Elon Musk is gearing up for 'months of extreme torture from the short-sellers' (TSLA)

pulse

August 17, 2018 1:46 PM

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the past year has been "the most difficult and painful year of my career," in a revealing New York Times interview published Thursday night.

The billionaire has often criticized those investors betting against Tesla's stock price in the past.
Tesla remains the most-shorted stock in the United States by a large margin.

Elon Musk hasn't been quiet about his disdain for short sellers, or those investors betting against Tesla's stock price.

In a New York Times interview published late Thursday, the billionaire chief executive doubled down on those criticisms. While the worst may be behind Tesla operationally, Musk said he worries that pressure from Tesla bears will continue as long as his company is public.

Now — in the wake of his Twitter announcement that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share — Musk is preparing for "at least a few months of extreme torture from the short-sellers, who are desperately pushing a narrative that will possibly restyle in Tesla's destruction," he told the paper.

Tesla has long been the most-shorted stock in the US, according to data from the financial analytics from S3 partners, and that persistence has agitated Musk for some time.

tweeted in June 2017

On an earnings conference call in May, Musk interrupted questions from two sell-side analysts, calling them "boring" and "boneheaded." He has since apologized to the analysts from Bernstein and RBC Capital Markets, but defended his choice to take questions from retail investors instead.

"The 2 questioners I ignored on the Q1 call are sell-side analysts who represent a short seller thesis, not investors," Musk tweeted after the call. "The reason the Bernstein question about CapEx was boneheaded was that it had already been answered in the headline of the Q1 newsletter he received beforehand, along with details in the body of the letter."

Still, Musk isn't backing down.

"They’re not dumb guys, but they’re not supersmart," Musk told the Times. "They’re O.K. They’re smartish."

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