Just as we didn't go all maniacal when the stock was up yesterday neither will we get depressive today but, and that's a big 'ol but, this is serious. From April 7's "Tesla Just Above Multi-month Low With News of Reduction in Carbon Credits (TSLA)":
$204.92 down $7.31 last, $204.66 low for the dayThe last time we had this kind of nerve-wracking action we got an undercut of the magic number as we were patiently waiting to reverse a short from ~$160:
I don't think there's a causation thing going on here, the knowledge that Cali was going to cut the ZEV credits is pretty widely known. More likely TSLA is getting a second flush as a "momentum" issue, something we'll know either today or tomorrow morning. The last time the stock traded lower than the March 27 $203.00 intermediate term bottom was the day of the last earnings report, Feb. 19th when the stock closed at $193.64 and gap-opened at $215.01. This gives us a couple support targets, $203 and then $193.
If the stock blows past the lower it could drop as far as the hundred-buck range....MORE
Nov 20One last chance for those of us with a bullish inclination on this name is that $193 mentioned above and then I fear a return to the series of gaps in the hundo range.
Tesla and the Barclays Downgrade (TSLA)
That's just perfect. Wait patiently for signs of a bottom and finally make the formal buy rec last night* at $126.
Have BARC junior analyst come out with the downgrade and I'm right back to 2009...
...The stock is down $6.27 at $119.82, yesterday's low print was $119.22. A solid double-bottom would be an undercut of yesterday's low either today or tomorrow morning to get that Abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter-here vibe and then onwards to glory.
Or something. ...
From Schaeffer's Research earlier today:
Option Brief: It's turned into an ugly day for momentum stocks, and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is no exception. At last check, the equity was down 4.4% at $207.49. Since hitting a record high of $265 in late February, shares of TSLA have surrendered nearly 22%. In the stock's options pits, short-term speculators are circling, with all 10 of the most active strikes expiring in the next week or so. Amid this increased demand for near-term options, TSLA's 30-day at-the-money implied volatility (IV) is up 3.0% to 75.8% -- its loftiest perch since late October.Here's the 3-month action via Yahoo Finance:
Diving deeper shows that a number of speculators are utilizing both calls and puts to bet on continued technical troubles in the short term. On the call side, the weekly 4/11 210 strike has received notable attention, and the majority of the 5,196 contracts traded have gone off on the bid side, pointing to seller-driven activity. IV is up 13.9 percentage points, and volume outstrips open interest, pointing to the initiation of new positions.
Meanwhile, the most active strike so far is TSLA's April 210 put, where a healthy portion of the 5,934 contracts that have crossed the tape have done so at the ask price. IV has ticked higher, and volume exceeds current levels of open interest, suggesting that some of today's activity is of the buy-to-open sort.
The goal for the call sellers is for TSLA to keep churning below $210. If TSLA expires south of the strike at tomorrow's close, the call writers will retain the initial premium collected as their maximum potential reward. Risk, on the other hand, is theoretically unlimited, should the stock stage a strong rally over the next day or so.
Reward for the put buyers can be significant if the shares extend today's slide; specifically, it maxes out at $203.46 per contract (strike less the volume-weighted average price of $6.54) in the unlikely event that Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) tumbles all the way to zero by next Thursday's close, when the front-month options expire. Should TSLA reclaim its perch atop $210, risk for these options traders is capped at the initial cash outlay.
