At 7:00 a. m. Eastern Time, Elon Musk sent an internal email to all employees of Tesla,
Three minutes later, the email content was forwarded to at least twenty institutional executive groups Wall Street.
The wording of the email is concise and straightforward:
2018 is the most challenging year in the history of Tesla, and profits in the fourth quarter may be lower than those in the third quarter.
In order to achieve the Model 3 cost target and maintain the company's survival, Tesla will lay off approximately 7% of its full-time employees, approximately 3,150 people.
The end of the email read - "Thank you to every employee who is leaving, and thank you for everything you have done to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
"Here we come." White-Haired Old Man put down the cigar and turned the phone screen to the people opposite the fireplace. There was no excitement in his voice, only the determination of a hunter when he sees his prey stepping into a trap.
"Tesla's layoff announcement came at least two weeks earlier than we expected.
7% layoff ratio, fourth quarter profit warning - Elon Musk personally poured a bucket of gasoline on his stock price.
Our Put Option started harvesting today."
At 8:00 a. m. Eastern Time, New York Stock Exchange's pre-market trading system has started operating.
The pre-market stock price of Tesla began to dive from Wednesday's closing price of around 347 US Dollar.
It fell to 323 US Dollar around 8:00, a drop of about 6.94%.
At 9:00, the decline further expanded to more than 7%, and the stock price hovered around 320 US Dollar.
Pre-market trading volume increased abnormally, exceeding three times the average level of the previous five trading days--
Short Sellers has started placing sell orders on a large scale during the pre-auction stage.
At 9:30 a. m. Eastern Time, NASDAQ officially opened.
Tesla Opening Price 323 US Dollar opened about 6.8% lower than the previous day's closing price.
Within the first minute of the opening, more than a dozen large orders of more than 100,000 shares were placed, and the stock price plummeted from 323 US Dollar to around 310 US Dollar.
The sell order channel is full of Hedge Fund Short Selling orders from various companies--
Those old enemies who met at the Explorers Club, exchanged information at the investment bank PB Departments, and were harvested by Zhao Chen at the high level of Bitcoin,
The trading orders at this moment formed the same torrent on the order book of NASDAQ.
"Keep smashing." The trading manager of a certain Hedge Fund stood in front of Trading Desk, holding the phone in his hand and looking at the big screen on the wall in front of him.
On the left side of the screen are Tesla and Time-sharing Chart, and the K line is falling like a waterfall;
On the right is the K line of Nvidia - still trading sideways.
He spoke into the phone, his voice low but every word felt like it had been cut by a knife:
"Tesla don't stop until it breaks 300, Nvidia won't stop for the time being."
Throughout Midtown Manhattan and Trading Room, the sound of keyboard tapping was as dense as heavy rain hitting an iron roof.
At least six Hedge Fund are smashing Tesla at the same time.
They did not act in a unified manner - there was no unified command, and there was no evidence that could be deemed "acting in concert" by the SEC.
They just made the same judgment in the same time window and based on the same set of logic:
Era Vanguard's 16.6 million shares of Tesla have all been pledged, Pledge Ratio is about 50%, the total pledged financing is about 3 billion US Dollar, and the average price per share is about 360 US Dollar.
Every time the stock price drops by 10 US Dollar, the total market value of the collateral shrinks by approximately 166 million US Dollar, and the investment bank's risk control Model will automatically trigger the Margin Call Notice on the margin call line.
Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Private Bank--
Risk Control Department from the four pledge channels are all staring at the same screen at this moment, watching the stock price of Tesla falling like a stone thrown from a height.
At 10:00, the stock price of Tesla fell below 310 US Dollar.
Sell orders of more than 100,000 shares piled up in front of the 310 US Dollar mark, and Buying Pressure showed almost no trace of the main force taking over the order--
Occasionally, a few loose orders were tentatively placed at 308 and 309, but they were overwhelmed by new selling orders within a few seconds.
At 11:00, the stock price touched 303 US Dollar, which was a drop of more than 6% from Opening Price, but Short Sellers people did not stop.
At 12:30, during the midday trading session, the stock price of Tesla briefly consolidated around 300 US Dollar for less than a quarter of an hour.
The selling orders seemed to have encountered some kind of respite here - a group of technical copycats placed buy orders near the 300 US Dollar integer mark, but the volume was not large.
White-Haired Old Man is sitting on a leather chair, with Bloomberg Terminal in front of him showing the floating profit amount of his fund on Tesla Put Option.
He picked up the intercom and dialed Trading Desk:
"300 is not the bottom. Keep hitting."
At 1:00 pm, the short-term consolidation was broken by a concentrated selling order of more than 500,000 shares--
The stock price of Tesla broke down straight from 300 US Dollar to 296 US Dollar, and the intraday decline expanded to more than 13%.
A vertical downward line appeared on Time-sharing Chart, and Trading Volume exploded the largest measuring column in the day at that minute.
At 2:00 p. m., Tesla's stock price hit the lowest point of the day at about 295 US Dollar, with the highest intraday drop of more than 15%.
The market value fell to about 51.8 billion US Dollar - surpassed by General Motors 54.5 billion US Dollar, giving up the throne of United States car company's largest market value.
Tesla's stock price rebounded from the high of 370 US Dollar after the privatization incident in December last year. In less than a month, it was smashed by more than 70 US Dollar.
When Su Wantang projected Time-sharing Chart from Tesla on Bloomberg Terminal onto the big screen of Suite Living Room, Zhao Chen was standing by the window.
Manhattan The snow is still falling.
On the screen, the stock price of Tesla briefly stayed near 305 US Dollar before being penetrated by a concentrated sell order of more than 500,000 shares.
The K line on Time-sharing Chart penetrates vertically downwards into 296 US Dollar like a knife.
Zhao Chen said nothing.
He just turned around from the window, walked to the big screen, folded his hands on his chest, and focused his eyes on the time-sharing line that was constantly refreshing its lows.
Su Wantang and Chen Xi were both sitting on the sofa, neither of them spoke.
They knew that this was not panic, but calculation.
Calculate how thick the safety pad of Era Vanguard is on Tesla Pledged Shares.
From Boca Chica to Shanghai Zhangjiang, from the negotiation table of Green Energy Technology to the 13D declaration of Nvidia,
They have experienced too much with Zhao Chen, and they know that the more silent he is, the faster the calculations in his heart will be made.
A moment later, Lin Shicheng's call came in.
His voice was as steady as ever:
"Zhao Zong, Risk Control Department from four investment banks all called.
The market value of the collateral is still within the safe range - we initially controlled Pledge Ratio at 50%, and Tesla dropped from 360 US Dollar to 305 US Dollar.
The market value of the pledged assets has shrunk from 5.8 billion to nearly 5 billion, but it is still some distance from the margin line.
However, if it continues to fall to a certain extent, the risk control Model of Morgan Stanley and Citigroup will automatically trigger Margin Call Notice.
Zhao Zong, this is not a question of whether it will be triggered, but a question of what we can do to make up for it after it is triggered.
Our cash is only 125 million US Dollar, and the liquidation of Apple is still in progress.
If the call for margin call comes now, our cash on hand will not be enough to cover the margin calls of four investment banks at the same time.
Do you need me to help you contact Risk Control Department from several investment banks to apply for additional collateral or renegotiate the upper limit of Pledge Ratio?"
Zhao Chen didn't take his eyes away from the time-sharing line, and tapped his fingers lightly on the windowsill.
"No need to contact. They haven't been forced to cover their positions yet.
The clearance of Apple starts to accelerate today, no need to wait for a better price."
At 4:00 pm Eastern Time, the NASDAQ closing bell rang.
Tesla closed at 302 US Dollar, a single-day drop of nearly 13%. The market value shrank to approximately 51.9 billion US Dollar, surpassed by the market value of General Motors 54.5 billion US Dollar.
This is Tesla's largest single-day decline since Elon Musk was sued by the SEC last September, and Trading Volume is more than three times the average of the previous five trading days.