Image: 0xmilan

Tesla short sellers have been largely unprofitable since 2010, the data show. However, they continue to lose their money by making bad decisions for years on end.

Tesla shares have risen over 7,000% over the past 10 years, posting amazing performance. Despite this, a large number of investors have bet against the stock, going short. The data show that for many of them, it has come at a cost, as their trades have mostly been losing money for more than 10 years.

In 2022, Tesla posted its worst annual stock performance since going public in 2010, registering a 69% drop. This certainly pleased short sellers, who for the first time registered profits at the end of the year. However, in 2023, TSLA value has recovered, registering a 70% increase since the beginning of the year.

S3 Managing Director of Predictive Analytics, Ihor Dusaniwsky, posted the data collected by his firm on Twitter (via Benzinga). They showed how much short sellers have lost 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 borrowing 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%

Tesla's short sales have fallen $56.5 billion since 2010, according to Dusaniwsky.

I haven't looked at this in a while, looks like $TSLA shorts are down around $56.5 billion since 2010. https://t.co/ePinofq7qK pic.twitter.com/2LAM8Np6dk

— Ihor Dusaniwsky (@ihors3) March 6, 2023

© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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