Getty Images Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Just in case you haven’t read enough about Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his woes, here’s a fresh trove of investor indignation. This comes from the online media site “The Outline,” which says it obtained 147 pages of complaints about Musk from people who’d invested in Tesla TSLA, -13.90% .
Shares of the carmaker were down about 14% Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had filed a suit against Musk for tweeting that he was considering taking the company private — and had lined up the financing to do so.
Read: Elon Musk ‘rolling the dice’ and buying time by turning down SEC settlement
But some investors, according to The Outline’s collection, lost even more.
“The Securities Act of 1934 was created to protect small investors like myself,” according to one account. “I had 25% of my retirement account in Tesla puts as a hedge against market downturns. 75% of my portfolio was long. I purchased January 2020 puts so I had time to evaluate information and make sound decisions. Mr. Musk clearly violated this provision multiple times and I turn to the SEC to protect myself and other investors from market manipulators who act outside of the codes of conduct we have established for our industry leaders.”
A “put” is an investment that allows, but does not oblige, the bearer to sell the security back to another entity at a specified price and time.
Read: An assumed ‘Treasury put’ may have doomed Puerto Rico bond investors
Another writer was more poetic, if less precisely-spelled. “I have bene a retail stock investor for over 30 years,” the account went. “My faith in the market continues to decline as the small investor is not playing in the same ballpark. The comments from Mr. Musk of TESLA confirms everything that is wrong with todays market.”
Read on at The Outline.
Also see: Could Elon Musk’s tweets cause him to lose his job as Tesla CEO? 5 of the costliest tweets ever
