Given Tesla Inc’s imminent meteoric rise, Orestis Palampougioukis, a Netherlands-based software developer, had taken out a 43,000 euro loan in during early October to invest it in the electric carmaker, who at that time was known to be trading at around $230 a share.
Palampougioukis’ bet has been known to have paid off as Tesla’s share price had increased more than six-fold, trading around $1,500 on Monday and it has been known to have surpassed every rival to become the world’s highest-valued automaker. After having invested an additional 14,000 euros in personal funds, he has been known to have pocketed around 10,000 euros in profit till date, even when accounting for the 7% interest he had paid to the bank.
Retail investors around the world, have been believers in the company’s mission to lead the auto industry into a battery-powered future and have invested their personal money, and at times, even their parents’ retirement funds in Tesla and have been to have reaped handsome rewards.
Tesla had reported second-quarter results on Wednesday after the closing of trading. While analysts polled on average, expecting the company to report a loss, a surprisingly strong vehicle delivery report had boosted hopes among many retail investors for a profitable quarter.
Discussions about Tesla on online retail investor forums have surged, with users debating whether to hold their shares in hopes of even higher returns or cash out.
While the total number of Tesla retail investors are not presently known, it has been noticed that around 75% of the company’s stock is owned by large institutional investors and Tesla executives, including Chief Executive Elon Musk.
In South Korea, Tesla has become the latest craze among tech-savvy professionals, the company has been known to have the most-traded overseas stock, with Koreans buying $3.2 billion worth of Tesla shares so far this year, up nearly 13-fold from all of 2019.