Tesla Stock Is Up Over 7% Since Q4 Earnings Miss, Retail Traders Are Now Firmly ‘Long The Elon Train’

Shares of Tesla, Inc. climbed to more than a week’s high on Friday, and are now up over 7% since the company posted weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. 

Despite the miss, retail traders have shifted sentiment, increasingly backing CEO Elon Musk’s vision for growth beyond autos — focusing instead on autonomous driving and AI robotics.

A Stocktwits poll of over 3,100 respondents found that nearly 60% are now “long the Elon train” based on the company’s outlook, while 24% are “shorting this post-earnings gap” and 19% are steering clear of the stock altogether. 

TSLA Q4 earnings poll on Stocktwits as of Jan 31

Sentiment on Stocktwits, where Tesla has nearly a million followers, improved to ‘neutral’ Friday afternoon from ‘extremely bearish’ a day ago, though message volume has dipped slightly.

Bullish posts highlight Tesla’s plans to roll out multiple new products this year, including the long-awaited affordable EV and the Robotaxi launch slated for mid-2025.

Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas noted following the recent results that while 80% of Tesla’s revenue is still tied to automotive sales, the Q4 earnings call was “almost entirely around autonomy, AI, and robotics,” with little discussion of the core auto business. 

Musk also revealed plans to launch unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin by June, expanding to California by year-end, with growing interest from other automakers in licensing Tesla’s FSD technology.

In another potential boost, The New York Times reported Friday that under stricter EU carbon emission regulations, automakers struggling to meet emission targets are looking to buy credits by “pooling” with EV makers like Tesla and China’s Geely. 

That could provide Tesla with an additional revenue stream as demand for EVs in Europe softens.

Tesla’s stock has more than doubled in the past year, largely fueled by optimism surrounding Donald Trump’s election win and Musk’s perceived influence in shaping auto regulations under a new administration.

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