Real Life ‘Big Short’ Investor Is Now Betting Against Tesla

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Steve Eisman, the investor who inspired the Hollywood flick, The Big Short, is now betting against Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Eisman, who was portrayed by Steve Carell in the 2015 film The Big Short, announced this week that he is betting against Elon Musk’s Tesla. Eisman, amongst other high profile investors, are short-selling the electric car company’s stock. Short-selling of stocks is done when an investor thinks that a company’s share price is going to decrease.

In a television interview last week, Eisman said that he doesn’t believe that Musk can follow through on his high goals for Tesla. “He’s got execution problems,” Eisman said. “He’s nowhere in autonomous driving, as far as I can tell, and big competition is coming in his space next year.”

But Eisman isn’t the only big name who is skeptical about Tesla’s future. Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates criticised Elon Musk for consistently over-promising with regards to Tesla in a recent interview. “What bothers me is not so much the personal stuff and the personal attacks. I’m used to that,” Chanos said. “It’s the willingness to say things that I think he knows are a stretch, to be polite.”

On Friday, Tesla stock dropped 3 percent. Tesla stock is down 11 percent year to date in 2018. According to CNBC, Tesla lost $2 billion in 2017 after spending approximately $3.4 billion in cash.

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