
Elon Musk tweet wipes $14bn off Tesla's value - abhi3
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52504187
======
crazygringo
Wait... ... _again?!?!_

After his SEC agreement expressly requires him to have his tweets vetted
first, and he didn't?

What is the man thinking. He's not an idiot. Is he self-destructing? Does he
have the impulse control of a 5-year-old?

He's going to lose his position on the board, for real.

And he _deserves to_ at this point.

When you run a _publicly traded corporation_ , there are rigorous rules about
what you can and cannot say, and when, to _ensure a fair playing field for
investors._ The same way there are rigorous rules against insider trading.

If he wants to act irresponsibly, then he should have kept Tesla a private
company.

Seriously. The guy is simply not exhibiting the mental self-control to run a
_publicly_ traded corporation. It's becoming clear he simply can't do the job
as is required, no matter how smart he may otherwise be.

~~~
geoelectric
At this point, I'm fairly sure he either has a cyclic mental illness causing
him to be reckless in waves; is incredibly sleep-deprived to the point of
executive function broadly going sideways; or has a serious problem with
tweeting (and apparently earnings calls) while on stuff.

It's possibly all three.

Whatever the case, it resembles a lot what my ADHD did when it was completely
unmanaged and at peak. But I didn't have a few billion dollars to make people
have to put up with me. It definitely smells like impulse control/executive
function in some way or the other.

~~~
s5300
It's his life. Why do you want it to be controlled to your ideals?

~~~
jahlove
If I was a Tesla investor my answer would be because that's what he signed up
for when he took Tesla public.

~~~
yellow_postit
What about the investors that want an unfiltered Elon and believe that’s part
of the package deal?

------
joshstrange
> "We view these Musk comments as tongue in cheek and it's Elon being Elon.
> It's certainly a headache for investors for him to venture into this area as
> his tweeting remains a hot button issue and [Wall] Street clearly is
> frustrated,"

I'm sorry, whose fault is it that Wall Street react to tweets? I mean really,
If I'm long on Tesla (I'm not, I own none of their stock unless it's somehow
tied up in my 401K) am I selling all my stock because Elon said he thinks it's
too high? No, that would be stupid. Sounds like day traders/HFT's are the ones
that choose to react to this stuff and then get burned and I have zero
compassion for that. Live by the sword...

~~~
crazygringo
> _am I selling all my stock because Elon said he thinks it 's too high? No,
> that would be stupid._

Literally nobody knows more about what's happening at Tesla than Elon Musk
does. If he thinks it's too high, that's _incredibly_ material information.

It's entirely rational to think it's equivalent to "I saw the non-public
reports of sales projections and turns out they're plummeting" or something
similar.

And therefore that Tesla is overvalued and you ought to sell, and buy back
again only when it's at a price that takes that into account.

It's Wall Street's _job_ to react to _all publicly available information_ at
the _moment it becomes available_. Statements by a CEO are very much included
in that.

What the heck do day traders or swords have to do with it? Stock prices are
determined mainly by large funds, like the ones that invest people's pensions.

~~~
deadbunny
To be fair TSLA is insanely priced, it was overpriced at ~250 and has only
grown exuberantly this year.

------
_Microft
_I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house. — Elon Musk
(@elonmusk) May 1, 2020_

Did his fortune cookie say "When you can not _be free to_ do things, _be free
from_ things instead" or what? ><

His vision for and achievements with both Tesla and SpaceX are amazing but I
am afraid that one day one of these shenanigans will be his undoing which
would be pretty sad because I really want to see Mars colonization happening.

~~~
2019-nCoV
Once you reach Musk levels of wealth can you imagine how paralysing
possessions are?

Most become enamoured with distractions as their means rise. But instead of
choosing colours for the kitchen renovation or which BMW defines them as a
person, we're talking about how many sprawling villas to build and which
private tropical island to buy to build them on.

An ascetic approach will increase the odds of Musk seeing Mars in his
lifetime.

~~~
hobofan
> An ascetic approach will increase the odds of Musk seeing Mars in his
> lifetime.

I doubt the few millions he would make from selling possessions make a big
difference when compared to the billions in Tesla and SpaceX.

~~~
_Microft
Your parent comment is saying that reducing cognitive load by parting with
things irrelevant to the goal of reaching Mars will improve the odds of
success.

------
yongjik
Wow, I just visited
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk](https://twitter.com/elonmusk) and...

"Tesla stock price is too high imo" is one of the tamer tweets.

> I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.

> Now give people back their FREEDOM

> Rage, rage against the dying of the light of consciousness

(OK, the last one is apparently a quote from a poem, still...)

Sound more like tweets of a Hollywood celebrity who had one too many glasses
of martini...

~~~
jariel
Clearly he's having a lot of fun and saying wierd things - which is fine.

But the Tesla statement is way crazier than the rest because it's a material
statement about the potential future earnings of the company.

Musk is a 'deep insider' who knows 'everything' about the company. When he
says 'the stock is overvalued' \- what does that really mean?

Did Tesla just lose a huge market? Was there a big accident we don't know
about? Is there some huge hidden liability? Are sales forecasts way down? Did
a deal fall through? Are they getting sued?

He's the CEO so those statements really matter.

I think we can give him a lot of leeway and expect that he say some funny
things.

But when people give him billions of dollars ... he can't mess around with
that, it's irresponsible. Especially since he's already in trouble with the
SEC. It eats away at his credibility.

~~~
sneak
> _But the Tesla statement is way crazier than the rest because it 's a
> material statement about the potential future earnings of the company._

The tweet does not say anything material about earnings past, present, or
future. Your statement is a false one.

~~~
jariel
Valuation is a function of future earnings.

Saying something about the 'stock price' is 100% saying something about the
financial situation of the company.

------
Barrin92
The Deus Ex profile pic is appropriate because I'm increasingly unsure if Elon
Musk isn't doing some kind of decade long performance art piece as a real-
world Bob Page.

~~~
starpilot
Why contain it?

------
archibaldJ
It makes more sense if this is viewed as Musk's way of manipulating the
mainstream media into paying attention to his reopening stance and in the
process change public opinion about the reopening perhaps. Losing some stock
valuation with possible SEC fine is a small price to pay if the states do get
reopened sooner and people are happily back to work again and the economy at
least somewhat goes back to normal.

He can tweet as if he has gone mad or something. In one way or another it's
all a facade. I would buy more into this possibility than that he is unaware
of the consequences of his tweets or is actually in some sort of mentally
unstable state right now. All look very theatrical for me.

The "my girlfriend is mad at me" part actually made me snicker a little. I
think that is something many people can relate to. Also, there appears to be
more americans joining the reopen camp as the whole debate shifts to freedom
vs authoritarian.

Or you can also argue that he is being irrational in a rational way.

~~~
esoterica
I don’t think acting like a crazy person screaming on the street corner is the
best way to persuade people that your ideas are smart and rational. It’s not
like he needs to draw attention to the cause, there is literally no other
issue besides virus occupying the public imagination right now. You seem very
desperate to find any excuse, no matter how preposterous, to justify Musk’s
behavior. Why is that the case?

~~~
archibaldJ
It is to evoke empathy.

------
notastudent
Wow, everybody here seems to talk about first amendment, stock price and
whatnot, completely ignoring the content of his statement. Hes a billionaire
who wants his workers to get back to work, irrespective of their health.
Dafuq. HN is such a boot licking community sometimes.

Go ahead, downvote me

------
perardi
Given the little slap on the wrist from the SEC for his “we’re going private
at $420, man, yeah, funding secured” outburst, he will face no repercussions
for this, and this’ll all be forgotten.

------
unstatusthequo
I have to wonder if his tweets are actually pre-screened per the prior SEC
violation settlement. Sure seems like not with something like this appearing.

~~~
clouddrover
The Wall Street Journal says:

> _Asked later if the tweet was vetted or made in jest, the CEO said: “No.”_

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-stock-falls-after-ceo-
twe...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-stock-falls-after-ceo-tweets-stock-
is-too-high-11588348672)

------
mcbrit
The environment is unimaginably stressful. Close your eyes for a moment, and
imagine the voices.

It's possible tomorrow that he wakes up, and gets on with it. It being: well,
he's pretty much defined what it is over the past 10+ years. It's humbling and
exciting. He is the best of us. I hope that happens.

~~~
thebruce87m
If Elon “Pedo Guy” Musk is the best of us then that’s pretty depressing.

~~~
mcbrit
Sure. But you've got to score folks some way or another; and one way that
sounds fair is if your value system results in humans landing on the moon.

If you critique everyone that way, then you've got at least two very opposed
value systems to talk about today.

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kalium-xyz
Is this this what mainstream appeal is now?

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cryptica
Maybe Elon is regularly scaring speculators away from Tesla stock so that only
strong believers remain. Strong stock holders allow higher P/E ratios.

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aaaxyz
Does anyone still take _anything_ he says seriously?

~~~
clouddrover
Yes. He has many ardent followers who take what he says to heart.

~~~
giarc
Yes, he's been spouting off about the deaths from COVID being artificially
inflated and I see a ton of people starting to agree with him.

------
LeoNatan25
I was hopping this followed his retarded "FREE AMERICA NOW" tweet, but of
course, how naive of me.

------
zozbot234
Discussed earlier
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23043771](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23043771)

