Why I Sold Most of My Tesla Stock Last Week

One of the largest holdings in my real-money stock portfolio wasTesla. The stock position that started as an ordinary stock position had grown into a large portion of my investments.

I like to let my winners continue to win. There were three reasons to cut back on my exposure to the electric car.

The reason I sold most of my shares is explained here. I will let you know what I did with the cash that unlocked the move.

CEO Elon Musk isn't inspiring anymore

I used to like to listen toTesla.

I didn't see the company as a maker of electric cars, they faced off against other companies. Changing how humans use and produce energy is what the car-making operation ofTesla is about. It would be time to move on after kick-starting the car industry into using electric vehicles.

A leading producer of solar-power solutions and battery banks would beTesla. Today's $13 trillion market makes the auto industry's market footprint seem small.

The long-term vision was created by Musk. I'm keeping 10% of my investment because I don't want to close out the whole position.

I don't think he's excited about it anymore. It's not the place to list all of Musk's silly mistakes. I'm going to hit some of the lowlights.

• Seemingly bored with the day-to-day struggle of Tesla's business and long-term strategy, Musk has become an important influencer on social media platforms such as Twitter (TWTR 1.76%).
• His social media obsession grew so large that he attempted to buy Twitter for $44 billion -- and then tried to cancel the deal. That project is going to court now, as Twitter is suing Musk for breach of contract.
• From the department of trivial silliness, Musk is officially the "Technoking of Tesla," paired with the "Master of Coin," Zach Kirkhorn. They also retain their traditional titles of CEO and CFO, respectively, but I guess those terms just weren't interesting enough.
• In the cryptocurrency space, Musk supports the worthless-by-design joke currency Dogecoin, while selling off Tesla's more serious Bitcoin holdings at a massive loss. Maybe he doesn't understand how cryptocurrencies work, or perhaps he just wants to destroy the credibility of the entire crypto idea. Either way, his tweets and interview quotes hold market-moving power in the crypto industry and his jokes/mistakes/whims have consequences.

Let's stop there and think about what's left. I don't think Musk is a genius anymore. I don't want to own a piece of his main business. I hope he continues his work, but I don't think it's a good idea to invest in an electric future.

Time to cash in enormous gains

In eight years, my shares in the company moved from $41 to $726, mostly due to the work done by Musk. I would like to thank you very much for that 17bagger. The 10% I'm leaving inTesla stock is still 70% larger than my original investment, and now it's time to put the rest of those gains to use.

So many better places to invest that money

It's easy to find more promising places to invest after the market dropped. The business prospects of Teladoc Health have not changed despite the fact that they have fallen dramatically from my original investment points. Some of the deepest price cuts on the market have been taken by the company. After the price increase, my investment deserved more money.

I decided to double down on these three stocks. It was once again that I took the crown back fromTesla. I'm very comfortable with this state of affairs since I see tremendous value inNetflix and my thesis has lost its appeal.

The stock market has been overvalued for a couple of years. It made sense to put some money in an exchange-traded fund based on the S&P 500. I chose the low-cost Vanguard S&P 500 index exchange traded fund.

I think this action will serve me well in the years to come, as I have been rebalanced to more closely match the stocks I do and do not believe in. I don't think the market timing is perfect here.

I sold my shares in Teladoc after it reported a mixed report. The general bear market is still going strong. Maybe I'll do some more balancing along the way. The market will keep going up.

There are positions in Bitcoin, Duolingo, Inc., and Teladoc Health. The Motley Fool has positions in a number of companies. There's a disclosure policy at the Motley Fool.