Nvidia Falls 22% in 10 Days as Huang Exits; Josh Brown Won't Sell

Nvidia lost 22.2% of its value in ten trading days, closing Thursday at $166.19 — the same day Jensen Huang resigned as CEO and board member. The stock's worst ten-day slide in four years has erased roughly $1.76 trillion in market value since its record close of $239.24 on Oct. 6.

Consider a retiree who held 1,000 shares at that record. On Oct. 6, the position was worth $239,240. At Thursday's close it was worth $166,190 — $73,050 gone from a single holding.

Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, owns Nvidia too. On Thursday he said out loud what many holders have been afraid to think.

"You could literally put somebody in who does something like what happened at HP or like what happened in Intel, completely get the strategy wrong, and we might never see Nvidia trade at 200 ever again as long as we live," Brown said on CNBC's Halftime Report. Then he added that he's keeping his shares.

What's behind the plunge?

"Nvidia is down 23% in ten days," Brown said. "This is the worst ten day drop we've seen for the stock in four years."

His numbers hold up. From its Oct. 29 close of $213.66 to Thursday, Nvidia fell 22.2% over 10 trading sessions. The last comparable drop came in December 2022. The stock last closed above $200 on Nov. 4, at $200.13, and would need to rally 20.3% from Thursday's close to reclaim that level.

Brown argued against panic selling on timing grounds alone. "The argument against selling it right this second today is just simply there's been so much selling already, even if you want out," he said. He also rejected the idea that the stock had priced in a Huang premium: "Stock has been selling at a below market multiple for 24 months. There is no premium on the stock."

Part of his reason is personal. "My average cost is so low that it almost doesn't pay for me to sell personally, and I'm not going to," he said. A low cost basis in a taxable account means a large capital gains bill on any sale, so a long-time holder pays to get out. Inside an IRA, where no tax applies to selling, that argument disappears.

Why Brown isn't dismissing the Intel and HP risk

Brown pointed to two companies whose CEOs departed over personal conduct and never recovered their footing. At Hewlett-Packard, the next leadership made a costly acquisition it later wrote down. At Intel, Brian Krzanich left in 2018 after an inappropriate relationship, and Brown argued the strategy shift that followed let TSMC pull ahead in chip manufacturing. "Intel never was Intel again," he said.

"I don't know that that's definitely how this is going to go. So I have to stick around and find out," he said.

Why two colleagues sold

Not everyone on the set agreed. Malcolm Ethridge, managing partner at Capital Area Planning Group, sold his shares in after-hours trading. "The whole reason that I wanted to own the stock in the first place has left the building," he said. "Everything related to Nvidia left with the CEO."

Ethridge compressed his thesis into one line: "You're supposed to step in and buy broken stocks at moments of weakness, not broken companies. And I see this right now as a broken company."

Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist at Hightower Advisors, also sold — even while calling the company's fundamentals very strong. "I do think it's going to be kind of in a trading range for the next 6 to 12 months," she said. "I will not have a problem buying the stock back if we get a really amazing leader."

What should holders weigh now?

Three professionals looked at the same facts and made different calls. Brown's hold rests on his cost basis, and it only applies outside an IRA. Link's sell is about opportunity cost: if the stock goes sideways for 6 to 12 months during the CEO search, that money isn't working, and she'd buy back once a strong leader is named. Ethridge's sell is about the thesis itself — he owned Nvidia for what Huang built and promised, and with Huang gone, his reason for owning it is gone too.

For a retiree, the first question is size. If Nvidia has grown into a large share of a portfolio, through direct shares and index funds, a 30% drop from the record is a reminder of what one stock can do to a retirement. Trimming to a size you could hold through a long CEO search is a decision you can make without knowing who the next CEO will be.

Nvidia traded at $168.93 in pre-market Friday as of 7:35 AM ET. The next real data point arrives Tuesday, Nov. 17, when Nvidia reports quarterly results with Colette Kress as interim CEO — Link expects a very good quarter, and holders will be listening for anything about leadership, China and the search.