Millennial investors are ditching Tesla during its wild week

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Millennial investors are ditching Tesla during its wild week

elon musk

Mark Brake/Getty

Elon Musk during his presenation at the Tesla Powerpack Launch Event at Hornsdale Wind Farm on September 29, 2017 in Adelaide, Australia.

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Elon Musk sent shockwaves through the stock market this week when he announced plans to go private.

The stock surged more than 10% following his cryptic tweet that funding had been secured to take the electric carmaker private, and investors on Robinhood may have cashed out following the rise.

Data from the free stock trading app show roughly 7,400 investors ditched the stock in the past seven days, the biggest rout of any equity on the brokerage.

On August 2, 83,405 Robinhood investors - who skew much younger than traditional brokerages - held the stock. As of August 9, a total of 75,994 held it, marking a decline of about 8.8%. That's close to the lowest number since Business Insider first started tracking the data in June.

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Since peaking at $379, Tesla has given up nearly half of its gains since Tuesday, and was down 3.8% in trading Thursday as doubt swirled about the financing Musk had touted earlier.

Legal experts told Business Insider that if financing had not actually been secured at the time of his tweet - which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says counts a material statement - the billionaire likely broke federal laws. The SEC's requirements say a company must file an official disclosure within four days of a major event. Those events are generally defined as an acquisition, leadership change, or something in regards to the company's financial situation.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the SEC was, in fact, investigating the tweet.

Shares of Tesla have risen 11% since the beginning of the year.

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