Sigh! tbh the wsj comments on this particular issue are mostly accurate, though the other issues are debatable.<p>1. Tsla is quite volatile.
2. If it drops significantly by some Y%, Musk&#x27;s shares which are used as collateral would be called. 
3. When that margin call gets triggered he&#x27;d be forced to sell X shares to meet it.
4. X is very large.
5. Since X is large, you have a ton of tsla on the market with no demand. Price will drop like a rock, by some Z%.
6. Say I and you hold Tsla shares. Obviously we are OK with a price drop of Y%, because we know the damn thing us volatile, yet we chose to buy into it because we believe in its upside.
7. But just because we are OK with Y% drop due to some macro event doesn&#x27;t mean we are OK with this Z% additional drop due to the way Musk structured his personal investments.<p>In other words, ordinary investors could end up losing a ton of money (y + z) for no fault of their own, than if they had just lost y% which they had signed up for. Depending on what numbers you attach to y and z, you can make the case this is unfair or very unfair. 
For his part, Musk claims the probability of the above is low, though definitely nonzero in today&#x27;s uncertain market conditions.