8 Things You Didn’t Know About Market Mover Elon Musk
Welcome to another week in trading! In today’s article, we’re looking at one of the most controversial characters in modern-day trading, Elon Musk. We’ll also let you know which events you need to look out for this week.
The man who moves markets
Here are eight lesser-known facts about Elon Reeve Musk FRS.
#1 He was born in South Africa
If you’ve heard him speak, you’ve probably worked this out. Lots of people assume that Elon Musk was born in the States, but he was actually born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971. He moved to Canada in 1989 and later Pennsylvania, US.
Musk graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics.
#2 Entrepreneurism started early
Aged just 12 years-old, Musk had learned computer programming from a manual. He coded a game called Blastar and sold it to PC and Office Technology magazine for around $500.
#3 He’s an Octo-preneur
Many people associate Musk with just Tesla, but he’s actually co-founded a total of eight companies! These include: Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company.
…How does he have time to tweet with all of that going on?!
#4 He wasn’t the only brain behind Tesla
Elon isn’t the sole founder of electric car supremo, Tesla. He’s actually one of five founders, along with Martin Eberhard, JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright (no, not the former-England footballer).
#5 His ridiculous annual salary
He pays himself a monumental $1 annual salary at Tesla. That’s $1, not $1 million dollars! The majority of his income is derived from his share in stock — of which he owns a considerable amount (170 million shares, to be precise).
#6 Tesla could have been very different
In 2013, Elon almost sold Tesla to Google for $11 billion after personally reaching out to Alphabet CEO Larry Page. He also tried to get a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, but Cook refused.
How they both must be kicking themselves now. Today, not even a decade later, Tesla is by far the most valuable automaker on the planet, with a market cap of just under $600.5 billion. An increase of 5359.09% from 2013. Wowza.
TSLA stock
Source: Google
#7 He loves a cameo
Musk is no stranger to both the small and big screen. He’s been spotted in The Big Bang Theory, the Simpsons and South Park.
He also appeared alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 2. To be fair, he’s the closest thing we have to a real-life Tony Stark, so it was quite fitting!
#8 He’s a market mover
Yeah, okay, this one’s not such a secret. Musk has seriously flexed his Twitter muscle over the last 12-months, emerging as a major market influencer. His yo-yo relationship with Bitcoin, depicted in the chart below, is just one of many recent examples of Musk the Market Mover.
How Elon Musk’s tweets have moved bitcoin prices
Source: Recode by Vox
What’s on the trading agenda this week?
Here’s everything you need to keep track of in what looks like a relatively quiet week.
Monday
No major events are scheduled.
Tuesday
No major events are scheduled.
Wednesday
USD — Markit Manufacturing PMI Flash (JUN)
Thursday
GBP — BoE Interest Rate Decision
USD — Durable Goods Orders MoM (MAY); GDP Growth Rate QoQ Final (Q1)
Friday
USD — Core PCE Price Index YoY (MAY); PCE Price Index YoY (MAY); Michigan Consumer Sentiment Final (JUN)
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Speak soon!
The Contentworks team
