A CEO of any listed/traded company has to be careful when making public statements about the company he/she is the CEO of. For example, if the CEO of the world’s largest cracker company said he/she likes apple pie for dessert, no one would bat an eyelid. If the CEO of the world’s largest publically traded/listed cracker company said his factories are managed by rats then stock market traders would become rattled.

Stock market traders would see this statement from the CEO of the world largest cracker company as being wildly nuts. Stock market traders rely on confidence, as such shares in the world’s largest cracker factory would slide. Traders would think the CEO is a lunatic and want no more to do with him or his company. To that end, Elon Musk is now in the position of the CEO of the world’s largest cracker company. When he tweeted “funding secured” in August many thought he was shorting his own company. In the stock markets, “shorting” works on many levels. In short, no pun intended,  it is a term given to the deliberate devaluation of a company, an attempt to lower a company’s share price. The trader will then wait and sell at a profit when the company’s shares valuation improves. It happens all the time, it’s illegal but de-regulation of banking ethics means it’s endemic, especially so in the US. The US Securities & Exchange Commission, that essentially regulates the US Stock markets, is now in the process of suing Elon Musk over his “funding secured” tweet. The Securities & Exchange Commission claims that Elon Musk made false and misleading statements in an attempt to devalue Tesla so he could take it back into private hands. Many observers of the Securities & Exchange Commission have said that the independent federal department has moved “unusually quickly” by suing Tesla. The SEC is an organisation known to investigate and deliberate methodically with due diligence. The insinuation is that Trump officials may be behind the speed of the investigation. If the SEC is successful in suing Elon Musk then the Tesla CEO will permanently bar him from holding any such positions in the future. We ask, WWhere was the SEC when the 2008 banking crisis happened? and why didn’t the CEO’s of private investment banks ever get sued or end up in prison? Indeed the SEC should be investigating the current President of the United States.