Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

Chapter 255: Investing in Tesla

 “The scenery here is very nice.”

Opposite the sofa chair, Ms. Cathy looked out the window at the pier and the vast expanse of blue sea and said.

“Yes, I once had a dream to open a cafe on the beach in Miami. Facing the sea and white sandy beach every day, I would welcome all kinds of customers and listen to their stories. What do you think?”

"It should be very boring. From what I know about you, you don't seem like the kind of person who is willing to be lonely."

Ms. Cathy said bluntly.

Link smiled lightly and did not refute.

Ms. Cathy Wood is a very professional asset manager. After sitting down, she didn’t exchange too many greetings. She directly threw over a stack of information reports, which were asset investment reports accumulated in the fourth quarter of last year. She said that he needed to see them.

 Because he was too busy at the end of last year and had no time, it was not handed over to him until now.

Link saw a pile of information in front of him that was thicker than "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" and couldn't help but feel a headache. He was a boxer and liked money, but hated dealing with numbers. Reading too much of that stuff would make him dizzy, but it wouldn't work if he didn't read it.

From the perspective of technological development, the replacement of gasoline vehicles by electric vehicles is an inevitable product of social development.

As for Facebook, with a current market value of 18 billion, it is a favorite of Wall Street, and he is not qualified to get involved.

 “Tesla? The electric car project led by Elon Musk?”

 In the future, his stocks will mainly be Amazon, Twitter, and Tesla.

Cathy was also the first to explain the income and dividends of Amazon stock.

 Link used Pioneer Assets to acquire approximately 10.4% of Twitter’s shares for US$65 million, becoming Twitter’s fifth largest shareholder.

"Yes, Ailon is my neighbor. His villa is not far from here. I talked to him last time and he told me that the future automobile transportation industry will be dominated by electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are more advanced and environmentally friendly than gasoline vehicles. , and more intelligent, I agree with his statement.”

Link's shares were partially diluted, leaving 8.7%, but the market value rose to about 80 million.

As a self-made billionaire, every penny is hard-earned. He needs to know where his money comes from and how it is lost, so as not to fall into the hands of the digital players on Wall Street.

According to futurist Toffler's description in "The Third Wave", the third wave is the stage of the information technology revolution. In this stage, social development is mainly marked by the invention and application of electronic computers, that is, the network era.

 At that time it was a good opportunity to start.

 Amazon stock also fell from US$241 per share to US$119.

 Last August, the number of registered Twitter users exceeded 60 million, and the market value of the stock price was between 500 and 600 million, and the company began its second round of financing.

Link holds 420,000 shares of Amazon stock, currently worth approximately US$141 million.

 In September 2008, Amazon was affected by the financial crisis. Its total market value fell from 33.7 billion in June 2007 to 23.8 billion US dollars, a drop of 37%.

“Cathy, I’ll look at this information when I get back. First, tell me about the investment situation last quarter.”

 Twitter’s valuation reaches US$1 billion.

He plans to sell his shares in Apple, Google, Netflix and other stocks, add the deposits in his account, and buy some shares before Tesla goes public, striving to become a major shareholder qualified to join the board of directors.

In addition, he also holds 22,000 Apple shares, 11,000 Google shares, and some Netflix and YouTube shares, with a total value of approximately more than 48 million US dollars.

Later, he won the WBA gold belt and defeated Tyson. Through boxing matches and advertisements, he earned more than 20 million, all of which he invested in Amazon stocks.

 Invested nearly 65 million U.S. dollars in Amazon stock.

What he and Cathy need to talk about today is this year’s investment arrangements.

  The S&P 500 Index rose by 211%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 313.2% during the same period, and the Nasdaq Composite Index, which is dominated by technology stocks, rose by 370%.

 Established in July 2006, it is similar to a blog. Since 2008, it has gradually become a relatively famous microblog publishing platform.

 In May 2009, the impact of the financial crisis gradually weakened, and the U.S. stock market slowly recovered from its decline.

Since Twitter has not yet been listed, if you want to get Twitter shares, you need to raise funds.

By February 2009, Twitter conducted its first round of financing. Affected by the financial crisis, its market value dropped to between 200 million and 250 million.

ˆ Amazon’s market value has also soared from more than 20 billion in 2008 to 66.2 billion US dollars, almost three times, and it is still growing.

Ms. Cathy Wood took out a tablet from her bag and explained to him the investment and income status of the fourth quarter in fluent and easy-to-understand language.

 Last November, mutual fund company T. Rowe Price and private equity investment company Insight Venture Partners invested US$100 million in Twitter and obtained 10% of Twitter's shares.

　　In 2008, Facebook invested US$500 million in an attempt to acquire Twitter. Due to issues such as whether to merge Twitter into Facebook, the management of the two parties failed to reach an agreement, and the acquisition failed. At that time, Twitter's share value was US$350-400 million.

ˆThe second key investment project is Twitter, a social network service company.

Since September 2008, Link’s first investment has been in Amazon’s shares. He has made several additional investments since then, and now Amazon’s shares are his most valuable asset.

At that time, Link didn’t notice the tweet and didn’t take action.

 U.S. stocks have soared, and Amazon's stock has also risen from the lowest price of 108 US dollars to 332 US dollars. At the end of 2009, it rose to a maximum of 346 US dollars, and is currently stable around 336 US dollars.

Through Cathy, he spent more than 12 million U.S. dollars to acquire about 100,000 Amazon shares.

Link spread his hands and talked about the advantages of electric cars.

 Ms. Cathy Wood heard that he wanted to invest in Tesla, she blinked her turquoise eyes and looked at him in surprise.

"All right!"

Link said as he stirred the coffee cup with a silver spoon.

The total market value of these stocks is about 270 million U.S. dollars. Including bank deposits, Dynasty Promotion Stock, and Link Music Company, his net worth is about 360 million U.S. dollars, which is 40 million higher than the statistics of "Business Week".

Industries that are closely related to network intelligence will develop more rapidly, such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, GPT, OpenAI, etc., which are all products of the third wave and are unstoppable.

"Link, these are all speculations and do not conform to the market development situation. Another point is that you may not know Elon Musk. He is an idealist. He has gone to Chinatown many times to promote his His Mars immigration plan, space shuttle plan, and electric car plan, everyone regarded him as a madman, and no investment company was willing to invest in him.

In addition, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has not been able to build a rocket so far. The electric cars produced by Tesla Motors also have many problems. I do not think this is a suitable investment project. "

Cathy Wood turned on her computer and pulled up Tesla's revenue last year. The fiscal deficit was as high as 520 million U.S. dollars, and its market value was only 800 million U.S. dollars, almost on the verge of bankruptcy.   So Tesla is not a good investment project.

Link looked at the data and found that Tesla's situation was worse than reported in the media.

“Cathy, I know Elon Musk’s ideals are a bit too forward-thinking, and I know Tesla is in a bad situation, but what I appreciate is Musk’s philosophy and direction.

  He was leading the times rather than simply copying other people's ideas. He was an adventurous explorer, and even if he failed, it was a useful attempt.

　　If I were a poor person, all I could do was applaud him. Now that I have a large sum of money, I would be willing to use it to do something meaningful.

 But if he succeeds, Cathy, do you know what that means? "

Link looked closely into Cathy's beautiful eyes and smiled, "I will become richer, and you will become richer, so why not take a chance?"

Cathy didn’t look at him and looked down at the tablet screen, feeling a little helpless.

She and Link have known each other for more than a year. Although they don't meet often, about five or six times, they contact each other by phone or video every week.

　　When she first became the manager of Link Asset Management, she was very excited. Working as a housekeeper for a handsome man was much better than working for those greasy men, old men and women in their 70s and 80s. She could not only make money, but also be eye-catching.

 Female colleagues who work with her are very envious of her.

In addition, Link’s vision in investment is also very similar to hers.

 In the first conversation between the two in 2008, Link said he was optimistic about the development of Amazon and believed that Amazon's stock would see a surge after the financial crisis, as would other technology stocks.

This coincides with her. She is also very optimistic about Amazon and other Internet technology stocks.

 So Link’s first investment went very smoothly.

 The second time in June, Link called and said he was ready to acquire a portion of Twitter shares.

At that time, Facebook was the number one social networking stock, and stocks such as MySpace, YouTube, and MSN also had great potential.

  Comparatively speaking, Twitter’s stock is inconspicuous among many Internet stocks. If it is not managed carefully, Twitter will fail to compete with other social software, and the investment will be in vain.

But this is Link's suggestion.

She did not immediately refute it. After careful investigation and analysis, she found that Twitter was in good operating condition and that several managers were also capable people.

Under their management, the number of Twitter users has also been steadily increasing. Especially after popular celebrities such as Link registered as Twitter users, the number of users grew significantly faster.

 Investing in Twitter is risky, but it can also be profitable.

She personally met with the two founders of Twitter, Jack Dorsey and Ivan Williams, talked to them, proposed a share purchase plan, and mentioned the benefits of having a star shareholder like Link.

 After many negotiations, she obtained 10.4% of Twitter shares for US$65 million.

This was also the biggest job she had done since joining the industry, and she was almost nervous to death at the time.

　　I often had nightmares afterwards, dreaming that Twitter was bankrupt and Link’s investment was in vain. I also dreamed that Link pointed his nose in the dream and scolded her for being useless, causing him to lose money.

That period of time was very anxious.

But just three months later, the number of Twitter users increased to 80 million, Twitter began its second round of financing, and its market value was increased to US$1 billion.

Link’s Twitter shares have only grown for three months, growing by more than 30% out of thin air, adding more than 10 million in value.

 And with this transaction, she received more than one million yuan in commissions and became a millionaire. She also received awards from the company, was promoted from a small shrimp manager to a senior asset manager, and had her own office in the company.

 She felt that she was so lucky and felt that Link was her lucky star. After meeting Link, good things continued to happen.

 So she rejected the company's offer to arrange other clients for her and concentrated on managing Link's account.

In the past two months, she used the company's information channels to help Link's account increase the balance by more than 10 million through multiple small investment operations, and her own account also increased commissions by nearly 1 million.

She feels that she is getting better and better, her work is getting smoother, and she may become a multi-millionaire before long.

 The future is bright.

But

Link suddenly said that he would invest in Tesla, a project that had no potential and was about to go bankrupt.

Cathy doesn’t know how to persuade Link.

Although Link doesn’t know much about the specific operations of financial investment, he has a very good vision and is very stubborn. Once he identifies a project, he is like a train with a failed brake system and rushes forward without hesitation.

what to do?

Had she known that Elon Musk lived next door to Link, she would have persuaded Link to move in advance to avoid being deceived by Elon Musk.

 It’s a pity that it was too late.

 Dang!

Link tapped the rim of the cup with a coffee spoon and saw the manager Cathy's expression changing.

“Is it difficult to just sell a hot stock and exchange it for a portion of an unpopular stock?”

Cathy looked up at him, blinking her turquoise eyes.

"Buying Tesla stock is easy and can be done in two or three days. However, Tesla's operating conditions are very poor. It spends hundreds of millions of dollars on battery pack research projects every year and has failed to succeed for three or four consecutive years. As a result, the original shareholders have withdrawn their shares. If we invest, we will probably lose everything. Do you still want to invest?"

"Yes!"

Link said with certainty.

Cathy frowned, her lower lip was slightly raised, and she looked at him with a helpless expression.

Link smiled softly, "Cathy, one thing you have to understand is that I am a boxer and it is very easy to make money. The 48 million used to invest in Tesla can be earned in just a few minutes, so you Don’t worry about losing money, invest boldly, I’ll take care of everything.”

“Well, don’t blame me if you lose. I am the manager of your assets. I can only make suggestions and cannot help you make decisions.”

Cathy said with a serious expression.

"certainly!"

Link smiled lightly and touched her coffee cup.

 (End of this chapter)