If You’d Dropped $10K on Tesla Stock 3 Years Back, Here’s What You’d Be Sitting On Now

Electric dreams or financial fantasy? Three years ago, Tesla stood at the crossroads of innovation and speculation—today, the numbers reveal a rollercoaster worth analyzing.

The Math Behind the Madness

Forget crystal balls—raw data tells the story. A $10,000 investment in August 2022 would’ve navigated Elon’s tweet storms, production hell, and macroeconomic whirlwinds. No hypotheticals—just hard percentages from historical performance charts.

Volatility as a Feature, Not a Bug

Tesla didn’t just trade—it catalyzed debates. Bull runs met brutal corrections, while shorts scrambled and believers doubled down. The stock became a proxy for the future of energy, autonomy, and meme-fueled momentum.

Would You Do It Again?

Hindsight’s 20/20, but foresight pays bills. Traditional portfolios yawned while Tesla investors rode lightning—proof that sometimes, betting on vision beats parking cash in ‘safe’ assets that barely outpace inflation (looking at you, boomer bonds).

Image source: Tesla.

Recent shareholders have endured quite the winding road with Tesla stock

Disrupting the automotive industry is hardly easy. Recognizing this, early investors in Tesla had faith that Elon Musk was steering the EV Maker in the right direction -- and they were rewarded in 2020 when the company reported its first annual profit. Shortly thereafter, Tesla stock charged higher in concert with the company's growing profitability and strong free cash flow.

Data by YCharts.

Those metrics have both reversed course over the past few years, however, and investors have been much less enthusiastic about the company's prospects.

Investors who've parked the EV maker's stock in their portfolios for a decade have seen their investments surge 1,900% higher. But those who have only held Tesla stock for the past three years have hardly fared as well. Those who invested $10,000 on August 22, 2022, have seen their investment grow in value to about $10,880 as of this writing.

Has the time to power your portfolio with Tesla stock passed?

Since Tesla stock first began trading on public markets, skeptics have dismissed Elon Musk and doubted his overly ambitious projections. Musk has often proved them wrong, though not in every instance.

While Tesla stock has struggled this year, it would be foolhardy to write the company off altogether. Even as the Core EV business struggles, there are plenty of Tesla bulls who believe the stock still has plenty of growth potential.