Much like its billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Tesla (TSLA  ) has been having a rough year. Despite showing profit and revenue growth year-over year, the electric carmaker has been facing increasing competition from other manufacturers, and Musk's acquisition and subsequent mismanagement of Twitter have investors worried he might be neglecting Tesla.

Tesla's share price has fallen by roughly 70% since the beginning of the year, compared to a 20% drop in the benchmark index. This $700 billion loss positions the carmaker as one of the five biggest losers on the S&P 500 (SPY  ) and makes 2022 the worst year for the company to date.

From 2020 to 2021, Tesla's share of the EV market fell by nearly 10% and has continued to decline since. In December, the company started offering discounts on its two top-selling items marking a decline in demand for the vehicles.

"Tesla is facing some serious macro and company specific EV competitive headwinds into 2023 that are starting to emerge both in the U.S. and China," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note.

According Ives, Musk's purchase of Twitter earlier this fall has also been a "complete debacle" for Tesla's stock.

As Twitter flounders, Musk has been selling off his Tesla stock to keep it afloat, something that has Tesla investors increasingly frustrated. Musk's brand has suffered significantly since his takeover of the social media platform, turning off loyal Tesla customers.

"Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla's stock to a villain in the eyes of the Street as the overhang grows with each tweet," Ives writes.

As a result, Tesla has become the third-most shorted stock in dollar value, falling behind Apple (AAPL  ) and Microsoft (MSFT  ). According to the analytics firm S3 Partners, roughly 2.85%, or $8.36 billion, of Tesla stock are shorted, up by nearly 9 million shares since last year.

Musk says he plans to stay on as Twitter's CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him. Since joining the company, Musk has fired a wide swath of Twitters' workforce, including many of those responsible for moderating hate speech and other potentially dangerous content on the platform. As a result, Twitter has been suffering, both in terms of users and advertiser dollars.

Tesla, in contrast, has been performing well. As Ives put it, the year may not have matched the "Cinderella story demand environment" Tesla has seen since 2018, but his expectations for the company's long-term performance in the electric vehicle market are still high.

"However, any further Musk strategic missteps will be carefully scrutinized by the Street and further weigh on shares," Ives wrote.