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Elon Musk warns that holding a short position against Tesla (TSLA) is “probably unwise”

The last time Elon Musk commented on the short interest on Tesla’s stock, he warned that anyone holding a stock position against the company will have a “tsunami of hurt” coming for them. During the 12 following months, Tesla’s stock price increased by 461%, a lot of which was attributed to a short squeeze after Tesla reported its first quarterly profit in Q1 2013.

Today as short interest on Tesla is close to an all-time high, Musk commented on it again. Though he was more cautious in his choice of words than last time – so maybe not a tsunami 2.0. 

Since this weekend, the CEO has been answering questions on Twitter. It was mainly about the recently unveiled Model 3, but interestingly, today he diverted from the Model 3 theme and answered only one question today:

“What would you say to someone who is shorting your stock?”

Musk’s answer was simple: “probably unwise”.

From Twitter:

[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/717414130836058113 align=’center’]

During the last short interest report, NASDAQ confirmed that short interest was at 32 million shares on Tesla’s stock – down from the high of 34 million in February.

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) opened down 2% this morning following yesterday’s announcement that the company missed its Q1 delivery guidance of 16,000 units and delivered a total of 14,820: 2,400 Model X vehicles and 12,420 Model S vehicles. But it started climbing this afternoon and closed up ~3.5%:

Even though total deliveries were disappointing, the Model X production rate of 750 units per week confirmed by Tesla compensated for the bad news and it represents a good sign that Tesla can exist the second quarter at 1,000 units per week; it’s previously stated goal.

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Comments

  1. Drucifer - 9 years ago

    Any shorts who didn’t cover 7-8 weeks ago are seriously screwed Just sayin’

  2. Joe Florio (@JoeFlorio3) - 9 years ago

    I have read and seen people shorting tsla which was never a wise move, and has been the wise advice ever since 2012!!

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

You can send tips on Twitter (DMs open) or via email: fred@9to5mac.com

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