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Here’s the brief version:

- You can buy something called an “inverse ETF” to bet against a company.
- You can lose this way, but not more money than you put in.
- The inverse ETFs for Tesla are TSLS, TSLQ, and TSLZ.
- Holding on to them hurts Tesla.
- To buy them, you need a brokerage account, and it needs to let you buy inverse ETFs.
- Anyone can open a brokerage account. It’s a nuisance and it takes 3+ days, but it’s ~free.

And:

- A large number of people doing this each with a small amount of money would have a real effect on Tesla.

2/

Like me, you’ve probably heard of shorting stock as a way of betting against a company. Everything I’ve learned about this says: DON’T. This is like learning to snowboard by doing jumps off a rocky cliff. You will hurt yourself badly.

The details are complicated, but the short of it (pun intended) is that you can actually lose •more• money than you put in. And there’s no limit to how much shorting can put you in debt. Don’t.

Especially don’t if you’re extra smart, because you’ll just figure out how to hurt yourself worse.

3/

Fortunately, there’s this thing called an “inverse ETF” that lets you bet against a company without that risk. Again, details are ridiculously complicated, but basically it acts like a normal stock that moves in opposite proportion to some other stock.

The important thing here is that is puts downward price pressure on a stock — i.e. it hurts that company’s investors — without the possibility of you losing more money than you put in.

Inverse ETFs for Tesla are TSLZ, TSLQ, and TSLS.

4/

Inverse ETFs are not a good investment choice unless you really, really believe than a company’s stock price is going to go down. And investment guides tell you that you shouldn’t normally hold them for more than a very short period.

AFAICT, that’s because •running• an inverse ETF is costly, and the people who run them past those costs on to inverstors. So they tend to lose money long term unless the stock •keeps• going down and down and down and down.

But if you actually think a stock is going to do that, well….

5/

If you think Musk is bad news, if you want to bet against Tesla, and if you have a little money to do that, here’s the tactic:

- Buy TSLQ, TSLZ, and/or TSLS.
- Do •not• put in more money than you’re willing to lose. Expect that you’re kissing your money good-bye when you buy those ETFs. If your bet pays off, lucky you! But don’t spend your life savings on this, for heaven’s sake.
- Hold, hold, hold until Musk is completely kicked out of either Tesla or the government.

6/

If like me you need to open a brokerage account, Fidelity or Charles Schwab seem like credible choices. (Steer clear of Robinhood and most other investment apps.)

If you already have a retirement account, you might be able to open an brokerage account there too and save yourself minor hassle — but make sure they actually like you buy inverse ETFs (TIAA does not, for example).

If you have a SEP-IRA, it may let you trade inverse ETFs without needing a separate brokerage account (but see warning above about not betting money you can’t afford to lose).

7/

If you open a brokerage account, expect minor hassle spread over 3+ days. You have to fill out forms online, verify your bank account, transfer money in, yada yada. They walk you through the process. Just expect lots of waiting.

I personally do not trust the thing where you log into your bank account through the brokerage’s web site. Yikes. I used direct deposts to verify my account, which took 3 days but feels like a lot less of a security YIKES to me.

8/

Once you have your brokerage account:

- Transfer that small “I’m willing to lose this much” amount into your brokerage account
- Buy TSLZ, TSLQ, and TSLS.
- Hold on to it. Don’t even pay attention to it going up and down unless you’re a glutton for punishment.
- (And maybe just do •not• do any of this if you know you have a gambling addiction. You will be tempted to put in more than you should.)

9/

@inthehands There's also the option of doing it the old-fashioned way: Sell short and buy a protective call. It's fairly straightforward and you can do it on brokerages like Vanguard that don't let you trade in the inverse ETFs.

Example:
Sell 100 shares TSLA short @ $235
Buy 1 protective call at $300, let's say for 7/18/2025 at $15 (which costs you $1500)

Your loss is now capped: The call gives you the right to buy 100 shares of TSLA for $300, so if it goes over, you sell the call and close the short. Anywhere >= $300, you have lost $65+$15 = $80 per share, or $8000.

Anywhere over $220, you're still losing money.

Anywhere under $220, you're making money.

It exposes the other risk of shorting, of course: If you want to stay short, you have to keep rolling forward your protective call, so if the stock stays flat, it's going to cost you something like $1500 per 4 months. But that risk is there with the inverse ETFs too, it's just more clear here _why_ you're losing money.

@dave_andersen
Go for it if you understand it! For an ignoramus like me, buying and holding the ETF is well worth the cost overhead that entails.