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TSLA chart above
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QQQ chart above
Wednesday was a strong day for the NASDAQ, which closed up 1.54%. That macro performance required a response from the shorts and hedge funds because they don't want the gravy train of this dip to end. There's also a strong psychological impact on many investors by reducing TSLA's performance because the tendency of longs is to think "TSLA is a gorked stock" without realizing the effort that's going in to create that appearance on a strong macro day.
Just take a look at those deep dips into the red at 9:38, 10:28, 12:16 and into close. There was no news of substance (to my knowledge) released at such times and no macro dips either. These were spirited manipulations to try and sink TSLA, plain and simple. Next, look at how little time TSLA spent above $140 during its 4 excursions above on Thursday. Can you say "whack-a-mole"? Finally, take a look at the doozy of the TSLA dip at day's end, right after TSLA crossed below 140. You can almost draw a straight line from 140 to intercept the red/green line about 10 minutes before market close. When this straight a line is used to create a desired manipulation, it's pretty obvious once you see it. I suspect one of the hedge funds turned on its sledge-o-matic autopilot with instructions to short sell as needed to get TSLA down below the red/green line a few minutes before market close and to keep it there.
So, why is it important to get TSLA slightly into the red for the close? For one thing, investors who look at their stock apps see a red TSLA when most everything else is green. The message: TSLA is still gorked. Then phase two kicks in because that close 17 cents below Tuesday's close give the ethicallly-impaired clickbait artists (journalist is too nice a word) license to stretch the truth beyond reason. Thus my Yahoo TSLA page showed the following stories:
Tesla Stock vs. BYD stock: TSLA stock keeps plungin on China Demand Fears, Musk's Twitter Reign,
Tesla (TSLA) stock's losing streak continues after report of hiring freeze, layoff plans (note: earlier in the day stories talked of TSLA being up because of that news),
Tesla (TSLA) stock sinks as market gains: what you should know. You get the picture... the prevailing theme is the losing streak continues (TSLA is gorked) but nowhere do the clickbait artists mention the loss was a manufactured dip of 17 cents 10 minutes before market close. That's how the game is played, my friends.
Rob Maurer's Tesla Daily video on Wednesday presented the important stories:
* Tesla is giving a full $7500 discount plus 10K supercharger miles to buyers who purchase M3 or MY between 21Dec and 31Dec. IMO, this is a good move because vehicles will sell and yet the 10 day hit to margins will be not so bad.
* Turkey is being added as a Tesla sales location. This will necessitate superchargers and service centers. IMO, adding Turkey along with adding Thailand earlier should help Shanghai find homes for all its vehicles produced while the China demand is temporarily lowered due to Covid in a country that has yet to build its herd immunity. Tesla continues to expand markets as needed to keep the vehicles flowing.
* Tesla has announced layoffs coming in Q1. This news is normally met positively by Wall Street because it means eliminating unneeded personnel. In the case of Tesla, we see these layoffs about yearly, and they're a time to cut the least productive employees during a perceived slack time. Rob pointed out that it's not really a true hiring freeze because hiring continues where needed.
* On a Twitter Spaces talk Tuesday night, Elon mentioned that he thinks Twitter could hit cash flow positive sometime next year. That's huge news because it helps dispel the illusion that Elon will be continually selling TSLA shares to keep Twitter afloat.
Here's a Tweet on the subject by Mathias Fons.
In this TMC post,
@NicoV links to European deliveries showing Tesla's Q4 deliveries are its best ever in Europe
@Curt Renz pointed to
this Benzinga article about Morgan Stanley saying that Tesla could leverage its costs advantages in EVs and make life very difficult for its competitors. IMO, at some point in Q1 Tesla might give an additional $3750 discount on its M3 and MY vehicles if the Feds are only offering customers half the expected $7500. Margins get negatively affected for a portion of a quarter, but Tesla still moves its vehicles and it'll be hard for the competition to make a nickel.
Bottom line: Wednesday was a manipulated day designed to keep TSLA under control, under 140, and to close at least a few pennies in the red. It worked on Wednesday, but with every dollar dip, TSLA becomes less attractive to sell and more attractive to buy. Tick, tick, tick.
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10 yr. treasury bond yields remained about the same on Wednesday, closing just below 3.7%
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Max pain Wednesday morning was 148. Strike 145 is pretty neutral between puts and calls but strike 150 and above are call-dominated
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Wednesday's options volumes
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With A LOT of help by the manipulators, TSLA has remained on a mostly downward trajectory along the lower bollinger band line. At some point sellers have to question the value of selling at these low prices, given Tesla's strong fundamentals.
Conditions:
* Dow up 527 (1.60%)
* NASDAQ up 162 (1.54%)
* SPY up 6 (1.50%)
* TSLA 137.57, down 0.23 (0.17%)
* TSLA volume 144.4M shares
* Oil 78.71
* IV 76.0, 94%
* Max Pain 148
* Percent of TSLA selling tagged to shorts: 47%
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