Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on Thursday to slam the recent GameStop stock exchange triumph, calling shorting "a scam".
"u can’t sell houses u don’t own u can’t sell cars u don’t own but u *can* sell stock u don’t own!?" Musk tweeted, adding, "this is bs – shorting is a scam legal only for vestigial reasons".
His reaction comes after a group of small investors from Reddit appeared to triumph over billions of dollars over hedge funds after carrying out a so-called short squeeze of the GameStop videogame retail company.
u can’t sell houses u don’t own
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021
u can’t sell cars u don’t own
but
u *can* sell stock u don’t own!?
this is bs – shorting is a scam
legal only for vestigial reasons
On Wednesday, right in the middle of the stock exchange drama, Musk was among the first to react, tweeting "Gamestonk!!!" with a link to the WallStreetBets subreddit - providing additional impetus to the stakes.
The financial incident prompted major feedback, with many deep pocket institutional investors and a supportive media calling the small independent retail investors "dangerous" and some wide-eyed analysts suggesting that some kind of "foreign power" was behind the squeeze.
