December 2018 Stock Price Drop

[gnuarm]

I have some shares of Tesla stock and I don't watch it too closely. I want to at least hold it long enough to be long term capital gains. While I wasn't looking I see the stock took something of a hit in December. I don't recall reading anything in particularly negative about the company. I know the stock is fairly volatile, but usually there is some reason for a nearly 20% change in value. Any familiar with this?

Some of it seems to be due to a bit of a run up in early Dec, and now we are just getting back to the more stable value (if you can ever call Tesla stable). Was this just end of quarter jitters?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Many volatile stocks see losses in December as people cash them out at a loss to offset (taxes) on other short or long term gains they've had on other stocks.

Whenever Tesla dips to or below 300, I buy some more. If it continues to drop, I buy more every $10 or $15 down.

Then I usually wait a bit and sell at 350 or higher. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[suwaneedad]

I suspect the December drop was due to what appeared at the time to be slow sales by Tesla (Elon's increasingly desperate sounding tweets in December fed this thinking), and a perception of low production as there was no production hysteria in the media like we'd seen in Mar/Jun/Sep. Since then, we've gotten the production and delivery data for Q4, which has provided decent reasons for the stock to buoy at least for now. 2019 is sure to be another crazy ride for stockholders. It is my favorite swing-trade stock to play with. I've paid for a third of my Model 3 with realized gains so far, with another third currently in unrealized gains on the stock. Looking to get a free Model 3 out of this during 2019. No reason to have to actually pay for my car if I'm able to play the stock's volatility in my favor, right?!