Cloud highs, the Tesla’s first long road trip and more

Here’s the transcript from this week’s Live Q&A Chat including discussion on options, my upcoming trip in the Tesla and Durant’s injury.

Q. You are using your TESLA to take a 10 hr road trip; I would like to know how you manage charging your vehicle while travelling…is it disruptive and time consuming or easy?

A. Tesla is focused on putting Supercharger stations in on all major routes in the US and they’ve done a great job of it already. I can charge the Model 3 batteries in 20-30 minutes at one of these stations. There are also EV charging stations along the route that take 2-3 hours to charge the car if we need to. We’ll be stopping at a Supercharger in Santa Fe and at a small town in CO before we get to Vail. We’ll have to spend 20-30 minutes more at these charging stations and maybe spend an extra 5-10 minutes getting to them vs a gas station. But we’ll be eating lunch and/or having a coffee break while the cars charge. In June 2019, it’s slightly more inconvenient to use the Tesla EV instead of a gas-guzzling loud, hot engine car on a 10 hour road trip. In another year, it will be even easier. And it 3 years, it will probably be just as easy to find and fill up your Tesla at a Supercharger station as it is to find and fill up your old-fashioned engine car at a gas station.

Q. Cody- what are your thoughts on possible antitrust actions against big tech?

A. I’ve never taken antitrust threats seriously from the Republican Democrat Regime and I still don’t take them too seriously. But if Trump’s motivations are confusing me in the Trade War, it’s also possible that they might actually do something for real against big tech. Doubtful though.

Q. Enjoy Vail, Cody! (And family.) (And the Tesla.) Thanks for the Trade Alert on what you’re trimming. Any comment on our recent in-the-hole-right-now puts — July QQQ and August IWM and SMH in my case? Does your caution/your “pessimism lite”/your thinking about possible Fed moves (rates down) and traditional market reaction (up, but not permanently) say anything about these options? Add to them? Sit tight? Spend more time in church? Thanks.

A. The puts are there as hedges, not as bets that the markets are about to crash. Since I’m still quite net long, I would almost hope that these puts end up being worthless and that our longs do all our work. I’m sitting tight and /or nibbling on a few more puts. And unless you’re spending quality time in church, I wouldn’t recommend going to church just to spend more time there.

Q. The lack of activity with questions in here makes me want to trim trim trim.

A. Yeah, man, where is everybody? Ain’t nobody scared? Everybody feeling like we’ve got this investing thing all figured out now? Don’t be complacent.

Q. I understand your sentiment has changed a bit on VZ, It seems to have held up very well when the markets have turned negative, and then stayed stagnant when the markets are going up, As we trim some of the more volatile names into this rally what are your thoughts on maybe adding to the position that pays a nice divy as you get more defensive overall?

A. I don’t plan on selling all of my VZ, but neither do I plan on adding to it. I’d rather be defensive with cash than with Verizon right now.

Q. Any thoughts of trimming any TSLA that I may have purchased at 10% lower than current? Or just keep letting it ride since it’s a long term play?

A. It can’t hurt to take a little off the table on a quick pop like this. But I plan on holding most of my TSLA for many years to come.

Q. Hey Cody. What are your thoughts on PANW? Thanks

A. Sitting tight. The markets are hating on PANW right now, but I continue to think it’s a good long-term Revolutionary company.

Q. Cody: Any thoughts on CRM/DATA deal?

A. It’s indicative of how strong the cloud is and how strong data demand is. I should have owned DATA!

Q. Cody: So any other cloud/data stocks we should be in?

A. The good ones like MDB and ZEN are at their all-time highs and through the roof lately. Not sure I want to chase the cloud stocks here.

Q. AXGN has been quite weak of late while the market has been in a steady upswing. Doesn’t seem like any associated news to coincide with the downtrend. Your thoughts on AXGN here and the weakness lately?

A. It’s a unique small cap nerve repair company, so it’s not going to always move with the markets. I’m still holding my remaining AXGN stock steady as the fundamentals have remained quite intact.

Q. Cody: Would be a buyer or seller of SNAP here? Or simply hold steady?

A. Probably a trim or a hold.

Q. Cody – is Gold telling us that its going to explode second half of the year ? thnx

A. Not sure it’s telling us anything.

Q. Thoughts on some covered calls on SQ…. or some July 19 GOOGL 1050 puts as a hedge.

A. If you want to trim some of SQ and GOOGL, selling some covered calls is a way to do it.

Q. Cody – will Kevin Durant ever be the same old self after the Achilles injury he suffered last night?

A. I hope so, because he’s great, if annoying. But I doubt it.

Ok folks, that’s a wrap!