So apparently Bill Gates hit up @elonmusk to discuss “philanthropy on climate change” but Elon asked if he still had a half billion dollar short position on $TSLA.

Bill said he hasn’t closed it out, so Elon told him to get lost. No idea if this is true lol pic.twitter.com/iuHkDG3bAd

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 22, 2022

Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends.

I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

By Jove, I am starting to like the cut of this guy's jib

That's awesome!

in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

So if Gates has a half billion short position, couldn't Elon drive the price up to make him lose money?

Or would that only be if Gates had to sell?

I would assume Gates is sitting on a half billion at under current price and waiting to dump it when it hits that price?

Tsla goes up. Shorts lose

Tsla goes down. Shorts win.

Not sure if this is true, but I like the idea of looking into the window of billionaire influences within the financial system. Keep going Elon.

Elon - the gift that just keeps on giving

There is no man made climate change. Elon is profiting off of liberal stupidity and laughing all the way to the bank.

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in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

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There it goes.....

aggiez03 said:

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So if Gates has a half billion short position, couldn't Elon drive the price up to make him lose money?

Or would that only be if Gates had to sell?

I would assume Gates is sitting on a half billion at under current price and waiting to dump it when it hits that price?

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Depends on the timing on the shorts, gates could also roll the shorts out I believe. That would cost money though

I don't know if Elon Musk is the Bruce Wayne we wanted/needed/deserved/whatever. He's the one we got and I'm totally fine with it.

normaleagle05 said:

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I don't know if Elon Musk is the Bruce Wayne we wanted/needed/deserved/whatever. He's the one we got and I'm totally fine with it.

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He is amusing. Little disappointed he's bought into the climate change crap but think we knew that.

A short is a short. All that means is to open the position, you SOLD the stock. In order to "close" the position you have to BUY it back. To make money on the trade, you hope to Buy it back at a lower price than you sold it previously. If you buy it back higher than you sold, you lose the difference. What you are talking about in terms of "rolling" it out has to do with options or futures contracts. That has nothing to do with a Short. To make sure everyone understands, in typical stock buying, u want to buy low, sell high. In shorting, you want to sell high, buy back later lower,, everything is just the opposite.

annie88 said:

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normaleagle05 said:

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I don't know if Elon Musk is the Bruce Wayne we wanted/needed/deserved/whatever. He's the one we got and I'm totally fine with it.

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He is amusing. Little disappointed he's bought into the climate change crap but think we knew that.

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His stance on climate change is far from lefty. Not a denier by any stretch, but he has said multiple times he thinks these panic-inducing timelines are just not accurate.

will25u said:

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in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

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There it goes.....

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Must have been scrolling through a hotties thread before this.

smstork1007 said:

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A short is a short. All that means is to open the position, you SOLD the stock. In order to "close" the position you have to BUY it back. To make money on the trade, you hope to Buy it back at a lower price than you sold it previously. If you buy it back higher than you sold, you lose the difference. What you are talking about in terms of "rolling" it out has to do with options or futures contracts. That has nothing to do with a Short. To make sure everyone understands, in typical stock buying, u want to buy low, sell high. In shorting, you want to sell high, buy back later lower,, everything is just the opposite.

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That is what I was thinking, so in reality the only way Gates loses money is if he sells buys it higher than he bought sold it.

There is no deadline to the short, correct?

As long as he doesn't need the money, he can just sit on it and wait for Tesla to drop till it is profitable.

Elon should split it or do something to drive it up so he will definitely lose money, but 1/2 billion to him isn't going to make much of a difference anyway.

shadow ban council reviewing tweet … pic.twitter.com/cawjtwc7CW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Bill shorted Tesla on basis that 18-wheelers would never be electric. Musk took that personal.

I'm glad Musk is blasting him becuase there is no good reason why SEC regs require 13gs on long positions but not short. There is a bad reason why shorts aren't subject to same filing requirements as longs. It's because it would expose the predatory nefarious acts of politician bosses.

smstork1007 said:

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A short is a short. All that means is to open the position, you SOLD the stock. In order to "close" the position you have to BUY it back. To make money on the trade, you hope to Buy it back at a lower price than you sold it previously. If you buy it back higher than you sold, you lose the difference. What you are talking about in terms of "rolling" it out has to do with options or futures contracts. That has nothing to do with a Short. To make sure everyone understands, in typical stock buying, u want to buy low, sell high. In shorting, you want to sell high, buy back later lower,, everything is just the opposite.

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Or, he has a naked short position open and stands to lose a fair amount if Tesla climbs, or continues to pay the fees waiting out the drop even longer.

Your thinking is entirely correct, just the terminology is not right. To close his short, he has to Buy the stock, ideally for him at a lower price than he sold it, because he started the position with a sell. There is no deadline, correct. There is a small ongoing fee to short in that technically you are borrowing the shares from others to Sell to open the position, and you are paying them back when you Buy to close it. But on a position that size, and with someone with Gates money, thats a negligible amount. Again just think the opposite, buy low sell higher,, to sell high, buy back lower,, thats a short in a nutshell.

100%, naked short has a true potential loss of infinity, its pretty much the only position you can take that has no defined max loss. When you are long a position, all you can lose is your initial investment, when short, that's not the case.

Elon musk will be president of Texas

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in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

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Gates is getting the Trump "look" down pat. I bet he could get an old lady like Melania, if he cared about that sort of thing.

kb2001 said:

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smstork1007 said:

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A short is a short. All that means is to open the position, you SOLD the stock. In order to "close" the position you have to BUY it back. To make money on the trade, you hope to Buy it back at a lower price than you sold it previously. If you buy it back higher than you sold, you lose the difference. What you are talking about in terms of "rolling" it out has to do with options or futures contracts. That has nothing to do with a Short. To make sure everyone understands, in typical stock buying, u want to buy low, sell high. In shorting, you want to sell high, buy back later lower,, everything is just the opposite.

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Or, he has a naked short position open and stands to lose a fair amount if Tesla climbs, or continues to pay the fees waiting out the drop even longer.

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I don't believe that there is really a way to hold a "naked" short position in a stock like TSLA, nor would a someone as prolific as Gates want to be involved in that.

It's most likely he holds a regular short position with shares, but I suppose puts wouldn't be out of the question either (since you can easily define your risk, vs the potential unlimited risk of being short with shares).

Not that it matters, but any stock that you can short u "naked short". What you are thinking is when you write naked calls, or write naked puts. Shorting a stock has nothing to do with being "naked" or not. I mean technically you could short the same stock you held long, but that is technically a zero sum game, for every dollar you lose on one end, u make on the other, and visa versa.

smstork1007 said:

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Not that it matters, but any stock that you can short u "naked short". What you are thinking is when you write naked calls, or write naked puts. Shorting a stock has nothing to do with being "naked" or not. I mean technically you could short the same stock you held long, but that is technically a zero sum game, for every dollar you lose on one end, u make on the other, and visa versa.

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Yes, when you short, the execution is almost guaranteed to happen "naked". But the shares would be properly delivered in an adequate amount of time. I was just correcting the poster on the terminology of holding a standard short position.

Again the term "naked" should have never been brought up when talking about shorting. It has no bearing here, it is only relevant in options trades. I was just trying to explain to those who might not have understood what was being discussed.

smstork1007 said:

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Again the term "naked" should have never been brought up when talking about shorting. It has no bearing here, it is only relevant in options trades. I was just trying to explain to those who might not have understood what was being discussed.

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Yes, that was the point of my original response to the poster. And the point of my subsequent response to you.

aggie93 said:

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shadow ban council reviewing tweet … pic.twitter.com/cawjtwc7CW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

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Elon may have elevated himself to Grand Master Troll with that tweet!

D-Fens said:

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I found the full clip of that interview:



It's from 1 year ago & it makes Bill Gates look pretty bad.
Relevant part starts at 1:00 but I recommend watching the whole thing.


From the YouTube video's comment section:

Quote:

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Bill Gates: "I invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat..."
Interviewer: "Did you short Tesla?"
Bill Gates: "I don't talk about my investments"

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LOL

From the title, I thought that he had seen the light and was now in favor of Global Warming.

smstork1007 said:

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Not that it matters, but any stock that you can short u "naked short". What you are thinking is when you write naked calls, or write naked puts. Shorting a stock has nothing to do with being "naked" or not. I mean technically you could short the same stock you held long, but that is technically a zero sum game, for every dollar you lose on one end, u make on the other, and visa versa.

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Except you're out the short interest unless perhaps your a big player with a lot of stroke over prime brokers. And the short against the box scenario you're describing no longer has any tax benefit so it wouldn't be implemented practically speaking.

BlueTaze said:

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Bill shorted Tesla on basis that 18-wheelers would never be electric. Musk took that personal.

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I just love the fact that Bill claims to want to save the planet but let's short a company providing electric vehicles.

What a miserable POS. No wonder he's friends with Epstein.