For weeks, the primary force on TSLA has been market forces. We saw undeservedly high decline of TSLA when the hedge funds were unwinding their liquidity and stocks that brought lots of money had to be sold. Then we saw the positive as investors started reallocating their funds, leaving stocks that were too weak to justify their price and moving money into stocks like TSLA.
Today, I see the first real return of obvious manipulations. Granted, the percent of selling by shorts number has been above 60% for much of the past week, but today you actually see the usual manipulation patterns: a pre-market dip on steroids as the macros did a smaller dip around 8:30am, lots of icicles as shorts push TSLA down and it bounces back, a push down to the red/green line before 11am for no good reason and then a game of whack-the-mole, and finally another dip on steroids going into 2pm with insufficient justification.
My guess is that the hedge funds that sold calls are really trying to minimize TSLA's price before Friday close, due to the quantity of 480, 490, and 500 calls sold that expire tomorrow.
For perspective, I suggest watching
Dave T's latest video about the Shanghai GF influence on 2020 numbers and profitability, but take into account Dave's readjusted delivery numbers mentioned a few posts ahead of this one.