2,900%. That¡¯s the mammoth gain on Tesla¡¯s stock that 68-year-old retired landscaper Doug Coyle had in 2021. He had started investing in Tesla?in 2012 after hearing about Elon Musk, who wasn¡¯t nearly as famous at that time.
Over the next decade, he put about $100,000 into the stock, and his investment value ballooned to about $3 million at the peak in November 2021.
But the 68-year-old fan of Musk kept believing in the further growth of Tesla and the stock, and hence did not sell the shares despite seeing the investment balloon to a 2,900% gain.
And then came the plunge, as the pandemic-era tech bubble began to unwind. Coyle¡¯s son, who got into trading during the 2020 retail frenzy, had told him to sell the Tesla shares. But he held on, believing in Tesla¡¯s long-term potential. The 68-year-old has now lost about $1.5 million in paper gains.
"It just all started falling down," said Coyle, who lives in North Carolina, as per a Bloomberg report.
68-year-old Doug¡¯s son is among the Tesla traders who got out at the right time.
Coyle¡¯s son Dennis?had bought $20,000 worth of the company¡¯s stock following the March 2020 crash, a sum that ballooned to $60,000 by July 2021. So the 36-year-old living in New Jersey decided to take that out and use it for a down payment on a $380,000 home in southern New Jersey that he calls his "Tesla house."
He¡¯s been slowly building back his position since then and plans to put another $20,000 in when the share price drops to $85 or $80.
Like father, like son. His dad Doug has faith in?Tesla?as a company and takes heart in predictions from Ark Investment Management¡¯s Cathie Wood, a long-time believer in the stock, whose firm recently said the price will rise to at least $500 by 2026. However, he does wish that Musk "would keep his mouth shut."
"I¡¯m still behind it 100%," Coyle said. "He's made me a wealthy person."
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Tesla investors who stayed loyal to Musk over the years are facing a brutal collapse. After a decade of gains that catapulted the company¡¯s market value to more than $1 trillion and made Musk the world¡¯s richest man.
In some ways, Tesla was the original meme stock. Back when GameStop Corp. was just a failing video game outlet, an ecosystem of YouTube channels, podcasts, and Reddit threads from amateur analysts fostered a devoted community of Elon Musk?followers who made a fortune betting on the company¡¯s clean-energy mission and visionary chief executive.
Now, those high-flying days appear to be over.?Musk¡¯s controversial $44 billion Twitter acquisition has rattled investor confidence. He sold billions of dollars' worth of Tesla stock to fund the purchase last year and is now spending more time running the social media site and tweeting controversial takes on everything from politics and birth rates to the war in Ukraine.
Tesla¡¯s share price has slipped 37% since Dec. 1, and the stock is now trading around $123¡ªdown from more than $400 at the top.
For fans of the world¡¯s second-richest person, Elon Musk, it¡¯s hard to believe the difference a year makes. Michael Williams, a 49-year-old trader in Utah, first started buying the company¡¯s shares in 2018 and used complicated options strategies to make supersized bets.??
He admits he got lucky. Using calls, he turned about $3,000 in his Robinhood account into "several hundred thousand." Then he took it a step further, piling about 90% of his 401(k) into Tesla. Soon, $40,000 became $800,000.
It didn¡¯t last. As per the report, in the middle of 2021, Williams made a couple of bad trades, first losing $600,000 and then $200,000. Now, the value of his 401(k) is down to about $300,000. And that Robin Hood account? It has about $50 in it.
Williams, who works in telecommunications, has sold about half his shares in Tesla but now plans to slowly build up his stake again.
The fan still believes in Musk, though he says the billionaire is prone to ¡°doing dumb things.¡±
Adrian Mora in Denver bought his first Tesla shares in July 2022 after hearing hype around the electric semi trucks the company started delivering late last year. The 42-year-old, who works for the Department of Veteran Affairs, had recently sold his house and decided to put the money¡ªabout $210,000¡ªinto Tesla. His shares have since dropped about 70% in value, and he¡¯s considering selling what¡¯s left.
"This is my whole life savings," he said. "I come from a Hispanic family, and you always hear that my people never get ahead because we never invest. But now I see there¡¯s a good reason my people never invest ¡ª you can lose all your money" as per a Bloomberg report.
For Karim Jovian in New York, this year will be crucial in determining whether Tesla can mount a turnaround. The 29-year-old content creator started investing in the car company in 2020 after hearing other social media stars talk up Tesla and its potential. He jumped in after the stock plunged at the start of the pandemic.
With about 80% of his net worth in the stock now, he¡¯s worried about all the drama surrounding Musk and how that will affect the share price.?"He talks too much, it¡¯s like, ¡®Please shut up,¡¯" Jovian said about the CEO. "I¡¯m definitely considering selling."