Tesla fans buy stock at never-seen-before pace

Shares Down Halfway From Peak

- ESHA DEY

TESLA'S STOCK is in a freefall. Its sales are plunging around the world. Even its most avid Wall Street bulls are turning cautious. But one group is buying the electric-vehicle maker's shares like never before: CEO Elon Musk's fans. The firm has long had an ardent fan base of individual investors who hang on to Musk's every word on X, the social-media platform he owns. They analyze Tesla in great detail in online forums and largely function as a hype crew for the stock.

But their current level of enthusiasm is staggeringly high, even by recent historical standards. Individual investors have been net buyers of Tesla shares for 13 straight sessions through Thursday, pumping $8 billion into the stock, retail trading data from JPMorgan Chase's global equity derivatives strategist Emma Wu shows. That's the biggest inflow over any buying streak since 2015, which is as far back as the data goes.

What makes the buying notable is Tesla's share price has sunk 17% over this time, wiping out more than $155 billion from its market value.