David McNew/AFP/Getty Images
Tesla's volatile stock has always made for amazing investment opportunities.
Investors who have recognized when a share-price decline is overdone have bought on big dips and enjoyed fantastic returns.
But Tesla has never been priced as high as it is now: even after a 20% bear correction, it's still over $700.
Playing the Tesla-volatility game has become a lot more expensive.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Tesla has always been a volatile stock. But in the good old days of 2019, you could buy all that risk-on volatility for a relatively cheap price — relative to what Tesla has been trading at lately.
Over the last few weeks, some investors have bought Tesla shares at close to $1,000. Sellers might have been in the stock since it was around $200, so one can easily understand why those folks who quadrupled their money would want to head for the profitable exits.
Meanwhile, the latecomers are betting on a future in which Tesla manages to vindicate a market capitalization that adds up to four General Motors. (GM, by the way, made over $8 billion last year and sold about 8 million vehicles worldwide, while Tesla finished 2019 in the red and sold around 370,000 cars.)
