When everyone was hyping the new energy vehicle concept in the first half of the year, who could have predicted how brutal this recent wave of sell-offs would be?

I checked my portfolio records—wow, Li Auto plunged from 105 straight down to 67, XPeng from 110 to 73, Seres was cut in half from 174 to 125, and even BYD dropped from 116 back to 94. These declines would be trending if they happened in the crypto world.

What’s even crazier is the timeline—these stocks were institutional darlings in the middle of the year, and now they've been kicked out of the core pool. This is the same pace as when liquor stocks dropped from their highs back in the day (not talking about long-term gains here, just the sheer damage over the past few months).

So here’s the question: what exactly are the institutions up to? Are they really bearish on the sector, or is this just another round of sector rotation and positioning? Either way, retail investors have really taken a beating this time. Right now, the auto sector feels like “anyone who touches it gets burned.”