turned on which had the image before clicking next. I decided it was worth my time and money to buy and get my first experience with an SSD, a 128GB Crucial M4. It took less time to swap the laptop drives monthly to do windows and third party updates during my Windows 8 preview testing, rather than the half hour each doing the images for 7 and 8. Swapping the laptop drive took five minutes. And I dropped the netbook with XP from the test when I found it did not have minimum resolution for 8. My point is that I take my security, and my data seriously. I have a drive dock at each computer that can do eSATA or USB2. My SH's computer, and my new AIO, both have USB 3 ports and I have a new external port powered 1TB drive now on hers since last week, and am shopping a USB3 dock now. I am researching GPT Disk versus NTFS drive limitations of over 2 GB drives now to make the best buy given current technology. Unlike folks who spend hours and hours a month doing data only or other security scans and many programs, the above while seeming complicated, is really not taking any of my time at all. Since the drives remain attached but not turned on, to prevent infection of the drive and clean images, once a week we each run an image using Windows Backup and Restore. That takes flipping the on switch and now plugging in the USB drive on hers. Then clicking on backup and restore from search in her 7 machine, and Windows 7 file recovery in 8, both of which bring up the identical backup and restore screen. First time an image is made to the external drive, which Windows finds in about half a minute assuming it is connected and turned on, a repair (read boot) disk needs to be created from a blank CD. It asks after you make an image. So be ready and make it. It only takes a couple minutes. Then keep it in a safe place. See if your hard drive fails, or you get infected, you just pop in the repair/boot disk and restore from there. You will have to learn to bring up the boot menu for your system, and boot from the CD. If that is beyond you it is relatively easy to set up either in setup/CMOS, or knowing which f key your bios uses. I always test the boot disk when I make it, and make any changes then, not when I am in the middle of a hardware failure or infection. So once a week I leave the computer running an extra half hour to create a fresh image, and delete the old one. Now what happens if I never practiced or made an image or disk, and the hard drive fails? Or the hard drive fails and the image fails because I did something wrong and never did practice restores? If the hard drive failed then the image too, the system cannot be restored to factory even, losing data and starting over again, because if the drive failed, so do all the partitions including the recovery partition. That is why I make the factory restore DVDs before I even load applications or do any cleaning. I find where the create a factory restore or recovery disk set is and make them first! That takes three or four Blank DVDs. HP only allows you to make the recovery disk set once, so if you lose them or don't make them at all, it will take about $20-30.00 to order a set from the manufacturer. I can afford to lose a weeks data except for Quicken. That is backed up now to an SD card, so she does not have a USB drive dangling, or have to insert one, just a couple clicks and 30seconds and she loses not one minute. I don't do multiple partition schemes, run scans unless indicated other than once a week automatically, no utilities except for CCleaner and no registry cleaners but CCleaner and that only once a month after Windows updates on each computer. Now, all that to say use whatever program anybody wants. That is just the burglar alarm. It rings after an intrusion. Now it is up to you to clean out the intruder and restore your system, pay a lot to someone like me, or sixty bucks for me to restore it to factory assuming the drive is OK or you gave me a recovery disk set you made when new and did not lose. Or have a bricked system if the drive fails. Or spend 30bucks to bring back all the programs you used for movies etc. See a Windows restore does not bring back all the programs you might have used that came with it, especially now with Windows 8. Unless Pro and you bought media center, you won't be able to play dvds or do other things because it has no audio or video codecs. Those are in your programs the manufacturer includes. Have recovery disks at least. Images for fast recovery. Data backups for lack of images and to transfer to new computers unless you get new and keep the drives to copy data and sync at leisure. None of this is beyond the average user. Neither is fooling themselves that they are protected by any malware program from their own actions and zero day drive bys. Safe computing! I have to go deliver a business system I just set up and install it and set up their new network. I keep images of all my serviced systems. It is up to them to allow data backups and remember to do them. Again, I run into people who never turn off their systems, and never allow updates to restart until the backlog reinforces their fear of the time and bandwidth it takes. Those will not have read this far. Safe Computing! PS there are many ways to skin a cat. But there are only three backups you can do not counting clones. Images, data backups, and factory restores to out of box from either a created DVD recovery disk set you made or the recovery partition on the drive if the drive itself did not fail. You need all three and only one, creating the recovery disk set, takes an hour or two but that you only do once. Data backups can be easily automated, but I prefer to initiate my images weekly manually, and once running in a minute or two, leave it to finish without my attention.

Budd, Windows defender is already on Windows 8. It is the same engine used for MSE and their enterprise antimalware product Forefront. You don't want to run MSE on 8. Defender takes better advantage of the secure boot and other security improvements on 8. The new Defender is not the same as the old defender. They recycled the name for the new antimalware program. I make weekly system images using Windows 7 create a system image and make the repair disk. I have restored images many times with no problems like Acronis and Ghost before that caused. I use Macrium reflect for pre Windows 7 versions. It is free and quite easy to use.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/05/08/tesla-racing-out-of-the-valley-of-death-onto-the-road-ahead/?partner=yahootix Tesla went from a 55 and change close to 69 after hours after delivering three times the average 4% earnings forecast by analysts on average. They announced 12% Or maybe some folks are listening to fud like these: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/09/bill-oreilly-smears-tesla-motors-with-2011-financial-data/

Popeye, I think Avast is best in breed now for a free security program, but it is a bit more noisy than MSE, but almost as Quiet. I actually went back to MSE on my two remaining Windows 7 computers because I am using Windows Defender on my Windows 8 machines. Use Avast for awhile and you'll love it. I did. The only real reason is that soon I will have no Windows 7 machines. The oldest is getting sold, and my Lenovo has two drives, one with 7, the other with 8 Pro and media center. My SH has just admitted she is good with 8 after mastering her Surface RT tablet. So in a few months I will update hers again to 8 and save her settings and data. It worked fine last time but now she can navigate 8 without needing Classic Shell. She can use the new hidden start (charms bar,) and can click desktop when needed. Even she is only holding out because she does not want to have her desktop out for two to three days while I double check all drivers and programs. Budd, I know that some certain XP machines with a certain hardware set did indeed have memory leak issues with MSE at first. I had all XP machines and experienced none of that, and whatever it was was fixed early 2012 with the release of version 2. Percent of resources used is adjustable, and if set for high still only uses a bit then throttles up when not in use. I have seen the lightest resource usage in MSE, and Avast about the same, a bit more in scanning. Could you perhaps tell me what machines and systems you experienced the resource hogging with using MSE? I just got through redoing a regularly contaminated machine. I charge three hours if I have to reimage it with a year old image and do all the Windows and program updates. I have not used fdisk and format since early XP days. Now for a clean wipe after saving data I use the factory restore disks or recovery partition, or order restore disks if not possible to make from the machine. I select format and restore to factory. See, some computers need the programs that shipped. Next year when XP support ends, I will stop servicing XP AND Vista. Just doing Windows 7 & 8. Why? Because my minimum charge for a data save is high enough for me to make Windows 7 & 8 images for each, and then for my regulars just charge for reimaging. I am retired, and do turn down business. I pick and choose now. Once more I am getting too busy and refusing all but a few customers. I prefer to teach on the first one rather than charge sixty bucks over and over because those folks also will have old stuff that will fail mechanically and blame the tech. Formatting and loading Windows on an overheated laptop from dirt and pet hair lodged inside is hard on old poorly maintained machines. I have learned that no matter what anti malware I put on customer computers, when the programs asks them if they really want to open a possibly dangerous file, attachment, or website, they will over-rude it every time and get infected. And no matter which I have on mine, I don't, or see it happening and stop it and clean it. I still insist that antimalware is the third line of defense after keeping Windows and other software like pdf 3eqdwrs et al as first line, and user awareness an practices second. No software can prevent infection by the user.

2 PM and it is beginning to look like Tesla will break $58 a share today. It is fluctuating in the 57.97-9 area now. Update, it broke $60.00 a share briefly after hours, holding around 59.80 now. Daily average volume of trades is about 2.5 million trades. Today it was 4.3 million trades on the stock.

I had just re-read most of this thread, 20 pages. Hindsight is 20-20, and since this thread covers many member opinions and comments over almost three years, it is eye opening to read it again. It is notable how several folks gloated when Tesla was low, when I bought more if possible. But now that I am seeing my holdings become serious money, I am so glad I don't act from peer pressure. I do notice some of the folks who tried to gloat when it was down and were surprised when my only regret was I missed the hour long buying opportunity again. And hoped my stock, from investor irrational fears, tanked just one more time and it did, three times, one of which I caught in time to buy the last block I could afford. If any were shorting it this whole time, rather than gloat about my good fortune I would hope they get out before next week. I am staying as I don't have any short investments. Jim Rack was kind enough to explain shorts to me privately so now I at least know what a short squeeze is. (thanks Jim!) I hope my friends here aren't shorting Tesla. If shorts are not squeezed in the next week, they will be, and soon, and continuing through the rest of the year.

Jim, Here's an article that explains my position better than a long post. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1391321-tesla-s-short-squeeze-is-here?source=yahoo

Tesla three times higher than this week's all time highs of over $50.00 a share by the end of 2013? Likely I believe, and so do others. http://seekingalpha.com/article/1377241-tesla-motors-amazing-future-earnings-potential?source=yahoo

John, I am Mr. Cool. You didn't answer for yourself, true. Tesla closed at over $50.00 @ $50.19 today, their all time high, and may well soon see a short squeeze in a major way from unexpected sources. Yes I am still in, and long.

David, you got my interest enough because like you I will need a place to put my money not directly in the stock market. I looked up T Bonds and I Bonds, since you reference both, but I found they are not the same. One is every six months and the other is 30 years? Perhaps you could explain a bit more directly with rates and a link? Unlike you I am not addicted to the market. I am diversified in that I invested in land that I live on and have no debt of any kind. I have paid up Medical coverage and a small pension for life that is as secure as your T Bonds. That in addition to my four USAA funds, savings that we keep only for emergency liquidity and minimal, never more than my initial investment in Tesla, my one venture into the stock market and likely my next to last as Space X has not IPO'd yet.

Jim, Enjoy some time off. You have shown me some stuff about the mechanics of investing I never knew. I sure appreciate it. I am even more tickled it is going as expected. Only it took a year longer to start being in the mainstream media. Wednesday, two days ago, I went down to the local Mercedes stealership to ask if they were going to get the electric Smart. I asked for the store manager. He gave me a politician-like non-answer and said that they did not have that franchise. After repeating several times was he saying that they were considered not good enough by Daimler to have any dealership and were they about to lose their franchise? Or is it that they just were not going to ask for it or buy it. Then he stopped acting like it was beyond their control and said that there was more to it than that and they would have to build an additional facility. They are owned by the folks next door who own the Honda franchise here too. (Duh?) I then said that I would rather keep my money in the local community but would have no problem spending my money in Dallas, three hours away because maintenance should not be a problem, and I have a dual axle 19 foot trailer and a diesel truck. No tune-ups, no oil changes, no radiator, no fuel delivery system be that injection or carburetion, no exhaust system or pollution controls, so unless the battery fails, it should not be a problem being three hours away from the dealer each way. Tesla is a disruptive technology producer, run by one who is being called the premier applied engineer in the world, another Henry Ford, with the biz smarts of Steve Jobs, and seemingly all of the strengths and lesser admired traits it takes to bring new standards to market. The paradigm has changed, and those clinging to old ways they know that no longer have a future. I am sure the best buggy whip manufacturer was the last to fold, but folded nevertheless. The local dealer is thinking in a sense of having competition from many brands and many more dealers. For example, in Bossier City next to us, there is a dealer for every brand except Subaru. Across the river are more duplicate dealers for the same brands and still no Subaru. No Smart dealers. One hour North in Texarkana, are more of the same and no Smart cars or Subaru dealers there either. In three more towns within 30 minutes driving time are more dealers of the same makes and models. So the nearest Smart Electric dealers will be in New Orleans six hours South of our area, and three hours and another state away in Dallas. Apparently no one realizes that everyone does not need or want an electric car. But being essentially the only one with an entry level price electric commuter car, that uses no gas or diesel, without having to compete with no less than five or six dealers of the same products within a one hour driving radius, just might be a gold mine. But waiting until others make it happen means they will have not gotten on the train that is coming, but run over by it. Some other Tesla paradigm busters only possible with electric vehicles. Regional repair contract shops for the few things that do need hands on maintenance like accident repairs. No dealerships that are locally owned instead all showrooms, which are like Apple stores, are owned by Tesla. The end of the dealer and the silly offer/counter offer let me take that to the manager and see if he will take that offer BS is soon to disappear. No EPA costs because no exhaust good or bad inside. They can be run in a closed room. No fuel or oil leaks. Sealed lifetime lubed bearings and moving steering and suspension parts. The dealerships are going away too. And by the time my grandkids are my age, like pay phones, liquid fueling stations will be very hard to find. Vinyl went away overnight. CDs are almost gone too as now much is downloaded. Mechanical hard drives are going next. No one doubts that. Desktops are going away. Our tablets already outperform the desktops of just ten years ago, and the watches are on the way to be a hybrid between tablets and phones. We all wanted a Star trek communicator, and a tricorder. We have them now more or less with cell phones and tablets/phablets. Let's remember that both Boeing and Lockheed said it was impossible for a startup like Space X to develop and launch vehicles into space at a lesser cost than they could. Once Musk did just that they resorted to spending big bucks inside the beltway poring billions into lobbyists and "incentives" for legislators. There are a lot who truly do believe as you do that it is risky to believe in ICE vehicles being extinct in a decade or two. I know stubborn and resistance to change. I just got my first actual cell phone mid 2012. My SH had a voice only flip phone for years. Yes I used one for work but turned it off at COB every day. No personal one and none from 2009-late 2012. Now I pay $35 bucks a month for unlimited data texts and long distance on my Galaxy smartphone. There is a very good reason Daimler and Toyota paid big bucks for access to Tesla drivetrain technology. People have it backwards. It isn't that Tesla has to compete with the entrenched ICE makers. They have been doing the same thing for a century with little change not government mandated for safety or better efficiency/less pollution. Hard to compete with that? Hardly. The question is can the entrenched car makers compete for long with an established Tesla. The Leaf will not compete, the Rav4 will. The hybrids will not compete, there is already partial, and soon to be along all major routes, Tesla free fast 30 min. chargers, making cross country trips free of charge, pun int. Thanks again Jim.

No problem Russ, Glad it worked out. I towed a fiver too. Just no way to carry a car on that light duty truck, not even a motorcycle. Hey, no sweat as just like Class 8 TVs, be they singled or not, are also not everybody's cup of tea. Yours, sure. Just like I can't wait to get a Tesla. EVs are also not everybody's cup of tea. Heck tea isn't everybody's culpa either!

Showing my ignorance as I don't keep up with Smart car body sizes. I know now you all need to. But I also have three vehicles and one can be a commuter car. We are 12 miles from the base and town.

Hi Jim, Thanks! No I am holding as originally planned. Musk, as anyone who has followed him has executed perfectly. Today was a shock for the naysayers who said it would never be profitable. But Musk's "big announcement" is not until tomorrow. Today was just thet sales exceeded and they are in the black. I can't wait to see what the big announcement is. The folks who say they can't compete with the big car makers are missing the boat. This not about making the same thing over and over as the ICE and oil crowd want to see happen. Musk's solar fast charger free electric highway, which is free to Tesla owners, is already being erected and is working along several major corridors. Within a few years a Tesla owner can travel fuel free and recharger cost free from coast to coast on at least one major highway. Most miss that already successful effort and the fact that he also runs Solar City, the installer! But there is big news for all of us. Most ignore that Tesla is making the drive trains for Toyota all electrics, or that they dropped the low range 40kw systems for lack of demand? Everyone says that if Electric cars were cheap enough they would be a no brainer at today's fuel prices. Jim, Most here are unaware of the relationship between Tesla and Daimler. Some may have read about the Tesla driven Mercedes. But the big news will be when there is a cheap, affordable, all electric. This is big news for folks who RV with a Smart on the back of their rig. The only reason I bought the new Kia Rio 2012 5 door, not a smart was the awful shifting of their paddle system which even the most die hard fan will admit is a PITA in practice. So why would Smart car owners care about a solution to the terrible tranny? And what does that have to do with Tesla? The new, Tesla driven, all electric single speed Smart car will be available in the US soon. How much? $17,000.00 after the solar credit. 115 or so mile range, just like the now not going in Tesla batteries were? Maybe I am making a correlational error. Maybe not. But the electrc Smart and it coming soon at that price is real. Go here: http://money.cnn.com/gallery/autos/2012/10/11/smart-ed-electric-car/index.html?iid=EL So all electrics for places like London, and Silicon Valley willing to limit ICE engines in town, and folks who live in town and can't afford fuel today and a car note will have a car for all of us retirees with only two or one in the family, and young newly marrieds, and couples like my youngest who are both professionals and decided not to have kids, well, the ICE and oil folks still don't see the writing on the wall. They can't. Let's acknowledge that there were tablets before the iPad. Why didn't they sell? Tesla, and the electric car are already doing the same thing. Tesla stock has not yet begun to rise. It is trading today at ten times the volume. I will be happy a year from now I think. Dubai? Dang bud, I am just a poor re-tired person who is now self-enjoyed. Your trip likely cost half what I had to invest in Tesla. And I had to put my old petty cash account monies somewhere that makes more than .045 %! Glad you took the ride a bit. Consider the facts above before you sell it, and consider the execution and goals of Musk that has been proven. And read whatever it is he announces tomorrow!

From today's news: Driving with solar power Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA ) is leading the charge in making its vehicles solar compatible. The company is building a network of free supercharger stations that will give drivers a 150-mile range in just a half hour. When the network is complete in two years, a Tesla owner will be able to drive from Los Angeles to New York without spending a dime on fuel. The company has teamed up with another business controlled by Elon Musk, SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY ) , to offer a complete off-grid product for consumers who want to get all of their fuel from the sun. SolarCity and Tesla are a natural fit given their common majority owner and how complementary their businesses can be to each other. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/06/electric-vehicles-and-solar-a-match-made-in-heaven.aspx Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), which received $465 million in U.S. Energy Department loans to develop and build electric cars, will repay the funds five years ahead of schedule in a plan approved by the government. The carmaker said in its annual report yesterday that the department approved amended terms of the loan agreements that enable it to complete repayment by December 2017. Starting in 2015, the Palo Alto, California-based company will make accelerated payments from excess free cash flow, Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja said in a telephone interview. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/tesla-plans-to-repay-u-s-loans-five-years-early.html?cmpid=yhoo Tim Beyers: Every portfolio needs a battleground stock -- a company so loved, and so equally reviled, that imperfect pricing of the underlying business is bound to occur. You know the sorts of stocks I'm talking about: Apple, Sirius XM, and my pick for this month's must-own, Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA ) . I'm in Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest Conference, in part, to hear CEO and co-founder Elon Musk talk up the merits of his electric car manufacturer in the wake of a mixed Q4 earnings report and a high-profile fight with The New York Times. Expect bearish investors to growl at whatever bold claims he makes from the floor. You know what? It doesn't matter. The truth is, we don't know exactly how the Tesla story will end. What we do know is that Musk personally controls nearly 24% of Tesla's shares outstanding, which means he has a lot to lose if the company fails. We also know that production is ramping up to 500 cars per week from 400 just a few months ago, while the stock trades for a little more than twice expected 2013 revenue, which is on track to quadruple. All that's keeping Tesla down is skepticism that an electric can take hold on a mass scale. Ford's five-fold increase in January hybrid sales -- a natural bridge between all-gas and all-electric -- suggests that these skeptics are well on their way to being proven wrong. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/07/roundtable-1-stock-to-buy-in-march.aspx Check this out!!! http://wallstcheatsheet.com/view-image/?src=2013/03/tsla5.png I bought in when they IPO'd in 2010, and two buys since in 2011. But then everyone here knows that.

In answer to the original question I sure am still in, and damn glad too!

I use Avast free on my Android tablet and Android smartphone. It hasn't caught anything and neither have my machines. So far so good. I use Windows Defender on my Win 8 systems, MSE on my one Win 7 and one XP3 systems. No infections in years. All systems are kept up to date on Win Updates and all third party software on my machines. Nary a problem there either.

http://www.tflguide.com/2011/04/how-investors-react-in-different-market-situations.html Are you a: Window shopper, Seasonal trader, Scapegoat, Hi-Tech Lalaji, Mr. Cool? See the above article and see which characterization matches which posts most consistently. This is an insightful article that is entertaining in its approach. And so true!

Hey Cindy! Good point! Ken, Who are you trying to convince? BS is in the eye of the beholder. I hope whatever burr you have under your saddle resolves soon for you. Go on and escalate because the more you call me ignorant about investing, the more you agree with me! Thanks for your support!

Ken, Actually, I don't know anything about investing. I never wtf'd anybody as a put down. I also never put on airs, or put down someone who knew less than me in something I do know. Then you went on to say: " It is just an irritant when someone who obviously has no investing background. . ." ROTFLMAO! Let me tell you what I consider an irritant. When someone jumps into a thread that is many pages long and completely assumes he understands another. Go to this thread's first page and read my post there where I say with my first post that I know nothing about investing. And if you are curious scan each page as I reiterate that I consider myself the least experienced and knowledgeable person posting. However as everyone who HAS read the whole thread to understand what went on before knows, unlike your post, I make no pretense of being better, smarter, knowing more than another, or attempting to denigrate someone by saying they don't even know the basics, well, I am grinning from ear to ear right now. Here is page one for you. It is how you become qualified to know that it is rather difficult for me to take anything you say seriously. See, it is basic to read a thread before you comment on it or assume you are reading into things as they actually are. Is this how you research your investments? Skip all the data and jump to conclusions based on correlational errors? Here is page one. Thank you for confirming so rudely what I claimed. I never claimed any expertise as you have. Carry on! http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=93326&st=0