Elon Musk’s feud with Tesla shorts is not business, it’s just personal.
One month ago, after lashing out at some vast, anti-Tesla conspiracy (technically, he has a point, Tesla (TSLA) is the most shorted US stock for good reason) in the aftermath of the company’s bizarre earnings call debacle Musk first warned shorts that “oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon. Flamethrowers should arrive just in time“, then followed it up just hours later with another taunt on the coming short squeeze which “Looks like sooner than expected. The sheer magnitude of short carnage will be unreal. If you’re short, I suggest tiptoeing quietly to the exit”…
Oh and uh short burn of the century comin soon. Flamethrowers should arrive just in time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2018
… on May 7, Musk tripled down, and put money where his trash-talking mouth is, revealing that in a clear attempt to create an upside burst in an illiquid market, Musk bought about $9.85 million worth of Tesla shares in the pre-market just so his limited purchase could have the most outsized impact possible on the price, and force a burst of short-covering which has become Musk’s favorite way of keeping the stock levitating above its “intrinsic value.”
Things were going ok, with Musk making some vague promises that Model 3 production is ramping up, creating yet another short squeeze, when on Tuesday Musk dropped a bomb when Tesla announced it was firing 9% of its salaried workforce in a drastic cost-cutting measure for a company which has never until now bothered with limiting expenses, and after a bizarre admission to shareholders that “Given that Tesla has never made an annual profit in the almost 15 years since we have existed, profit is obviously not what motivates us”… and adding that “what drives us is our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable, clean energy, but we will never achieve that mission unless we eventually demonstrate that we can be sustainably profitable”
