CEO Elon Musk said he's been under immense stress over the past year
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares are down 6.3% this morning at $314.36, as Wall Street wakes up to an emotional interview with the New York Times from CEO Elon Musk, in which he discusses the immense stress he's felt in the past year. TSLA stock is already on a three-day losing streak, continuing to pull back from its Aug. 7 peak of $387.46, as the company deals with ongoing regulatory issues following Musk's going private tweet last week.
Meanwhile, options trading is already taking off this morning with more than 123,000 contracts crossing, three times the paced expected. Puts are outpacing calls, with the August 310 put standing as the most popular option so far. There's also notable activity at TSLA's August 300 and 315 puts.
This heavy activity in Tesla's options pits is just more of the same -- not surprising given all the recent headlines. Total open interest is now at a 52-week peak of 2.03 million contracts, but all this demand has driven up near-term premiums. For instance, the equity's 30-day at-the-money implied volatility was last seen at 56.8%, in the 90th annual percentile.