$TSLA: One green day.

One development nudged sentiment in Tesla’s favor.

Trading Lessons
November 17, 2025

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Tesla managed a 1.2% gain to $408.85 today — a small move, but enough to stand out in a market that was deep in the red. While tech and finance spent the day selling off, Tesla quietly dodged the drawdown.

A Familiar Driver

What pushed shares higher wasn’t a delivery surprise or a price cut… but a new hint at one of Tesla’s most ambitious ideas: robotaxis.

A Stifel analyst highlighted that a growing slice of their valuation now leans on Tesla’s autonomy efforts. That call landed at the same time that Tesla’s robotaxi test mules were spotted in Enola, Pennsylvania, hinting the program is expanding its footprint beyond early prototypes.

For a stock that trades on future optionality almost as much as present-day fundamentals, even incremental progress tends to matter.

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De-Risking the Supply Chain

Tesla also asked U.S. suppliers to avoid China-made parts, a shift the market interpreted less as a warning and more as a pre-emptive hedge against rising geopolitical and sourcing pressures.

One future-facing update + one risk-control move = just enough to tilt sentiment positive.

Stepping Back

Tesla’s volatility is nothing new. The stock has notched 44 daily moves of 5% or more over the past year, meaning today’s rise barely registers on the Tesla Richter scale.

But it follows a bruising week: the stock fell 5.5% after October China sales hit a three-year low.

26,006 vehicles sold
–36% year-over-year
–63.6% compared with September
Market share sliding from 8.7% → 3.2%

The competition didn’t help. Xiaomi outsold Tesla’s combined Model 3 and Model Y totals — a sharp reversal in one of Tesla’s most important markets.

Where Tesla Sits Today

Up 7.8% year-to-date
Still 14.8% below its 52-week high
$1,000 invested 5 years ago = $2,777 today

Today wasn’t a turning point — just a green day powered by a small signal in one of Tesla’s biggest storylines.

Key levels:

Lesson of the Day: What Is a Trading Plan?

A trading plan is a written roadmap for how you trade — defining what you trade, when you enter and exit, and how you manage risk. Its purpose is simple: improve consistency and prevent emotional, impulsive decisions.

A solid trading plan includes three essentials:

• Entry & Exit Rules — Clear criteria for when you open and close a position (e.g., trend signals, breakouts, moving averages). Your rules should be consistent, testable, and fit your style.

• Risk Management — How much you risk per trade, where you place stops, your risk–reward ratio, and how you size positions. This protects your account and keeps losses controlled.

• Performance Review — Tracking win rate, drawdowns, and risk–reward to see whether your strategy is working — and where it needs adjustment.

A trading plan isn’t static. You test it, refine it, and update it as markets and your experience evolve. The payoff? More confidence, more discipline, and fewer emotional mistakes.

A Few Tips Worth Keeping:

→ Write it down. Every great trader we’ve ever met keeps their rules on paper, not in their head. Markets move fast — your memory lies, your notes don’t.

→ Keep your setup boringly simple. Most winning strategies aren’t flashy. They’re repeatable. If you need six indicators to convince yourself, it’s not an edge — it’s a hope.

→ Define your red lights. Pros don’t just know when to trade — they know when to stop. A daily loss limit or “three strikes” rule protects both your capital and your sanity.

→ Trust data over gut feel. We love instincts… right after they’re backed by backtests. If your strategy can’t survive old charts, it won’t thrive in new ones.

→ Size like someone who plans on being here next year. Small enough to stay alive, big enough to make progress. Pros obsess over position size more than entries.

→ Never negotiate with your stop-loss. The market doesn’t care that you “just need a little bounce.” Stops exist for a reason — mostly to save you from yourself.

→ Review your trades like an editor, not a cheerleader. Pros comb through their wins and losses the same way we dig through earnings calls — looking for the real story behind the outcome.

→ Journal everything. Your behavior has patterns long before your charts do. Writing them down is how you spot them early.

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