Elon Musk Isn’t Sure About Tesla Stock
Also bailouts, Buffett, oil ETFs and SOFR.
Tesla Inc. is an electric car company, and you might own its stock if you think it is good at making and selling cars, or sell its stock short if you don’t. But it is also, to an unusual degree for a public company, a cult of personality organized around its chief executive officer, Elon Musk. If you are short Tesla’s stock, there is a good chance that you have a burning personal dislike for Musk and object to everything he does. And if you own Tesla’s stock, there is a good chance that you think Musk is a genius and a hero, and you would follow him anywhere.
This created some cognitive dissonance on Friday morning when Musk tweeted: “Tesla stock price is too high imo.” The stock fell 10%. I imagine a lot of that selling came from die-hard Musk fans who wept as they hit the sell button. “It is so hard to say goodbye,” they presumably sobbed, “but it’s what Elon wants.”