Tesla Inc. (TSLA US) is the largest non-ETF short in the U.S. market at $9.03 billion, $2.4 billion larger than second place AT&T’s (T US) short interest, $3.1 billion larger than third place Alphabet’s (GOOG US & GOOGL US) short interest and $3.3 billion larger than fourth place Apple’s (AAPL US) short interest. Only China’s Alibaba Group ADR (BABA US) has a larger short interest at $22.1 billion. Tesla is one of only four non-tech stocks in the top ten most shorted stocks in the U.S. market.
| Stock | Ticker | Short Interest
$ Billions |
1 Month
Change $ Millions |
YTD MTM
P/L $ Millions |
July/Aug
MTM P/L $ Millions |
| Tesla | TSLA | $9.03 | -$858 | -$2,111 | +$1,146 |
| AT&T | T | $6.59 | +$952 | +$380 | -$202 |
| Alphabet | GOOG/GOOGL | $5.89 | +$541 | -$163 | -$109 |
| Apple | AAPL | $5.71 | -$320 | -$1,225 | -$233 |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | $5.00 | +$299 | -$995 | -$148 |
| Netflix | NFLX | $4.70 | +$811 | -$930 | -$835 |
| FB | $3.66 | +$784 | -$741 | -$404 | |
| Visa | V | $3.59 | +$172 | -$665 | -$251 |
| Priceline | PCLN | $3.36 | +$346 | -$643 | -$270 |
| Wal-Mart | WMT | $3.27 | +$194 | -$442 | -$192 |
Tesla short sellers have been building their short exposure regardless of the losses they have incurred. Shorts were down $3.64 billion in mark to market losses in 2016 and the first half of 2017 while their short exposure increased 49% to over $9.9 billion.
| In $ millions | TSLA Avg Short Interest | MTM P/L | MTM P/L % |
| 2016 | $6,290.5 | -$387.3 | -6.5% |
| Jan – Mar 2017 | $8,276.2 | -$1,273.5 | -15.4% |
| Apr – June 2017 | $9,974.9 | -$1,984.1 | -19.9% |
| July – Aug 2017 | $9,246.6 | +$1,145.6 | +12.4% |
July and August 2017 were profitable for Tesla shorts and they were able to recoup over $1.1 billion of their mark to market losses even as short interest decreased from its $10.96 billion historical high in mid-June.
After the market close today, Tesla reported quarterly results with a narrower than expected quarterly loss and strong order demand for the upcoming Model 3 and existing Model S and Model X. With aftermarket trading pricing Tesla shares at $336, short sellers are down $286 million in mark to market losses already.
Want deeper insight into the above analysis?
Contact: Ihor.Dusaniwsky@S3Partners.net
Managing Director Predictive Analytics, S3 Partners
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