Tesla Short Sellers Down $8 Billion Since 2024 Election — And There Could Be More Pain Ahead

Electric vehicle giant Tesla Inc TSLA has often been a favorite of short sellers. These investors may have lost big if they continued to bet against the Elon Musk-led company ahead of and after the 2024 presidential election.

What Happened: Investors betting against Tesla have lost big with the stock soaring after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

After a previous report of short sellers losing $5 billion since the election, the total has now jumped to $7.8 billion according to data from S3 Partners.

Thanks to Tesla CEO Musk's endorsement of Trump before the 2024 election, the electric vehicle company has been one of several Trump-linked stocks that soared after the election.

Tesla is one of the most-shorted stock with $25.6 billion in short interest, Business Insider reported earlier this week, with data provided from S3 Partners.

The post-election rally witnessed Tesla stock up over 30% and hitting new 52-week highs of $358.64, a level not seen by investors since April 2022.

"We expect continued short covering in TSLA stock due to the rally induced short squeeze which will force out many of the 2.4 million shares we saw shorted over the last month," S3 Partners' managing director Ihor Dusaniwsky told Business Insider.

Dusaniwsky said short-sellers have bought 1.22 million Tesla shares since the election to close out their bets against the electric vehicle leader. The shares bought total around $400 million.

Did You Know?

• Congress Is Making Huge Investments. Get Tips On What They Bought And Sold Ahead Of The 2024 Election With Our Easy-to-Use Tool

What's Next: With Musk often at odds with the Biden administration, investors and analysts see Trump being more friendly to companies such as Tesla, as well as Musk’s X and SpaceX.

While Trump has been a critic of electric vehicles, his opposition to government credits could actually help Tesla as it would hurt its competitors more in a battle to get to profitability on electric vehicles because Tesla is already profitable and has huge-scale advantages.

Along with Tesla's soaring stock price, Musk’s wealth has increased substantially since the 2024 election.

Musk recently passed the $300 billion net worth valuation and is currently worth an estimated $319 billion, according to Bloomberg. The billionaire added $90 billion to his wealth year-to-date in 2024, the most of any person in the world.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla stock closed Wednesday up 0.53% to $330.24 on Wednesday versus a 52-week trading range of $138.80 to $358.64. Tesla stock is up 32.9% year-to-date in 2024.

Read Next:

• Donald Trump’s Wealth Soars With 2024 Election Win: Here’s How Much President-Elect Is Worth, How Much He’ll Make In White House

Photo: Shutterstock