If it seems like Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been spurring more concerning headlines of late than it usually does, you’re not crazy. It has been. From a pot-smoking CEO to a questionable assurance that privatization funding had been secured to yet-another executive’s resignation, eyebrows are understandably being raised. It’s a miracle that TSLA stock is only down 20% from its August high.

Somehow, though, this all seems like more than a run of bad luck that the electric car company contends with from time to time. This time, somehow, feels like it may well be the last time. The market has grown too weary and too worried to continue playing the game.

The game, by the way, is owning TSLA stock based more on the premise of cool-looking electric vehicles and less on the prospect of current or future profits. It’s not a question of what the company will be worth a few years down the road. Rather, the game is figuring out how most other investors will feel about Tesla stock a few months down the road.

Too Many Red Flags

Investors — even loyal fans and followers of Tesla, who can be intellectually honest with themselves — are struggling to deny it. CEO Elon Musk is even more “off the rails” than usual of late.

Case in point: Smoking a tobacco/marijuana cigarette while being interviewed for a podcast produced and hosted by former UFC commentator Joe Rogan. It’s not illegal in California, where it happened. but that’s not the point. It’s got bad optics, and fair or not, Musk has to be aware that he’s under a microscope.

Perhaps more alarming is the fact that, despite still being behind his third-quarter production goal, Musk somehow found two-and-a-half hours to kill talking about nothing in particular to create a podcast that isn’t exactly high-profile media.

In the meantime, his vice president of global supply management, Liam O’Connor, has resigned. Dave Morton, chief accounting officer, left the company in early September after less than a month on the job. All told, more than 40 executives have quit the company this year.

Then there’s inexplicable suggestion that Musk has already secured the financing that would allow the company to go private, if the eclectic CEO opted to pull that trigger. As it turns out, that funding may not have been a sure thing at all, prompting an investigation by the SEC that will aim to determine if Musk was simply trying to inflate the price of Tesla stock as a means of flushing out short-sellers.

Most recently, the company is offering quarter-end buyer incentives on its Model S that seem a little more generous than usual, calling into question the true level of demand for its vehicles.

Any single one of these developments is concerning, but not alarming or a dire threat to the value of Tesla stock. Put them together, however, and what you’ve got is a huge red flag that the company as we know it may be near its end.

Timing is Everything

Don’t misread the message. There will always be a Tesla, one way or another. The company has not only mainstreamed the idea of electric vehicles, it proved that they didn’t have to look like go-karts. At the very least, if a rival carmaker like Ford (NYSE:F) or General Motors (NYSE:GM) doesn’t want to acquire a financially broken Tesla, surely a private equity outfit would, even if just to own the brand name.

Either way, at this point it’s relatively safe to say that while Musk’s vision and drive were intoxicating to investors, vision and drive alone do not necessarily equate to profitability.

Yes, just last month Musk once again promised profitability during the second half of the year. The irony? In the immediately-prior quarter, the company lost more money than it ever had.

And if Musk is counting on ramped-up mass production of the Model 3 to get Tesla over the hump, UBS isn’t the only research outfit to suggest that the basic $35,000 version of the car will be sold for about a $6,000 loss. Better-equipped versions will close the gap, but a better-equipped Model 3 also pushes into a price range that defeats the purpose of a more affordable vehicle. And then, there’s still no assurance of profitability for a higher-end version of the low-end car.

But with just a little more scale will Tesla finally get over the profit hump? Maybe. But, not surprisingly, once Musk validated the idea of electric vehicles, competitors followed. China’s NIO looks like a legitimate EV player, as does Xiaopeng Motors.

Here in the western half of the world, not only are the Chevy Bolt and the Nissan (OTCMKTS:NSANY) Leaf still around, but higher-end names like BMW and Jaguar — luxury names that can compete with Tesla’s Model S — are now making electric vehicles for the European and U.S. markets. Audi and Mercedes are getting close to making EVs widely available all over the world as well.

Tesla just didn’t reach a critical mass quickly enough, perhaps (in retrospect) moving too aggressively into the high-end market, and not moving aggressively enough into the low-end market.

Bottom Line for Tesla Stock

On the surface it certainly doesn’t seem like the company is fighting for its life now. Though the August selloff from TSLA stock was rough, the bleeding seems to have stopped… again.

This new headwind is bigger than the short-term ebb and flow from Tesla shares, however. A huge number of executives are bailing out. Musk doesn’t think twice about the optics of toking on camera. While off-the-cuff comments aren’t unusual for the outspoken CEO, suggesting financing for privatization is already in place crosses a line even Musk hasn’t crossed before, and worse, he wasn’t even provoked into crossing it unaware. He chose to tweet it.

These aren’t decisions made by a chief fighting to keep a company alive long enough to achieve viability. In total, these actions take the company into a new light of uncertainty Tesla’s not been in before. Even without being able to fully articulate how, the depth of Tesla’s current drama feels and reads like the beginning of the end of a novel. Like all stories though, the end of this one has actually been mapped out since the beginning of it.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.