While it was a good buy then, it's important to keep in mind that it's either in the middle of, or toward the tail end of a short squeeze, so is likely trading above the present fundamental value of the company. I expect it will fall quite a bit in the short term, though it's probably a good long term buy still. There were so many short positions in part because the market cap is way off for Tesla as a car company; the value of Tesla is currently about 85% of the value of Mazda, but Mazda sells many more cars much more profitably. Of course, the majority of the price is all in the expected present value of the future cash flows.

I bought several thousand shares at $17. Watching it go to almost $80/share has been surreal.

"Betting" is the operative word here. I think Elon is going to be successful, but that doesn't mean I want to gamble on TSLA stock. In other words, TSLA is not an "investment" if you realize you are essentially betting on some future outcome that is far from certain. It's a gamble. It would be great if people made this distinction (not saying you don't)