How to Buy Tesla Stock (TSLA) in 2026: Step-by-Step Guide, the "Flying" Roadster and Q3 Earnings

To buy Tesla stock, you need an account with a broker that offers US shares. Once it is funded, you find the ticker TSLA on the Nasdaq and place a market or limit order for whole or fractional shares. Data as at 20 October 2026: Tesla closed at $368.06 at 4:00 p.m. ET on 19 October, according to Stock Analysis.

Two events dominate the latest Tesla news. On 15 October 2026 Tesla showed a "flying" Roadster prototype that made short, unoccupied hops at a SpaceX test site. On 21 October, after the US close, Tesla reports its third-quarter results.

The information in this article is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.

Key Takeaways

• The Tesla flying car shown on 15 October was an unoccupied prototype that hopped and flipped using cold-gas thrusters, and Tesla's performance claims have not been independently verified.
• The FAA told CBS News the vehicle does not meet its definition of an aircraft.
• Musk said Roadster production is planned for 2028, and Tesla has not published final prices, according to TechCrunch.
• Tesla Q3 2026 earnings are due on Wednesday 21 October after the close, so Q3 profit figures are not yet known.
• The analyst consensus tracked by MarketBeat stands at Hold, with an average Tesla price target of $415.07.
• TSLA closed at $368.06 on 19 October 2026, about 18.2% lower year to date, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

How to Buy Tesla Stock: The Short Answer

Tesla, Inc. is listed on the Nasdaq. Any regulated broker with access to US shares can, in principle, offer it. The main steps are listed below and explained in more detail further down.

1. Choose a broker that offers US shares and check its fees.
2. Open and verify your account with ID and proof of address.
3. Deposit funds, keeping in mind possible currency conversion costs.
4. Search for the ticker TSLA in the trading platform.
5. Place a market order or a limit order for the amount you choose.

Source: Stock Analysis, Gotrade, MarketBeat, Tesla 8-K. Data as at 20 October 2026. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

The Tesla Roadster "Flying Car": What Actually Happened on 15 October 2026

The Tesla Roadster unveiling October 15 2026 drew wide media coverage. It was a demonstration of a prototype, and the claims are easy to overstate.

The Demo in Plain Terms

Tesla held the event at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco, according to Space.com. The car drove up a ramp that curved into a wall and then an overhang. A fan suction system held it there upside down.

The car then launched off the overhang, rotated about 180 degrees in mid-air and landed on its wheels, as CBS News described. Space.com reported that in a second stunt thrusters lifted it over a line of parked Tesla vehicles.

Nobody was on board. Space.com reported that a mannequin in a SpaceX spacesuit sat in the driver's seat. Electrek had reported in August that the demo car would be driven remotely.

Source: Space.com, TechCrunch, CBS News.

How Does the Tesla Roadster "Fly"?

Engineering VP Lars Moravy said the car uses 10 thrusters connected to 600 litres of compressed air, as reported by TechCrunch.

Tesla said on X that the thrusters generate four to five times the force the tyres can, as quoted by Fox Business. This is the company's own claim. Tesla presents the system mainly as a way to add acceleration beyond tyre grip.

Tesla did not publish an altitude or a flight time. Every report describes brief hops. Roger Connor, a Smithsonian curator of vertical flight, told CNN: "We are literally talking about hopping," as cited by IBTimes UK.

Is the Tesla Roadster Street Legal?

Tesla's own Roadster page says the flying Rocket trim is "Not approved for public road use." The regulators were equally cautious. The FAA told CBS News: "The Tesla vehicle does not meet the FAA definition of an aircraft."

NHTSA told CBS that the manufacturer must make sure the car meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. A senior Department of Transportation official doubted the car could take off. Asked about street legality, Musk said it "depends on your street", according to Decrypt.

Tesla Roadster Price and Release Date

Tesla showed three trims, as listed by TechCrunch. Final prices were not disclosed. The figures below are reservation payments and Tesla's own claims, which have not been independently verified.

Source: TechCrunch, Tesla. Claims are the company's own.

The Tesla Roadster release date has slipped many times. The car was first shown in 2017 with deliveries promised for 2020. TechCrunch counts four delays between 2020 and 2024. Musk now says production starts in 2028.

Source: Electric-Vehicles.com, Fox Business, Decrypt. Specifications are Tesla claims and have not been independently verified.

Tesla Stock After the Roadster Unveiling

The share price reaction was brief. TSLA was up 5.20% at one point in the premarket on 16 October. It then closed down 2.13% that day, in line with a 2.15% fall in the Nasdaq Composite, as Gotrade reported. By the 19 October close, the shares were only about 1.6% above the pre-event close.

Source: Stock Analysis, Electric-Vehicles.com, Gotrade. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Does the Roadster Matter for Tesla Stock?

Musk himself said he is "not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint," according to TechCrunch. Morningstar expects fewer than 2,000 Roadster deliveries a year, as reported by FinanceFeeds.

Source: Electric-Vehicles.com and FinanceFeeds.

How to Buy Tesla Stock Step by Step

The steps below apply to most brokers. Details such as fees and minimum order sizes differ between providers.

Step 1: Choose How You Want Exposure

You can own the shares, trade a derivative on them, or hold a fund that includes Tesla. Each route carries different costs and risks.

Source: Admirals.

Step 2: Open and Verify an Account

Regulated brokers must confirm your identity before you can trade. Expect to upload ID and a recent proof of address.

Step 3: Fund the Account

TSLA is priced in US dollars. If you deposit pounds or euros, your broker may convert them, and a conversion fee may apply. Exchange-rate moves can add to or cut into your returns.

Step 4: Find the TSLA Ticker

Search for "TSLA" in your platform and check that the listing is Tesla, Inc. on the Nasdaq. Some platforms show a share and a CFD with similar names.

Step 5: Choose an Order Type

General description of standard order types. Exact rules vary by broker.

A Tesla limit order to buy sets the highest price you are willing to pay, although it may not fill. That matters on a stock that rose 4.65% on 2 October and fell 2.13% on 16 October.

Step 6: Decide How Much

You do not need to buy a whole share. Fractional shares Tesla investors can buy part of a share for a set cash amount. Admirals' guide to fractional shares explains how these work.

At the 19 October close, one TSLA share cost $368.06. A 1/100 fraction would cost about $3.68 before fees.

Buying TSLA With Admirals

Admirals offers two ways to gain exposure to Tesla. Both are listed on its contract specifications pages as at 20 October 2026.

• The Tesla share (TSLA) is available through the Invest.MT5 account.
• The Tesla CFD (#TSLA) is available on Trade.MT5 and Trade.MT4 accounts.

Source: Admirals TSLA and #TSLA CFD contract specifications, 20 October 2026. Other fees and charges may apply.

The Invest.MT5 account offers shares listed in the US and Europe, with one commission-free trade per day, according to Admirals, subject to its terms. It also supports fractional shares from 1/100 of a share.

CFDs on shares let traders take a view on falling prices as well as rising ones. Leverage magnifies both gains and losses.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

An Illustrative CFD Example

The table shows how leverage works on a position worth 10 TSLA shares. It uses the 19 October close and the ±7.3% move implied by options for the Q3 report. It ignores trading costs such as spreads and overnight fees.

Source: illustrative calculation using the Stock Analysis close and the EarningsWatcher implied move. For illustrative purposes only. Losses can exceed the margin deposited.

A demo account lets traders practise placing orders. It uses virtual funds, and results may differ from live trading.

Tesla Financials: The Latest Reported Numbers

The most recent full results are for Q2 2026, published on 22 July 2026. Revenue grew strongly. Profitability fell sharply.

Source: Tesla Q2 2026 Update, SEC 8-K Exhibit 99.1. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Net income included a $1.0bn pre-tax unrealised gain on Tesla's SpaceX stake. Regulatory credit revenue dropped to $146m from $439m a year earlier, the filing shows. Operating expenses rose 47%. With its Q1 2026 results, Tesla guided capital spending above $25bn for 2026. It also expected negative Tesla free cash flow for the rest of the year, according to TIKR.

The market reacted badly. The shares fell sharply after the Q2 report as adjusted EPS missed estimates, DigitalToday reported.

Q3 2026 Deliveries: Already Reported

Tesla published its Q3 operating figures on 2 October 2026. Deliveries beat the market estimate of 463,761 by about 4.9%, according to CnEVPost.

Source: Tesla Q3 2026 Production and Deliveries, SEC 8-K, CnEVPost. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Tesla also deployed 13.7 GWh of energy storage in Q3, the filing shows. Year-to-date deliveries reached 1,324,681, up about 8.8% on the same period of 2025, according to CnEVPost. BYD's lead over Tesla in battery-electric sales widened to about 276,000 vehicles in Q3.

Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings: Date and Expectations

Tesla will post its Q3 2026 results after the market close on Wednesday 21 October 2026. A live Q&A webcast follows at 5:30 p.m. ET, which is 22:30 in the UK. The details come from the company's 8-K and Tesla Investor Relations.

The Q3 profit figures have not been published yet. The table shows analyst estimates only.

Source: Hudson Labs, MarketBeat, FinanceFeeds, EarningsWatcher, Tesla. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Options price a move of about ±7.3% around the report, or roughly ±$27 from the 19 October close. Tesla's average earnings move over 10 years is ±9.6%, and the last one was -15.6%, according to EarningsWatcher.

The Roadster remains a 2028 product for now, so it is not expected to show up in the Q3 figures.

What Traders Often Watch in the Report

• Automotive gross margin excluding regulatory credits is a key gauge of pricing power.
• The size of the free cash flow loss shows how fast capital spending is rising.
• Any change to planned 2026 capital spending above $25bn is a closely watched figure.
• Robotaxi expansion plans for Phoenix and Las Vegas are a closely followed update.
• Optimus production data could test reports of a fast ramp-up.

Admirals' earlier Tesla Q1 2026 earnings analysis shows how the shares behaved around a previous report.

Tesla's Autonomy and Robotics Businesses

Much of Tesla's valuation rests on businesses that earn little today. Their progress is a large part of how analysts value the company.

Tesla Robotaxi

The Tesla robotaxi service covers 7 US metros, according to The Charge Port. Tesla's Q2 2026 Update lists its Texas and Florida metros as "ramping unsupervised". The SF Bay Area still uses a safety driver.

Tesla reported over 1 million cumulative unsupervised miles by 3 September 2026, according to The Charge Port. Nevada approved up to 5,000 autonomous vehicles in Clark County on 20 August, though service there has not started. Tesla does not disclose its fleet size.

Tesla Cybercab

The Tesla Cybercab is built without a steering wheel or pedals. Tesla had registered 319 Cybercabs in Texas by 10 October 2026, according to Wikipedia. NHTSA said it will audit how Tesla self-certified the vehicle against federal safety standards.

Tesla Optimus

Tesla's Q2 2026 Update says first-generation Optimus lines are being installed for production in 2026. BGR reported an internal target of 1,000 robots a week, which Tesla has not confirmed. Musk said at Davos that Tesla could sell humanoid robots to the public by the end of 2027, as reported by Fox Business.

Tesla FSD

Active Tesla FSD (Supervised) subscriptions reached 1.48 million in Q2 2026. In Europe, the Dutch regulator RDW gave the first approval for FSD (Supervised) on 13 April 2026, as reported by electrive.

Source: The Charge Port, Wikipedia, Tesla Q2 2026 Update, Fox Business.

Tesla and SpaceX: Merger Talk Without a Deal

SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq as SPCX on 12 June 2026, after pricing its IPO at $135 a share and raising $75bn, according to IPOScoop. Admirals covers the listing in its SpaceX stock guide.

Barclays analyst Dan Levy wrote on 14 October that a combination could be announced before Tesla's annual meeting. He estimated a possible ratio of about 0.7 SPCX shares per TSLA share, which is his own assumption. Neither company has announced or filed anything, and prediction markets gave a deal 24% odds by year-end, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Tesla bought $2bn of SpaceX equity in Q1 2026, its Q2 filing shows. The two companies also share the Terafab chip plant project, covered in Admirals' Terafab analysis.

SPCX has traded only since 12 June 2026, so a full 12-month performance record does not exist yet.

Tesla Stock Performance and Technical Picture

Tesla has been one of the most volatile large US stocks. The five-year record shows large swings in both directions.

Five-Year Performance

Source: ChartRow, Tesla returns by year, split-adjusted calendar-year returns. The 2026 figure is calculated from the 19 October close on Stock Analysis and ChartRow's 2025 year-end close of $449.72. Tesla does not pay a dividend, so price and total return match. Returns are shown before taxes and costs, which may vary. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

The 2023 gain followed a 65% loss in 2022. Tesla has carried out two stock splits. The first was 5-for-1 in 2020, and the second was 3-for-1 in 2022, as Nasdaq recounts.

Tesla Stock Support and Resistance

TSLA sits between its 50-day average of $359.98 and its 200-day average of $377.05, according to MarketBeat. The RSI was about 50.1 on 19 October, a neutral reading, according to TradingKey.

Source: Stock Analysis, MarketBeat, Gotrade. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Some technical traders read a close above the 200-day average as improving momentum. Others watch whether $349 holds, with the 12 August close of $327.51 as the next level on the chart. Technical levels do not reliably predict future prices.

Tesla Stock Forecast 2026: What Analysts Say

Analysts are split. MarketBeat counts 26 ratings of Buy or better and 16 Hold ratings. Five analysts rate the stock Sell, which leaves a consensus Hold. The average target of $415.07 sits about 13% above the 19 October close. Price targets are analyst opinions and are often revised.

Source: MarketBeat, Electric-Vehicles.com, FinanceFeeds, Yahoo Finance. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The gap between the HSBC and Roth Capital targets is $348. It shows how much the Tesla stock forecast depends on whether autonomy and robotics succeed.

Valuation: Why Is the Tesla P/E Ratio So High?

Tesla trades at a trailing P/E of 340.8, according to MarketBeat. The S&P 500 trades at 26.0 times trailing earnings, on an estimate by ChartRow. That puts Tesla's multiple about 13 times the market's.

The premium reflects market expectations of future profits from autonomy and robotics, which may not materialise. Admirals' guide to the price-earnings ratio explains how the measure works.

Tesla Bull Case and Tesla Bear Case

Source: Tesla Q2 2026 Update, CnEVPost, Wikipedia, FinanceFeeds.

Illustrative Scenarios for the Next One to Three Months

The scenarios below are illustrations only. They do not show which outcome is more likely.

Source: illustrative scenarios based on levels from Stock Analysis and MarketBeat. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Tesla Stock Risks

• Valuation leaves little room for disappointment at a P/E above 340.
• Capital spending above $25bn this year is pushing free cash flow below zero.
• Core car sales face strong competition, led by BYD.
• Regulators could slow robotaxi or Cybercab expansion.
• Elon Musk runs both Tesla and SpaceX, which raises questions about his time and conflicts of interest.
• Merger speculation could fade or produce terms some Tesla holders dislike.
• A beta of 1.92 means the shares have tended to swing more than the market.
• Higher bond yields can weigh on growth stocks, and the 10-year US Treasury yield closed at 5.10% on 16 October, according to Gotrade.
• Investors outside the US also carry currency risk on a dollar-priced share.

Admirals' overview of the largest Tesla shareholders shows how concentrated ownership is.

ETFs That Hold Tesla

Tesla joined the S&P 500 on 21 December 2020, as TechCrunch reported at the time. S&P 500 tracker funds that replicate the index therefore hold it. Admirals lists some of these in its S&P 500 ETF guide.

Tesla was the largest holding of the ARK Innovation ETF on 19 October 2026, at 9.74% of the fund. SpaceX was second at 6.42%, according to Stock Analysis.

Source: ChartRow, Stock Analysis, The ARKK weight is as at 19 October 2026. SPY and QQQ weights are ChartRow estimates.

Key Dates for Tesla Stock

Source: Tesla 8-K, Federal Reserve, Tesla 2026 proxy statement, Fox Business. UK clocks change to GMT on 25 October 2026.

The Fed's October meeting runs on 27 and 28 October. Traders can follow it on Admirals' economic calendar.

How to Short Tesla

Short selling means aiming to profit from a falling price, with the risk of losses if the price rises. Retail traders often do this with CFDs. Admirals explains the mechanics in its guide to short selling.

Losses on a short position can grow quickly in a stock that moves like Tesla. A rise of 7.3% after earnings would cost a short holder the same amount a long holder gained, before costs.

Conclusion

How to buy Tesla stock is the easy part. You need a funded account with a broker that offers US shares. Then you place an order for TSLA. The harder part is assessing a company that trades at about 341 times trailing earnings.

The Roadster demo showed an unoccupied car making short thruster hops. It is a 2028 product with unconfirmed prices, and Tesla says the flying version is not approved for public road use. The Q3 report on 21 October is the nearer event, and analysts quoted above expect margins and cash flow to draw the most attention.

Trading tools such as the MetaTrader 5 platform can help traders set limit orders and manage risk around events, although they cannot prevent losses.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tesla's ticker symbol?

Tesla trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker TSLA. Most brokers use this symbol, though CFD symbols may differ.

Can the Tesla Roadster really fly?

Reports describe brief thruster-powered hops and a flip by an unoccupied prototype. Tesla showed nothing like sustained or forward flight.

Does Tesla pay a dividend?

Tesla does not pay a dividend. Investors rely only on share price changes, which can be large in both directions.

Can I buy fractional Tesla shares?

Yes. Many brokers offer fractions of a TSLA share. Admirals' Invest.MT5 account offers fractions from 1/100 of a share.

What is the Tesla stock price target?

MarketBeat's consensus target is $415.07, rated Hold. Targets cited here range from $157 at HSBC to $505 at Roth Capital.

Some of the content on this page was created with the help of automated tools. All final text has been reviewed by Admirals and is under its editorial responsibility.

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