Tesla has sent investors on an epic roller coaster ride for years - look back at the craziest moments

Tesla is headed into fourth quarter and full-year 2016 earnings next week with arguably the biggest head of financial steam in the company's history.

A surprise profit in the third quarter last year, coupled with Donald Trump's win in the election and the assumption that an America-first manufacturing policy favors Tesla, has sent shares on an epic rally. The stock has risen as much as 50% of the past three months, surging toward $300 and ending last week above $270.

Tesla has watched its stock soar in the past, only to reliably plummet - or, if not that, the revert to trading levels that don't register a $40-billion-plus market cap, right up their with the Ford Motor Company, but something close to $30 billion, which in the assessment of many market pros is, frankly, bonkers for a carmaker that sold only about 80,000 vehicles in 2016.

The roller-coaster ride that is Tesla investing has certainly been intense, but over the past two years some interesting new patterns have developed. It's also worth taking into account that Tesla financial reporting and market value have gotten far more complex with the 2016 acquisition of SolarCity for just over $2 billion, a price that also bought Tesla billions in debt.

I thought it might worth it to take a look back at Tesla's history - a story in stock charts: