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Comment by synaesthesisx | Hacker News Reader

As an investor since 2012 I think Tesla would be far more operationally efficient private. Also a bit of schadenfreude but I've personally enjoyed watching Wall Street shorts collectively lose hundreds of millions of dollars over this.

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Might be in the tens of billions before this is all said and done.

(~34 million short shares outstanding * $420/share = ~14 billion dollars to cover. Is my math wrong?)

Wouldn't that assume that every short seller would lose $420 per share? They probably purchased their shorts at like ~$350 per share, so they'd only stand to lose 420-350=$70 per share, correct?

I'm a newbie when it comes to calls and puts, couldn't they just fill their shorts now (no pun intended, I seriously don't know the terminology) if they're worried about it? Tesla closed at $370.

What happens when $14bn in short interest tries to buy simultaneously?

It sounds like everyone will be buying TSLA tomorrow. Even the little guy who wants to earn the difference between $379 and $420.

Sure, but they didn't start from zero. If you sold short at $350 the amount to cover is $70. Options are also a common way to hedge, so it's really hard to say what the total loss would be.

True. I guess I was looking at the total purchase needed to cover all shares.

If there aren’t enough shares available to cover, could the price exceed $420?

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