In rather similar form to founder and CEO Elon Musk's persona, Tesla has been displaying volatility recently.
One thing that Elon Musk cannot be defined as is bland, and the same can very much be said for the performance of the stocks of Tesla, the company over which he presides, which has risen to global prominence as a 'big tech' giant with ten times the market capitalization of long-established stalwart Ford Motor Company despite it being established for less than a tenth of the length of time.
Tesla's fortunes began suddenly around five years ago as it managed to disrupt the entire automotive industry by launching electric cars which looked and performed just like internal combustion-engined cars, but used no fuel at all.
The motoring public, previously very skeptical about electric vehicles, suddenly witnessed the silent and rapid performance, modernity and iPhone-like attractiveness to a market which it created and then bought it in droves (if you will excuse the pun).
Traditional motor manufacturers did not react when it hit the market, but very soon afterwards, once the impact it had was recognized, every single one of them from the United States, Europe, South Korea and Japan began to introduce electric cars of their own.
Tesla's fortunes rocketed and its stock became often compared with Amazon, Google and Netflix among Silicon Valley giants, rather than against car manufacturers which are far less of a major component of American stock exchanges.
Suddenly, however, this year's performance became erratic, and volatility crept in. Some say it is to do with market saturation and rivalry from traditional firms, whilst others consider Elon Musk's fascination with cryptocurrency and the subsequent 'Crypto Whale' status of Tesla as a factor which has polarized appetite for investment.
Tesla is the only publicly listed company with this level of market capitalization and prominence on the American stock market which is this heavily invested in cryptocurrency. It's an interesting topic for analysis and discussion, and could be a contributor to volatility within its own stock.
Today, however, Tesla stock is up. In fact, it finished the US trading session yesterday at $927.96 per share, which is up 3.1% over the previous day and represents its highest point in over a month.
When looking at Tesla stock over the course of the past week, this is quite a comeback, because on Friday August 12, it finished the day at $859.
It's certainly the most volatile big tech stock on the NASDAQ at the moment, and has made some degree of a comeback, but still has a way to go before it reaches the lofty heights that it arrived at in April, with stock trading at over £1140 per share back then.
Given that Tesla stock was trading as low as $627 toward the end of May this year, however, the price of Tesla stock has almost doubled in three months.
How often does that happen to Amazon, Facebook or Google stock?
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