Tesla Short sellers lost $3.5 billion in market value wiping out their YTD profit

1) According to a report from S3 Partners, short sellers suffered approximately $3.5 billion in market value losses in this market trend, wiping out their year-to-date profit of $1.7 billion and resulting in current mark-to-market losses of $1.8 billion

2) On Thursday, Tesla's stock price surged by 22% in a single day, marking the largest one-day gain since 2013 and increasing the market value by $150 billion... the premium for three-month call options exceeded that of put options for the first time, and several analysts raised their target price for Tesla. Data from S3 shows that only about 2.9% of Tesla's freely tradable shares are shorted, hovering around the company's so-called "historical low point".
3) Matthew Unterman (S3 Partners) and Stuart Kaiser (U.S. stock trading strategist at Citigroup) believe that there is almost no sign indicating that this surge is being driven by the so-called "short squeeze". They concluded that as Tesla's short position is very low, Thursday's stock price uptrend was driven by unexpectedly strong performance, rather than positive short covering in an undervalued stock context.

My Take: Tesla short sellers are betting that a reversal will come when Trump loses the US presidential election (5/11). If what the article says is true - uptrend driven by strong performance, Wall Street doesn't bother who becomes the US president. There may be volatility risk but the uptrend will continue.

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