Flat small talk – until Robinhood boss joins them
No time right now?
Elon Musk made sure the rooms at Clubhouse were overcrowded. The questions he was supposed to answer brought nothing new to light. When he became an interviewer himself, there were still some exciting insights.
On Monday at seven in the morning, in Los Angeles it was 22:00 on Sunday evening, Elon Musk asked himself a few questions in the clubhouse format “Good Time”. “Good Time” is dedicated to the topics of startups, venture capital and crypto and aims to deal with them in a carefree, one could also say superficially – a format for effortless listening.
Apparently, many Musk fans around the world had set an alarm clock or – depending on the time zone – another reminder, because the live chat was full in no time. Various users came up with the idea quite quickly, for example the audio stream via Youtube to be distributed live, so that people without clubhouse access or access could follow Musk’s statements – and can still do so afterwards.
Contents
- 1 “Lighthearted talk” stays on the surface
- 2 AI as a human-machine interface
- 3 Raising children and entrepreneurship
- 4 Tesla wants to become the largest automaker in the world
- 5 Corona crisis and vaccination campaigns
- 6 Silicon Valley and Bitcoin
- 7 Musk cornered Robinhood boss Tenev
- 8 Tenev statements deliver ammunition for legal battle
“Lighthearted talk” stays on the surface
The moderators then implemented the principle of carelessness so consistently that criticism quickly spread via social media. This interview is a missed opportunity. Only questions were asked that had already been asked several times before. Accordingly, there is no new information.
In fact, the good-time moderators did not provide any surprising impulses and limited themselves to solid standard food. Those who had never heard Musk on the various topics could still take something for themselves.
AI as a human-machine interface
When it came to Neuralink and Artificial Intelligence, Musk got more serious. Tesla has the stronger AI team, which Musk described as one of the best in the world. Musk sees the best application of AI in the coupling of man and machine.
Musk sees a simple form of this human-machine cooperation in the omnipresent smartphone use. The problem here is the data transfer speed, which is severely limited by writing or speaking input. A direct connection between the brain and the machine is therefore preferable. New experiments by Neuralinks would show how monkeys play computer games using just their mind control. There should be new videos in about a month.
Raising children and entrepreneurship
When asked what five-year-olds should be taught these days, Musk replied that one had to use the opportunities for involvement offered by video games, but should not forget the reason for using the technology. Children not only have to learn how, but also understand why. Tools should remain tools and should not become an end in themselves, should that mean.
Why aren’t there more people like Elon Musk? The answer was easy for Musk: “If you need words of encouragement, you can’t start a startup.” When asked if he wants to start other companies, he explained that he had his hands full with SpaceX, Neuralink, Tesla and The Boring Company .
Tesla wants to become the largest automaker in the world
Speaking of Tesla: The US automaker is expected to produce 20 million cars and trucks annually in the future. That is an ambitious number and would place Tesla undisputedly in first place among the largest automakers in the world. Then come Toyota and Volkswagen, each with around ten million vehicles. Musk sees the greatest development potential in the field of autonomous driving. Technologies like Lidar would raise the capabilities of modern vehicles well above the level of human drivers.
Corona crisis and vaccination campaigns
During the corona crisis, Musk also did a lot of remote work using tools like Zoom and others. His conclusion: remote work is not perfect. When asked about the global vaccination campaigns, Musk was optimistic and claimed to be a vaccine advocate.
The technology fan is particularly fascinated by the new mRNA vaccines. He assumes that there will be a real vaccine avalanche in the current year and that many doses will have to be thrown away in the end.
Silicon Valley and Bitcoin
In between, Musk chatted about his beginnings in Silicon Valley and his drive not only to watch the Internet develop before his eyes, but also to actively help shape its development.
Then he came up with Bitcoin and professed himself to be a supporter, although he got on quite late. However, it is obvious that Bitcoin is becoming more and more established in the financial world. He doesn’t have a strong opinion on other crypto currencies, but it is always the case that the “most entertaining outcome is the most likely.” He was referring to the fun currency Dogecoin, which is also on a high.
Musk cornered Robinhood boss Tenev
Up to this point, listeners who had accompanied Musk for years had heard practically nothing new. Then, however, Musk drew Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev into conversation and at the same time took on the role of interviewer. He didn’t give anything to Tenev.
“Well, tell us what really happened. Show us the inside view. ”So asked Tenev to explain why his trader app Robinhood had suspended trading in the so-called meme stocks, above all Gamestop, last Thursday. The case has now drawn legal and political circles. The Texas Attorney General is investigating suspected corruption and market abuse. Both houses of the US Congress have announced hearings.
“People want answers and they want to know the truth,” Musk added. Tenev tried to remain non-binding at first, spoke of a surreal week and of many advisors who suddenly came “out of the bushes” to give tips. After Musk refused to let this go, and kept coming back to the point, Tenev told his story. First, he made it clear that Robinhood’s trading business was basically three parts. One part of the company operates the app, another part of the company takes care of the actual accounting of the transactions and another part of the company is purely responsible for the crypto business. All three parts of the company operated independently of one another.
On Wednesday last week the trading volume would have increased massively again. The Robinhood app has temporarily slipped to number 1 in Apple’s App Store and to the top positions in Google’s Play Store. The load on the system has assumed unprecedented proportions.
A request from the NSCC (National Securities Clearing Corporation) clearing house was received on Thursday morning at nighttime. This office actually handles the transactions of the Robinhood Trader, so it is the most important, even indispensable vicarious agent in the process.
In the message, which was sent at half past three in the morning, the NSCC asked Robinhood to immediately put around three billion US dollars in additional collateral into the system to cover the market risks and expected transaction costs. This amount was many times higher than typically usual.
In view of the fact that Robinhood had only acquired a total of two billion in venture capital by this point in time, it was actually a huge amount. What the formula looks like, according to which the NSCC had calculated the amount, is also quite opaque. There is even a part that is completely unknown, but acts as a multiplier.
Musk asked directly whether this was the portion that was left to the opinion of the detaining NSCC employee, which Tenev did not want to confirm.
Everyone just wants to know whether there were shady actions on Thursday, Musk demanded. It is rather strange when suddenly in the middle of the night a demand for immediately due three billion dollars is made in the room. “Is anyone taking you hostage?” Musk Tenev asked openly. Tenev did not want to go that far, but admitted that he did not know exactly what ultimately happened at the NSCC on the night in question. In any case, he and his team decided early in the morning to escalate the matter up the NSCC hierarchy to see if another outcome could be achieved. As a result, the NSCC then reduced the requirement to 1.4 billion, which was still a very high amount for Robinhood. Under this pressure, thought was given to how risks could be reduced, which would ultimately also reduce the need for additional collateral.
He and his team came to the decision to restrict trading in the riskiest papers and only allow sales. That would have led the NSCC to accept a security deposit of “only” 700 million dollars early in the morning, around five in the morning. Robinhood paid them up promptly.
It was clear to him that this was not a good result for the customers. After all, Robinhood started to democratize stock trading. However, there was no other way to act in the situation.
“Who controls the clearing house?” Musk wanted to know. Tenev was not fully informed. It is not an authority, but rather a consortium. He doesn’t know much about it. In principle, however, he can understand the behavior of the clearing house. After all, there was actually considerable market turbulence. The activity level was very high. He would therefore not consider the demand for more security to be completely unfounded.
The sales opportunity was kept open against the background that it was probably worse not to be able to sell than not to be able to buy. Tenev sees this as a good compromise. He sees himself confirmed in the approach insofar as, according to his observation, other brokers would have reacted in the same way.
Tenev statements deliver ammunition for legal battle
For the attorney general, the Tenev interview will have provided interesting insights. After all, it seems to be confirmed that clearing houses have exerted financial pressure in an exaggerated way – so high financial pressure that the brokers concerned could not withstand it.
If we now take into account that the largest clearing house in the United States, Citadel Securities, is operated by hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin, who in turn helped save the hedge fund Melvin Capital, which was particularly damaged by the Robinhood traders last week, then a legally relevant one emerges Picture out.
