Tesla short sellers have made $1.3 billion today alone as the stock plunged

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Tesla short sellers have made $1.3 billion today alone as the stock plunged

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  • Tesla short-sellers gained more than $1.3 billion in mark-to-market profits Monday as the stock fell more than 10%, according to data from S3 Partners.
  • That brings year-to-date mark-to-market losses for traders betting against Tesla to roughly $6 billion, S3 data show.
  • The recent market rout due to coronavirus panic and an oil price war snapped a record-breaking rally for Tesla stock.
  • Watch Tesla trade live on Markets Insider.
  • Read more on Business Insider.

The market rout is good news for traders who are betting against Tesla.

Tesla short-sellers gained more than $1.3 billion in mark-to-market profits Monday as the stock plummeted more than 10% in intraday trading, according to data from financial-analytics firm S3 Partners.

Shares of Tesla fell 14% to an intraday low of $605 per share before trading was halted amid a broader market sell-off. Stocks moved sharply lower after Saudi Arabia slashed its crude prices following the collapse of talks between OPEC and its allies to cut oil production amid the coronavirus outbreak, sending the price of the commodity plummeting more than 30%.

Cheap oil prices could be a bad thing for the Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker. If oil prices fall significantly, it may dampen consumer demand for Tesla's battery-powered vehicles. In addition, China's automotive industry has taken a hit amid the coronavirus outbreak - sales fell 80% in February, Bloomberg reported.

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The recent market rout snapped a record-breaking rally for Tesla that saw shares gain more than 250% from October, when the company reported a surprise profit, to the all-time high close of $917 per share on February 19. Tesla shares have fallen about 23% from the February high through Friday's close.

Short-seller gains have erased many of the mark-to-market losses incurred during that epic rally. As of Monday, Tesla short-sellers have a year-to-date mark-to-market loss of nearly $6 billion, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, the managing director of predictive analytics at S3.

That means they've recouped nearly $6 billion since February 19, when mark-to-market losses were nearly $12 billion. This month alone, Tesla short-sellers have gained $703 million in mark-to-market gains, according to S3 data.

Tesla is up roughly 68% year-to-date through Friday's close.

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