Tesla investors nursing big share losses

Mr Doug Coyle's son told him to sell the shares. The 68-year-old retired landscaper first started investing in Tesla in 2012 after hearing about Mr Elon Musk, who was not nearly as famous at the time.

Over the next decade, he put about US$100,000 into the stock, and his investment value ballooned to about US$3 million (S$4 million) at the peak in November 2021. Then came the plunge, as the Covid-19 pandemic-era tech bubble began to unwind. Mr Coyle's son, who got into trading during the 2020 retail frenzy, implored him to sell.

But he held on, believing in Tesla's long-term potential. He has now lost about US$1.5 million of his stock's value.

Tesla investors who stayed loyal to Mr Musk over the years are facing a brutal collapse. After a decade of gains that catapulted the company's market value to more than US$1 trillion and made Mr Musk the world's richest man, the stock dropped 65 per cent in 2022, with rising interest rates slamming the tech sector and ending a bull run for stocks.

In some ways, Tesla was the original meme stock. Back when GameStop was just a failing video game outlet, an ecosystem of YouTube channels, podcasts and Reddit threads from amateur analysts fostered a devoted community of Musk followers who made a fortune betting on the firm's clean energy mission and visionary chief executive.