Here is what you
could do:
If you own shares in Tesla and you're in for the long haul, (1) you could ask your brokerage firm (broker-dealer or BD) to deliver the physical certificate to you. That means you are taking the cert out of 'street name'. When you buy stock in TSLA, your broker puts those shares in the name of the firm, or aka, 'street name' that goes into the account of Cede & Co. Short sellers call up the BD's trade desk and ask how many shares are available. This means "how many shares can I short today?" (2) if your shares are in a margin account, pay off the balance and get it off margin. You will know if you are on margin if you signed the margin loan agreement when you opened the account or if it says TYPE 2 on your statement. If there's no shares in the box they can't lend the stock to short. This means no shares on margin. BD's take your shares on margin and loan them out to short sellers to make interest and they make good money doing it.
In the old days, you could short stock without getting clearance or approval. You shorted and when the stock dropped, you covered and got paid. Very risky indeed but hedge funds did this until they abused it and got busted for what is known as a "naked short". When these short sellers get a hard on your stock and want to destroy it, they all jump in on the same trade. Watching the stock you love go down is pain, it's also destructive to a company's balance sheet. Covenants get broken and violated and interest payments get triggered and dilution and damn, that just feeds upon itself. Short selling is destructive and counterproductive, but not illegal. The idea is to take that leverage away from the shorts so they will need to buy in or cover their position. If everyone started to go off margin and take delivery of the cert, that will force a buy in and short sellers will be forced to cover..because they will get hit with that margin call and henceforth...the stock may rise if the news coming out from the company is generally positive. On the flip side, if the news coming out from the company is lousy none of this is going to help because you will get selling pressure. The best outcome is something along the lines of a Herbalife (HLF). It took 5 years to get Bill Ackman off that one. Carl Icahn (Uncle Carl) destroyed him with no mercy. He went long and Ackman went short. Ackman blew $1 billion shorting it and then he got his ass handed to him in the worst way.
FWIW, someone (short seller) is saying a break in technical support is near. See attached.
*Disclaimer: This was
not investment advice. Discuss your financial plans with your professional.
