Rational Perspective

Earlier this week, Elon Musk’s biggest fan in the investment world urged Tesla’s founder to stop his ideas of taking the company private. Catherine Wood of ARK Invest re-iterated her bullish earlier projections in an open letter on the money manager’s website where she reckons the company’s shares will be worth anything from $700 to $4,000 in five years. Musk, you may recall, threw any number of cats among Wall Street’s pigeons at the beginning of the month tweeting that he intended taking the company private at a price of $420 a share. After peaking fractionally below $380, the price has since fallen back to its current $320. Below the pre-tweet level and a long way from the “funding secured” price. So far, those who bet against Musk have been the big winners, with disclosed short sellers of Tesla stock making over $1bn in profit since his bombshell tweet. These cynics think Ms Wood’s valuations are a figment of an alternative reality. But where they do agree, although for different reasons, is that it’s v