MW I told my friend to sell his Tesla shares and he stopped speaking to me. I was trying to do him a favor. Was I wrong?
By Quentin Fottrell
Elon Musk told shareholders on Thursday to hold onto their stock, even as sales of the electric vehicles are falling
Dear Quentin,
I have or had a friend who owned two Teslas, and had his entire stock in Tesla. He is a Democrat and he claims to be a nihilist. I don't see how one can identify as a nihilist and also try to save the environment. In any case, I had been trying to get him to diversify his retirement portfolio.
I told him, "If you are able, I think you should get out of Tesla. It's not that the company won't be able to recover - it might - but considering everything else, why would anyone stay vested in Tesla?" This largely random subject caused us to cease communications.
Tesla's acceleration is amazing, but that is a small sacrifice. Other companies offer hybrids and EVs. Are MAGA supporters going to take up the slack in sales? I doubt it. I was a lifelong Republican before Trump, so my comments to my (former) friend were not political.
Yet he stopped speaking to me. Is that normal?
Former Friend
Related: I'm a Democrat who drives a Tesla. A guy shouted abuse at me for driving a car made by Elon Musk. Should I sell my car?
Dear Friend,
Your friend hailed a robotaxi, and drove directly out of the friendzone.
If your friendship was strong and close, even a clumsily-worded piece of unsolicited advice about his Tesla stock should not be enough to break it, regardless of whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. He may have thought you were making a political point, even if you had no intention of doing so. Or he may feel foolish for betting his retirement on one stock. Generally, when it comes to finance and politics, third-party opinions can go down like Tesla's stock.
Speaking on his social-media platform, X, Elon Musk told shareholders to hold onto their stock, even as sales of the EVs are falling. "If you read the news, it feels like Armageddon, I can't walk past a TV without seeing a Tesla on fire," Musk said Thursday. "I understand if you don't want to buy our product, but you don't have to burn it down - that's a bit unreasonable." He added, "Tesla stock goes up, and it goes down. But, actually, it's still the same company. It's just people's perception of the future." He also reiterated his great hopes for the Model Y.
The most recent, drastic slide in Musk's electric-vehicle company should be taken in context. Tesla $(TSLA)$ is down roughly 50% from $477 at the end of last year to $236 on Friday, but it's still higher than the $170 this time last year. And if you're a medium- or long-term investor, you're still in the green: Lest we forget that the stock was hovering at around $23 five years ago. It may, of course, still have a long way to go. But if or when your friend sells will likely depend on when he bought.
It's no wonder your friend is sensitive. Wells Fargo $(WFC)$ analyst Colin Langan, in a recent analyst note, described Tesla's sales decline as "shocking." Your friend holds a stock that has 1) become highly politicized and 2) his holding has been suffering of late as a result. Some 85% of clients of Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas, in a 245-person survey released this week, said they believe Musk's political activities are hurting Tesla. They agreed that his political activism had either a "negative" or "extremely negative" effect on the business.
Related: 'God works in mysterious ways': I became a Nvidia millionaire playing 'World of Warcraft.' Am I smart - or just lucky?
Tesla's 'shocking' sales decline
To your point: Even if you are a diehard MAGA supporter and a Tesla fan, you may be concerned by Musk's attention being diverted away from the company, which Musk himself has acknowledged. By virtue of Musk's role cutting federal spending with the Department of Government Efficiency, you may reason, "This is going to hurt the company's growth." And sell. Or, like your friend, you could decide to hold your position. Politics aside, people sell stocks for all sorts of reasons.
You are hardly a lone voice when it comes to the opinion you expressed to your friend on Tesla's stock, at least in the short term. Earlier this month, Trump bought a Tesla after showcasing a group of the electric vehicles on the South Lawn of the White House in a show of support for Musk. That may end up being a self-inflicted black eye for Musk: Trump supporters will probably like the stunt, but Democrats who have ignored the brouhaha until now could feel more pressured to choose another EV.
There's another uncomfortable reality that your friend may not be ready to face: Musk, who is also the CEO and founder of SpaceX and purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 - rebranding it as X - has something of a fanatical following or, put another way, investors who believe in his dreams. And yet he is, many analysts argue, also the main cause of the current turmoil for the stock. For his fans, that's a hard pill to swallow. Your friend, given his exposure to Tesla, may be one of those fans.
Trump showcased Teslas on the South Lawn of the White House. That may become a self-inflicted black eye for Musk.
In California, the largest market for Tesla in the U.S., sales have fallen significantly. "Tesla's dominance in the electric-vehicle market continues to falter as the brand reported its fifth consecutive quarterly registration decline," according to the California New Car Dealers Association. Tesla's registrations fell 7.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing the total decline in 2024 to 11.6%.
Overseas sales are also a concern. Tesla sold 7,517 cars in Europe in January 2025, down over 50% on the same time last year. EV sales are strong in China, but Tesla sales are falling there too. MAGA's policies - from Trump's desire to purchase Greenland to Musk's support for Germany's hard-right Alternative fur Deutschland party - have not endeared them to Europeans. The U.S.-led trade war has not helped; Tesla sent a letter to the White House expressing concern about retaliatory tariffs.
Several analysts have said the Tesla slide is not nearly over yet, and point to the ongoing volatility of Tesla options. J.P. Morgan auto analyst Ryan Brinkman slashed his forecast for first-quarter deliveries by 20%, to 355,000 from 444,000, and cut his price target to $120 from $135. "We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly," Brinkman wrote.
Related: 'Is it finally time to freak out?' I'm in my 50s and worried about the $650K in my 401(k).
Mixing finance and friendship
Tesla is still considered among the "Magnificent Seven" of tech stocks, which also include Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ , Amazon $(AMZN)$, Apple $(AAPL)$, Meta $(META)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$ and Nvidia $(NVDA)$. But some observers, including Barron's columnist Al Root, believe Tesla does not belong in that group. "Tesla's market value is no longer in the top seven among S&P 500 SPX," Root writes. The other six are "profit machines," he adds, while Tesla trades for 85 times earnings, down from 200 times three months ago.
Finance and friendship don't always make good bedfellows. Adding politics to the mix is a risky gamble. I'm reminded of this couple whose neighbors introduced them to a financial adviser. The letter writers took the adviser's advice, invested in the market and drove an old car - not a Tesla - while their neighbors lived the high life. They announced they were retiring early. Their neighbors couldn't reconcile this news with their own financial hubris, and they stopped speaking to them.
By giving your friend advice about his Tesla stock, which may have been already weighing heavily on his mind, he may have felt exposed - diversify, diversify, diversify are the first three rules of investing - and he could also have felt judged. In 2025, the cars people drive and even the stocks they own have become politicized. Nihilism, the belief that nothing has meaning or purpose, exists on a sliding scale. As does tact. It's always better to ask: "Could I give you some unsolicited advice?"
It may help soften the blow, but the blow may still end the friendship.
Related: 'It's been a scary ride': My family has $800K in stocks. We lost 2 years of market gains in a few weeks. Do we sell - or buy?
You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com, and follow Quentin Fottrell on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
More columns from Quentin Fottrell:
'I'm deeply disturbed': My portfolio lost 20%. With Trump's trade war, do I sell my stocks and buy gold?
America's job market is eerily similar to the 1990s dot-com bubble - and, yes, it's a worry
Egg prices represent the cracks in the facade of America's economic wellbeing
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-Quentin Fottrell
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March 21, 2025 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT)
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