How would you describe Apple? A music storage company? A handset company? A computer company? None of the above?

Just as a simple label is inadequate to describe the tectonic impact of the company Steve Jobs built (imagine for a moment no iPod, no iPhone and no iPad), Tesla is far more than a mere car company. It is a delivery vehicle for disruptive technology that is about to change your world, my world, our world.

Apple was a Trojan horse that sacked the citadel of the music industry and has subsequently played a central role in the disintermediation of the entire entertainment megaplex (been to a movie theater lately?)

Tesla is about to wield the sword of disruptive technology in the transportation industry. The company is on a collision course with a paradigm that few even recognize as changeable. Apple drove the price of a good song down by an order of magnitude and made people think twice about even paying for music. Tesla is about to do the same thing for your car.

NEW PARADIGM

In a few years, you will demand fuel subsidies from Ford and GM before you buy a vehicle with a gasoline engine because Tesla will have convinced you that you should pay less than 40 cents a gallon for fuel, if you have to pay at all.
I believe only a few analysts on Wall Street ‘get’ Tesla. Aswath Damodaran is a good example of a pundit who doesn’t. He sees no qualitative difference between Audi and Tesla, so for him Audi is a reasonable yardstick by which to measure Tesla.

Personally, I see few similarities between the two companies. Audi is an unremarkable competitor in the Porsche, BMW and Lexus race. Tesla, on the other hand, is in a league of its own. Comparing Audi to Tesla is like comparing an abacus to an iMac, or comparing a Radio Flyer to a Segway; or comparing an anchovy to a porpoise that can dance on its tail fins while eating anchovies.
When even hard-to-impress folk take a second look, they typically start gushing with delight. This is a road test by the U.K.’s Autocar.

STOCK OUTLOOK

What about the stock? It will fluctuate. Is it over-valued? Of course. But in a world where niche dominators such as Amazon (no p/e), LinkedIn (p/e 949), Netflix (p/e 375) and Facebook (p/e 202) are at all-time highs, do conventional valuation metrics really matter? 
Disclosure: Long Tesla.
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Catch Dr. Kenneth Reid each Wednesday in his The Dr. Is In trading coach column here on TraderPlanet.

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