Short Sellers Profit $15-B From Tesla's Biggest-Ever Decline

Tesla stock fell another 8.8% on Thursday, bringing its year-to-date losses to 64%, Myles Udland reported for Yahoo Finance.

Photo Insert: Data from S3 Partners published Thursday showed that through Wednesday's close, Tesla was the year's most profitable short — or stock traders were betting against — with mark-to-market profits totaling $15.03 billion so far this year.

With this decline, more than $800 billion in market capitalization has been erased from the electric carmaker. The current 69.7% drawdown from its most recent high reached in late 2021 is the largest in Tesla's corporate history. And this slide has been good news to short-sellers.

Data from S3 Partners published Thursday showed that through Wednesday's close, Tesla was the year's most profitable short — or stock traders were betting against — with mark-to-market profits totaling $15.03 billion so far this year. And these figures don't reflect Thursday's decline.

"In December, Tesla shorts are up $4.54 billion in month-to-date mark-to-market profits, up +33.2% on an average short interest of $13.67 billion," S3 Partners said in its report.

"Since Elon Musk’s Twitter bid on 4/14/22, Tesla shorts are up $13.74 billion in mark-to-market profits, up 77.5% on an average short internet of $17.74 billion," the company reported.

And the next most-profitable short this year isn't even close — short-sellers have made $6.2 billion betting against Amazon in 2022, a stock that was down 49.7% so far this year through Thursday's close.

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