Here's How Much Short Sellers Have Lost From Betting Against Tesla Since 2010

Shares of electric vehicle company Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up more than 7,000% in the last 10 years. Despite the strong gains the stock has shown, a large number of investors have bet against the stock by going short, which has been a costly move for many.

What Happened: Tesla posted its worst annual stock performance since going public in 2010 with a 69% drop in 2022. The drop in Tesla’s share price in 2022 had many expecting a rebound in 2023.

Tesla shares have rebounded in 2023 and are up over 70% year-to-date, a move that briefly saw Tesla CEO Elon Musk reclaim the title of the world’s richest person.

Short sellers betting against Tesla were profitable in 2022, a rare item for those who have bet against one of the most successful stocks of the last decade.

S3 Managing Director of Predictive Analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky took to Twitter recently to share how much short sellers have lost (or profited) betting against Tesla since the company went public in 2010.

Here are the results, with the figures from 2010 to 2015 estimated. The numbers factor in the borrow financing costs.

• 2010 to 2015: -$5.91 billion 
• 2016 to 2018: -$5.75 billion, -65.4%
• 2019: -$2.89 billion, -31.8%
• 2020: -$40.68 billion, -224.3%
• 2021: -$10.26 billion, -36.5%
• 2022: +$15.85 billion, +83.8%
• 2023 (to date): -$6.90 billion, -48.8%

Since 2010, Tesla short sellers are down $56.5 billion according to the data from Dusaniwsky.

Related Link: Tesla Analysts Praise Vertical Integration After Investor Day, But Want More From Elon Musk: 'Long On Vision, Short On Specifics'

Why It’s Important: Tesla has been one of the most bet against stocks by dollar volume for years. This comes likely due in large part to the company’s stock already being up so much and having a premium valuation and price multiple to other automotive companies.

Many opponents of Tesla have argued the stock should trade closer to auto companies and not with the premium multiple it gets for being a technology stock and high-growth name as well.

Other investors are likely betting against Tesla because of its outspoken CEO Musk.

Twitter user James Stephenson shared a take on investors who have chosen to bet against Musk.

“Looks like betting against @elonmusk has been a painful decision most years,” Stephenson tweeted.

When asked if shorting Tesla has been the least successful trade in history, Dusaniwsky said “I can’t imagine what stocks would be close — possibly $AAPL, $GOOG, $AMZN.”

At the start of the year, Benzinga followers on Twitter picked Tesla to outperform Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) in 2023.

Tesla was favored by 44.2% of those in the poll, compared to 19.6% for Apple, 18.5% for Amazon and 17.7% for Alphabet.

Tesla’s continued push in vertical integration to lower unit costs and its highly anticipated Cybertruck launch are two catalysts for investors betting against the company to consider for 2023 and going forward.

Read Next: Here's How Many Vehicles Tesla Has Delivered And Produced In Each Quarter Since 2019 

Photo: Unsplash