TSLA chart above
QQQ chart above
The biggest number to keep in mind for Wednesday is that percent of TSLA selling tagged to shorts was a super-high 65%. Even though pre-market shorting pressure brought TSLA down to 174, the stock rallied momentarily to 178 before the sledge-o-matic was turned on. Despite that serious effort to keep TSLA under control, the stock was threatening to climb through 178 20 minutes before market close. Alas, a dip in the macros gave the pirates an excuse to amp up their shorting and TSLA closed down 0.32%, less than the Nasdaq's dip of 0.58%. Don't count TSLA out.
In recent days there have been lots of discussions about the upcoming compensation package vote for Elon. Lots of fear surrounds the issue. My view is that as long as the Board and Elon want to work things out, he will stay. I expect the vote to go in favor of his compensation package, simply because it is in the best interest of the shareholders to do so. If that fails, we wait to see if the Delaware Supreme Court will overrule the Chancery Court's ruling and allow the previous pay package to remain intact. Why would the court do so? Simply because it's in the state's best interest to do so and the chancery judge's decision went well beyond the norms of that court. In the meantime, the Board would go to work figuring what changes to the compensation package would need to be made to win a future vote. Elon has too much blood, sweat, tears and wealth invested in Tesla to pack his bags and simply leave.
News:
* The CEO of investment group CALpers says she's leaning toward voting against Elon's pay package. Previously, the firm supported the pay package, according to CNBC.
* The Limiting Factor Tweets that Tesla is switching suppliers of dry electrode machinery, supposedly because the new firm can provide greater volume of machines.
TSLA shorts were tagged with 65% of TSLA selling on Wednesday. This is close to maximum shorting and suggests extreme manipulations.
Yields on 10 yr treasury bonds rose further on Wednesday, to about 4.62%, following Tuesday's weak treasury auction
Max pain Wednesday morning was 177.50, up from Tuesday despite a TSLA price dip. Just as with Tuesday, strike 177.50 is the attractive middle ground with 175 being put-dominated and 180 and above call-dominated.
TSLA's Wednesday option volumes
The option sellers are manipulating TSLA so hard that it's pretty quickly returning to that mid-170s narrow trading range after each excursion. Considering the 58%+ selling tagged to shorts EVERY day, the stock has continued buying pressure, otherwise there'd be no reason to short so heavily. One can only imagine where the stock price would be if this heavy-handed effort by the option sellers wasn't present. The good news is that once Tesla shows its cards and Wall Street sees what's coming next and how profitable it will likely be, the stock can break free and climb rapidly.
Conditions:
* Dow down 411 (1.06%)
* NASDAQ down 99 (0.58%)
* SPY down 4 (0.70%)
* TSLA 176.19, down 0.56 (0.32%)
* TSLA volume 54.4M shares
* Oil 80.10
* IV 43.7, 23%
* Max Pain 177.50
* Percent of TSLA selling tagged to shorts: 65%
* Volume at 4pm closing cross: 4.1M shares
