It's been a volatile year for (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock, with shares falling to around $140 in late April, surging to highs above $260 in early July, and then taking a hit following the company's second-quarter earnings release -- putting shares closer to $220. This volatility is representative of the market's fast-changing sentiment for the stock. Deciding what Tesla stock is worth is simply a difficult task.

It's not surprising that Tesla stock is hard to value. This is usually the case when a company is involved in new technologies. Investors interested in owning shares need to not only extrapolate current trends about new technologies like electric cars, energy storage, and solar, but they also have to make predictions about unproven products and services yet to launch. For instance, Tesla investors have to think through the implications of the company's plans in robotics and its promised self-driving taxi network. Forecasting how these moonshot business segments will contribute to Tesla's financials is no easy task.

These uncertain factors make it virtually impossible to know what Tesla stock is worth. Even coming up with a ballpark estimate of its underlying intrinsic value is challenging.

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Source Fool.com