What about Apple now?

[NW-Bound]

I would not take Apple stocks even if they were offered to me.

Surely, I would take anything for free that I could still sell for $460 a share!

That said, I will not buy Apple, because the high-tech market changes so fast, I don't know who's coming or going. I learned my lesson in the 2000 tech bubble already, and have not been following too many tech stocks.

 

[W2R]

I would not take Apple stocks even if they were offered to me.

If anyone offers them to you, just send them to me! I would be glad to relieve you of that burden.

 

[obgyn65]

Sorry to disappoint you, but this is how risk averse I am.

Surely, I would take anything for free that I could still sell for $460 a share!

 

[NW-Bound]

OK. But you can sell the given shares immediately and do not have to hold them long.

Or are you afraid the share ownership, no matter how brief, would be a bad omen?

 

[obgyn65]

I promise I will study stocks when I FIRE. Until then, I just don't have the time to buy and hold, even for a few days.

OK. But you can sell the given shares immediately and do not have to hold them long.

Or are you afraid the share ownership, no matter how brief, would be a bad omen?

 

[ERD50]

Your option expired, else you would have owned some AAPL tomorrow. AAPL at $461.70 in after-market trade.

Well, that was just a little toe-dipping amount (I was going to add, 'testosterone fueled', but that's starting to sound weird!), but $400 profit in a few days is always fun. I wouldn't have wanted to hold over EA - that is often a real roller-coaster ride. When I owned a bunch of AAPL, I would sometimes buy puts to get through EA. We'll see what it opens at, I was showing > $480 later in trading.

I really wonder about the next few years though - they are at a low P/E, have a mega-ton of cash, they could be strong for a long time. Could still be a buy - or?

I would not take Apple stocks even if they were offered to me.

That's a truly curious thing to say. If anyone offers you some, I'll take 'em off your hands for 10 cents on the dollar - win - win!

Or do you have some sort of ethical problem with owning Apple (some people do)?

PS - I see there were a few posts while I was a this - I took 'offered to me' as 'given to you for free'. There is no risk in that. But, they are offered to you, they are offered to anyone. It's an open market.

-ERD50

 

[Lazarus]

I find apple pretty funny because it is so big that it literally is its own asset class. Seriously, the market cap is like .5 trillion. Anyway, if you are going to make me pick a monster company, I would much rather have Exxon mobile. Over the next 100 years, I see energy as a much more valuable than the latest I gadget.

But hey there is a lot of cash on the appl balance sheet and the pe is getting low.

Agree. I have a lot of Xom stock. And a lot of Apple computers. No stock.

Disclamer: I used to work for big oil.

 

[audreyh1]

Oh, poor Apple. They only raked in > $54 billion last quarter. Looks like they're getting back to that "can't get no respect" status.

The China earnings growth story looks promising......

Meanwhile, I'm planning my next set of Apple product purchases....

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, that was just a little toe-dipping amount (I was going to add, 'testosterone fueled', but that's starting to sound weird!), but $400 profit in a few days is always fun. I wouldn't have wanted to hold over EA - that is often a real roller-coaster ride. When I owned a bunch of AAPL, I would sometimes buy puts to get through EA. We'll see what it opens at, I was showing > $480 later in trading.

I really wonder about the next few years though - they are at a low P/E, have a mega-ton of cash, they could be strong for a long time. Could still be a buy - or?

Surely, I played the market to make (or lose) a bit of money on the side like what you did too, but with leveraged ETFs so that I would commit less money than your potential $48K if things did not work out. And betting on an index or broader sector would be easier for me than on an individual stock. Well, we all want to choose our own poison.

About long-term prospects of Apple, yes, it has good low P/E and lots of cash on hand. However, the P/E is for past 12 months, and the market always looks ahead, not backwards, when it decides the valuation of a stock. I have held some stocks that started to tank while the P/E was low, which made the P/E even lower. Crazy, I said, only to see its E eventually dropped to "equalize" the P.

I am not saying that will be happening with Apple of course, as I do not follow the company or its market, and cannot make any judgement. If the market wrongly undervalues its stock, then the price will get corrected in the days ahead. I just do not know what will happen, so won't take side or make any bet for or against.

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Your option expired, else you would have owned some AAPL tomorrow. AAPL at $461.70 in after-market trade.

Irrelevant. He chose an expiration that didn't expose him to the earnings announcement by selling the 480 put expiring on 1/18 rather than the one expiring on 1/25.

BTW, had he chosen to sell the 480 put expiring on 1/25, he would have taken in premium of $15-$16 per share instead of $4. The higher premium was the result of (1) the longer time until expiration and, more importanly, (2) the much higher implied volatility built into the put price due to the fact that the time until expiration encompassed the earnings announcement.

Had he sold the 1/25 put and been assigned, his basis in AAPL would be 464-465 instead of 476. Of course, my guess is that he would have bought back the put at a hefty profit when AAPL rallied (twice) before the earnings annoucement.

 

[Hamlet]

Nibbled at Apple again today.

I will get serious if it drops under $400/share.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Couldn't resist, just bought 1000 at the close 450.50. It is the only stock I have.

 

[ziggy29]

I can't help but wonder if the lack of new ideas from Steve Jobs is starting to catch up to Apple.

 

[NW-Bound]

Couldn't resist, just bought 1000 at the close 450.50. It is the only stock I have.

I have never had that much in dollar amount in any single stock. There was a poster who put the same, or perhaps even a 7-figure amount into AAPL a year or two ago. He still made out OK, if he has not sold any, I think.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I looked a bit on the Web, and saw an article mentioning an iPhone's competitive product from Samsung. This Samsung smartphone has a 5" screen. I do not even own any smartphone now, but know that it is pretty darn big!

First, they tried to make them small. Now they make them bigger, and how long before there's one as large as an iPad? Where's the limit where consumers stop wanting them bigger? One to haul on a shoulder like the boombox of yore?

I don't understand any of this, being so outdated.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I have never had that much in dollar amount in any single stock. There was a poster who put the same, or perhaps even a 7-figure amount into AAPL a year or two ago. He still made out OK, if he has not sold any, I think.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I looked a bit on the Web, and saw an article mentioning an iPhone's competitive product from Samsung. This Samsung smartphone has a 5" screen. I do not even own any smartphone now, but know that it is pretty darn big!

First, they tried to make them small. Now they make them bigger, and how long before there's one as large as an iPad? Where's the limit where consumers stop wanting them bigger? One to haul on a shoulder like the boombox of yore?

I don't understand any of this, being so outdated.

I have never owned an apple product (myself) and have no idea how to use an iphone as I have an old LG clamshell with a radio in it, that I never figured out how to work. I am a trader as opposed to investor and only trade a few times a year now. The last stock I owned for more than a few day's was Nokia last summer. That being said, I only bought yesterday as the volume suggested capitulation and I thought there was a quick 15-20 points at the open. So far (based on pre-market) I am wrong and it looks like I will be out with only a small gain!

 

[Andre1969]

I put in a limit order to buy some Apple early in the morning yesterday, because I was not going to have any computer access for the whole day. My limit was $450. As luck would have it, it closed at $450.50.

Oh well, I'm going to see what it does, and maybe buy a few shares first thing this morning.

Apple used to be about 20-25% of my whole portfolio with Scottrade, but I started selling some off. Now I try to keep it at roughly 1/12th of the portfolio (8.3%), and then just buy more or sell off, if it gets too out of whack.

 

[grasshopper]

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has AAPL as its #1 holding. VTI lagged the market by by a lot on Thursday.

 

[mpeirce]

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has AAPL as its #1 holding. VTI lagged the market by by a lot on Thursday.

What do you mean by "the market"? I've always used the "total market" indexes* as my proxy for "the market".

Maybe you are comparing this to the Dow Jones Industrial Average? Which doesn't include Apple. I've always though the Dow was a pretty poor index to follow - it's only popular because the Wall Street Journal pushes it (Charles Dow and Edward Jones started the Journal).


*VTI/VSAX tracks the MSCI US Broad Market Index, which represents approximately 99.5% or more of the total market capitalization of all the U.S. common stocks regularly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

 

[NW-Bound]

...I am a trader as opposed to investor and only trade a few times a year now. The last stock I owned for more than a few day's was Nokia last summer. That being said, I only bought yesterday as the volume suggested capitulation and I thought there was a quick 15-20 points at the open. So far (based on pre-market) I am wrong and it looks like I will be out with only a small gain!

I am too chicken to place a bet as big as that, whether for quick trade or as a long term investment. I am not rich and it represents too big a percentage of my portfolio.

Your post about capitulation made me curious, and I looked back at the past trade volume. It was even higher when the price was coming down from the top of $700. The volume was highest at around $620. Either sellers wanted to lock in their profits, or they knew something was coming down the pipeline. Or perhaps selling simply begets more selling. Of course there was an equal number of buyers who made the opposite bet.

Investing, not just trading, is an exciting game. One plays for keep, with big money compared to what people take to Las Vegas. And some people think they can avoid risks all together with fixed-income assets. I know I can run, but I cannot hide, so may as well face the problem squarely and deal with it.

I put in a limit order to buy some Apple early in the morning yesterday, because I was not going to have any computer access for the whole day. My limit was $450. As luck would have it, it closed at $450.50.

Oh well, I'm going to see what it does, and maybe buy a few shares first thing this morning...

I have missed a few trades like that, both on selling and buying, and hated myself for that. Well, there might be times when it worked out in my favor, that I was better off for missing the trade. However, one tends to remember better the missed opportunity than the averted potential loss.

I tend to do more market-order trades now, but then it is because I have the time to watch it in real-time and pull the trigger when I think the timing is right.

 

[audreyh1]

Andre didn't miss, he lucked out. Today he is getting another chance at an even better price!

 

[NW-Bound]

Funny thing is when I myself lucked out like that, I would tell myself "Whoa", and waited for an even lower price.

There's something about investor's psychology that a successful trader knows how to read. I think there's some merit about technical analysis, but my problem is that I am not good at it. It's certainly an art rather than a science.

 

[braumeister]

When it gets below 400, I'll become interested again. The last time I bought Apple, it was around 360.

 

[M Paquette]

First, they tried to make them small. Now they make them bigger, and how long before there's one as large as an iPad? Where's the limit where consumers stop wanting them bigger? One to haul on a shoulder like the boombox of yore?

http://www.gizmag.com/panasonic-20-inch-4k-tablet-ces/25727/

No word on whether it will include a cellphone...

 

[REWahoo]

No word on whether it will include a cellphone...

Availabe as an accessory...

 

[NW-Bound]

I have not gotten around to read this 40-yr old book, but its philosophy appears to be very obsolete, and has no appeal left whatsoever.