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

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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%:

tsla 05-04

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 - 8 years ago

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

  2. Joe Florio (@JoeFlorio3) - 8 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!!

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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