Fri, Apr 26, 2019|Whitney Tilson

My 15-page report on Tesla; The Seven Keys to Long-Term Investment Success; SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son Lost $130 Million on Bitcoin; Bill Miller; Men thinking with their 'little heads'

1) I've spent the past day and half since Tesla (TSLA) reported earnings doing a deep dive into the earnings report as well as other recent events. I've written a 15-page report that we're sending to Empire Investment Report subscribers later this afternoon.

I realize that these two statements are perhaps arrogant and self-serving, but:

a) It's one of the best pieces of analysis I've ever written (when I sent the first draft to my editor last night, he replied: "Holy sh*t, this is fantastic!"), and

b) For anyone who has – or might have – a position in Tesla, this report is worth far more than the cost of a lifetime subscription to my newsletter.

You can subscribe and get this report – along with the ones on the other stocks in my model portfolio – here. (If you'd like to watch a replay of the April 17 webinar, click here.)

We're so sure that you'll agree that you're getting far more value than what you're paying that we're offering a 30-day money-back guarantee.

2) Picking up where I left off in last Thursday's e-mail, here's part two of my article on The Seven Keys to Long-Term Investment Success. Excerpt:

Smart investors focus on free cash flow, not net income...
Rule No. 5 is to be wary of companies that are constantly making acquisitions...
Rule No. 6 may surprise folks familiar with my work: Avoid shorting, but respect short sellers...
My last bit of advice when it comes to investing is to keep things simple...

3) SoftBank's Masayoshi Son has an incredible track record betting on emerging technologies, but he sure top-ticked the bitcoin bubble. I should put him on this e-mail list – my e-mail calling the top the very hour bitcoin peaked at $20,000 on December 16, 2017 might have saved him! At least he had the good sense to get out in early 2018... SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son Lost $130 Million on Bitcoin. Excerpt:

Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank, made a huge personal bet on bitcoin just as prices for the digital currency peaked, losing more than $130 million when he sold out, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Son, who launched the world's biggest venture-capital fund on the strength of his long-term investing acumen, made the investment in late 2017 at the recommendation of a well-known bitcoin booster, whose investment firm SoftBank bought that year, the people said.

4) I've been a big fan of Bill Miller's since I first started investing in the late 1990s. He's a smart investor who thinks outside of the box – and a super nice guy to boot (I've had the pleasure of meeting him on many occasions).

I enjoyed this article about a talk he gave recently: What Bill Miller says is his main advantage and why Amazon will double in 3 years. I think he's right that Amazon will double in three years. But this really caught my eye: I like buying stocks that are at or near their 52-week lows, but Miller recently bought Avon Products (AVP) at a 72-year low (and it's doubled this year)!

5) One of my Five Calamities That Can Destroy Your Life is loss of reputation/freedom – and one sure way for this to happen is to get caught up in a sex scandal. Here are three more additions to the seemingly endless numbers of prominent men who were thinking with their little heads, not their big ones:

Best regards,

Whitney