TSLA Market Action: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[Mike Smith]

Guess who the source for this was..

Internal documents reveal Tesla is blowing through an insane amount of raw material and cash to make Model 3s, and production is still a nightmare

 

[Rarity]

Yes it will be very interesting to see what other names pop up on this list. I wonder who the stuff has been sent to, would be very interesting if some of the names appear regularly on Seeking Alpha, would love that!

Perhaps it is more serious than that. Let's say he also passed any information to a short seller, or the reporter passed any information to a short seller. And the short seller passed along some of it to his short seller friends. Tesla would have cause to sue and get discovery on the entire chain of people involved. And so would everyone else in the market.

I can't imagine what would happen if a significant short seller became legally encumbered.

 

[Mike Smith]

I think the market is slowly realizing that today's news makes it a lot less likely the financial media will be willing to publish negative Tesla stories sourced from anonymous employees (Tesla being the only company they seemed to have been willing to do this with in the first place). This removes both a major risk to owning tsla and a major reason for being short.

 

[Curt Renz]

This one:
Tesla sues former employee for allegedly stealing gigabytes of data, making false claims to media

It will be interesting to read the courtroom testimony or legal depositions by the reporters and their media employers that accepted the alleged Tesla saboteur as a reliable anonymous source. Media not involved will make a big splash of that.

 

[Unpilot]

It will be interesting to read the courtroom testimony or legal depositions by the reporters and their media employers that accepted the alleged Tesla saboteur as a reliable anonymous source. Media not involved will make a big splash of that.

Nothing like a den of thief's turning on one another.

 

[neroden]

So much for these so-called "journalists" assuring us that their anonymous sources are reliable but need protection.

I believe the term is "journamalism"

Urban Dictionary: journamalism
Journamalism

 

[Tslynk67]

Elon's tirade against fake news and click-bait journalism looks pretty correct in hindsight, no?

 

[wnorris]

Perhaps it is more serious than that. Let's say he also passed any information to a short seller, or the reporter passed any information to a short seller. And the short seller passed along some of it to his short seller friends. Tesla would have cause to sue and get discovery on the entire chain of people involved. And so would everyone else in the market.

I can't imagine what would happen if a significant short seller became legally encumbered.

I believe there is more to this story. Why would this guy go to the trouble and effort and risk the penalty that will soon come due to spite at not getting promoted? The elaborate siphoning of data and leaking of information to news organizations to influence sentiment reeks of him doing this for some tangible benefit. Let's hope others were sloppy in their communication with him.

 

[Curt Renz]

Perhaps it is more serious than that. Let's say he also passed any information to a short seller, or the reporter passed any information to a short seller. And the short seller passed along some of it to his short seller friends. Tesla would have cause to sue and get discovery on the entire chain of people involved. And so would everyone else in the market.

I can't imagine what would happen if a significant short seller became legally encumbered.

Reporters will likely be placed under oath by the court. It would be interesting to learn if they first alerted short sellers or put option buyers that the articles would be published, or if they themselves sold Tesla short. One of the reporters using an anonymous Tesla employee as a source regularly published negative Tesla articles not long before weekly options were to expire on Fridays.

 

[wnorris]

I think the market is slowly realizing that today's news makes it a lot less likely the financial media will be willing to publish negative Tesla stories sourced from anonymous employees (Tesla being the only company they seemed to have been willing to do this with in the first place). This removes both a major risk to owning tsla and a major reason for being short.

Especially true if others go down with him.

 

[madodel]

The lawsuit is a first step, and allows Tesla to collect damages from the saboteur (up to the point where he declares bankruptcy); I assume Tesla's also filing a police report, since the activity was criminal.

And hopefully they find out others who are behind it and can get some satisfaction from them as well.

 

[Thumper]

So sad to see reporters loosing more credibility just when we need them to be at their best at finding and relentlessly standing up for truth.

 

[madodel]

At the very least this guy is unemployable for the rest of his life. Tesla should make an example out of this and make company wide training materials on the consequence of his actions to himself.

What do you mean unemployable? I see him getting a job in a car dealership in his future. Maybe selling rehabbed VWs.

 

[Curt Renz]

So sad to see reporters loosing more credibility just when we need them to be at their best at finding and relentlessly standing up for truth.

 

[wipster]

What do you mean unemployable? I see him getting a job in a car dealership in his future. Maybe selling rehabbed VWs.

Especially the diesel ones...

 

[Paracelsus]

Stop loss orders were invented by brokers for the purpose of cleaning out rubes. The brokers were cleaning out rubes who used stop-loss orders in the *19th century*, and there were articles about it *in the 19th century*. Never use them.

This is the most helpful post of the day for me to help understand yesterday's price action. On several occasions I watched the price teeter back and forth right at the -5% level........the level at which I have read in the 'advice' columns from brokerages suggesting an investor set a trailing stop (5% the price).

Short it, clean out the 5% trailing stops, and make money on the way back up. Nothing rigged about that action. Perhaps I need to consider a 5% down day as a very good indicator that the price action will continue upwards in the coming days?

 

[neroden]

Superman, the Golden Age version (the crusading reporter who is the "champion of the oppressed") is definitely the superhero we need.

Anyway, there are a lot of great journalists out there... but they're working for very little pay at places like Electrek and Reneweconomy, and other specialty publications. The corporate clickbait media is not where you will find them.

 

[ggr]

This is the most helpful post of the day for me to help understand yesterday's price action. On several occasions I watched the price teeter back and forth right at the -5% level........the level at which I have read in the 'advice' columns from brokerages suggesting an investor set a trailing stop (5% the price).

Short it, clean out the 5% trailing stops, and make money on the way back up. Nothing rigged about that action. Perhaps I need to consider a 5% down day as a very good indicator that the price action will continue upwards in the coming days?

Correct. Once the price passes down 5%, it either keeps going, or it recovers like it did. Recovery is extremely bullish, because it basically means that the shorts tried hard but didn't succeed.

 

[EinSV]

Correct. Once the price passes down 5%, it either keeps going, or it recovers like it did. Recovery is extremely bullish, because it basically means that the shorts tried hard but didn't succeed.

And it looks like some of the smarter shorts agree with you.

The IB short interest data below from a third party source (linked by @ValueAnalyst in the short interest thread) seems to show the first visible indication of net covering I have seen on any given day -- with shares available to short way up and interest rate dropping fairly fast at IB. In theory, that could mean someone just made a lot of shares available to short but covering seems a more likely explanation.

IBorrow Desk

 

[jelloslug]

I believe there is more to this story. Why would this guy go to the trouble and effort and risk the penalty that will soon come due to spite at not getting promoted? The elaborate siphoning of data and leaking of information to news organizations to influence sentiment reeks of him doing this for some tangible benefit. Let's hope others were sloppy in their communication with him.

Because he thought that he was smart enough to get away with it.