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If we'd bought Tesla Motors stock first thing this morning, we could sell quickly right now and make a nice profit - which is better than Tesla's done since its founding.

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Nasdaq trading page shows Tesla at $18.40 a share just before 12:30 pm Eastern time.
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The electric-car maker went public at $17 a share on the Nasdaq exchange at 11 a.m. Eastern time this  morning and by half past noon was trading at $18.40 and bouncing up and down after having hit an earlier  high of $19. That $18.40 represented an 8.2 percent increase in 90 minutes.


The initial $17 price was $1 above the high side of the $14-$16 trading range Tesla had projected and showed that there was substatial interest in the comany among the institutinal investors who get first shot at a company's initial offerig.


Now that the shares are trading publicly, though, market speculation is just as likely a reason as faith in Tesla's future for the quick run-up.


Still, if the trend holds all day and Tesla closes its first day of trading above $17, many will take it as a sign not only that investors believe the company has a future but that the market is looking favorably at the whole green car segment.


We're not so sure that's the case (but then we don't have a fat and profitable stock portfolio, so what do we know?).


Tesla may well be trading right now on the strength of publicity and of CEO Elon Musk's pitch to investors to consider the company more like a Google than a Ford. 


That might have been the case before the IPO, but now that it is a public company, Tesla's got to be thought of as an automaker because making autos - albeit electrically driven ones - is the business on which it will rise or fall.


We know than 90 minutes of trading doesn't make a trend - nor does a day, or even a month.


Tesla doesn't deserve to be judged on the basis of its first day in the market, although it undoubtedly will be in some circles; nor does the entire EV segment deserve to be judged on the basis of Tesla's market performance, although that, too, will happen.


As for us, we'll watch and wait for a bit - and bring you the highlights as we do.


John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Tags: Tesla, Tesla Motors, Tesla Stock, Tesla Trading

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Speculation or Faith? Tesla Shares Soar Above IPO Price in Early Trading was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.