{"id":83203,"date":"2025-08-14T10:46:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83203"},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:46:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:46:01","slug":"elon-musk-tesla-tsla-shorts-obliterated-but-big-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=83203","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk says Tesla (TSLA) shorts are going to be ‘obliterated’, but there’s a big if"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"\"<\/figure>\n

Elon Musk claims that Tesla (TSLA) shorts, people betting against the company\u2019s stock, are going to be \u2018obliterated, \u2018 but there\u2019s a big if to his prediction.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Shorts\u2019 is a term used to refer to people betting against the stock of a company. They have long played a significant role in Tesla\u2019s history on the stock market, and CEO Elon Musk has frequently commented on the situation, going so far as to predict their downfall and criticize them at every opportunity.<\/p>\n

Throughout the years, Tesla was often topping the list of the most shorted stocks on the NASDAQ. As the automaker became profitable, shorts started to take losses and lose interest.<\/p>\n

However, people who shorted Tesla made a lot of money earlier this year after shorting the stock following a rally over Trump\u2019s election and Musk\u2019s relationship with Trump.<\/p>\n

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Tesla\u2019s stock has since recovered, and now, the short position on Tesla has stabilized at around 2.6% of the float, which is historically fairly regular and far from previous highs.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, CEO Elon Musk decided to take a jab at them today by claiming that they will be \u201cobliterated\u201d if they don\u2019t sell their positions \u201cbefore Tesla reaches autonomy at scale\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf they don\u2019t exit their short position before Tesla reaches autonomy at scale, they will be obliterated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The operating phrase here is clearly: \u201cbefore Tesla reaches autonomy at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk has been promising that Tesla will reach autonomy at scale by the end of every year for the last 6 years, and it has never happened.<\/p>\n

The CEO\u2019s latest timeline is that \u201cautonomy will start positively contributing to Tesla around the second half of 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Tesla\u2019s \u201cRobotaxi\u201d in Austin is still supervised by a Tesla employee in each vehicle, \u201cRobotaxi\u201d in California is just a ride-hailing service with employees in the driver\u2019s seat, and Tesla\u2019s \u201cFull Self-Driving Supervised\u201d in consumer cars has barely improved since Tesla launched v13 last year. <\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

I think Tesla shareholders hoping for a short squeeze should manage their expectations. With only 2.6% of the float and about a day to cover, any short squeeze would have a minimal impact.<\/p>\n

However, I think Elon is probably right. If Tesla reaches autonomy at scale on his timeline, Tesla\u2019s stock would shoot up, but there are huge caveats to this prediction.<\/p>\n

Firstly, if you believe Elon\u2019s latest timeline for the second half of next year, there are several significant events that are expected to occur at Tesla before then.<\/p>\n

With the tax credit set to expire in the US and increasing competition in Europe and China, Tesla is expected to face several tough quarters after Q3. Elon himself admitted it during the last earnings call.<\/p>\n

We are not just talking about Tesla continuing its earnings decline, which has been a clear trend for two years now, but we are talking about Tesla likely losing money, starting in Q1 2026. I don\u2019t think shareholders and the market are ready for that.<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s liability regarding its failed autonomy promises and crashes is also increasing with more lawsuits advancing through the legal process every week.<\/p>\n

In short, Tesla\u2019s stock could take a significant hit over the next 12 months due to its declining EV business and increased liabilities.<\/p>\n

Secondly, that\u2019s assuming Elon\u2019s latest autonomy prediction comes true, which has historically been a bad bet.<\/p>\n

So Tesla\u2019s fundamentals are about to crash, based on Elon\u2019s own comment, but shorts will get \u201cobliterated\u201d if Elon\u2019s historically terrible autonomy prediction finally comes true. Sounds like a big if to me.<\/p>\n

That said, I wouldn\u2019t necessarily recommend shorting Tesla\u2019s stock based on this. The stock is clearly manipulated and trades primarily based on Elon Musk\u2019s lies. <\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk claims that Tesla (TSLA) shorts, people betting against the company\u2019s stock, are going to be \u2018obliterated, \u2018 but there\u2019s a big if to his prediction. \u2018Shorts\u2019 is a term used to refer to people betting against the stock of a company. They have long played a significant role in Tesla\u2019s history on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}