Elon Musk has warned Tesla shareholders not to expect too much from today’s long-awaited Battery Day presentation — and Reddit’s most sarcastic traders are freaking out.
“Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow,” tweeted late Tuesday. “This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.”
The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is not well understood. It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2020
Musk’s energy in these tweets noticeably contrasts the hypeman vibe featured in the company’s January earnings call, when the enigmatic billionaire reportedly urged the public to “wait until Battery Day” to have their minds “blown.”
Originally set for April, Tesla rescheduled the presentation in the face of the coronavirus pandemic… to today, alongside the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Elon Musk’s Battery Day needs to be big
While nobody knows exactly what Musk has in store for the public, anxious shareholders have now waited months for today’s showcase, all while Tesla’s stock price has repeatedly multiplied.
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In fact, Tesla stock has risen by more than 290% since Musk first postponed Battery Day back in April.
And so, whether Tesla unveils its supposedly secret Roadrunner project or simply touts more efficient batteries, the event had better impress if the company’s to push its share price any higher.
[Read: Tesla dumped $5B worth of its stock in just 4 days — and traders hate it]
It’s a point not lost on Reddit’s greediest finance community, /r/WallStreetBets. Traders glued to pre-market price feeds have started multiple threads to unpack Musk’s latest tweets in a bid to unlock what it all means.
The options market says Tesla stock will move 17%… but which direction?
Daytrading cosplay aside, market makers reckon today’s event will have a big impact on the company’s share price.
A Reuters report published Tuesday noted Tesla’s options market expects $TSLA to move 17% either way by the end of the week.
Industry analysts seem to support this narrative. “We (and the market) expect the announcements to be significant, cementing Tesla’s cost and technology lead for several more years,” one UBS analyst wrote to clients earlier this month, according to Reuters.
“Even if Tesla provides overly ambitious aspirations at Battery Day, we nevertheless expect the event to reinforce Tesla’s long-term growth narrative — central to the stock — while also reinforcing investor perception that Tesla is ahead of other automakers,” said another, this time from Credit Suisse.
In any case, today will be telling for “Papa Elon.” After all, his EV wunderstock just suffered its worst day of trade in history after sinking 21% on September 8.
If there was ever a time to rally investor confidence, it’s now.
But, while it’s a fluid situation, Tesla stock is currently down 5% during pre-market trade, some seven hours before the Battery Day event commences at the company’s manufacturing plant in Fremont, California.
You can tune into the live stream via Tesla’s website here, which is expected to start at 1:30PM Pacific Time.
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