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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Linda Kaplan who wrote (15852)	7/21/1998 9:56:00 AM
From: soup	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

Public reply to a private post. I think the poster asked exactly the right question at the right time so I wanted make a public response. (The poster can make their name known if they wish.) >I just wanted to buy you a virtual beer so we could toast Apple's continued success. (etc.)< Bribing me with beer and flattery to get free stock advice is a sure-fire strategy that will work every time. Burp. Thanks. :) or ":) Thanks. Burp." >I'm currently out in the 37s and looking to get back in after a short correction. A dangerous move admittedly, but such is life. I've got a hunch that we'll see another run into the 40's fairly soon. Am I nuts?< Umm ... yeah, you're nuts. (But so's everybody else on this thread.) Seriously, I have been holding and increasing my core position throughout the year. My trading on short-term call options around Apple events has been pretty successful. However, my attempt to time a short-term strategy to get in and out of a core position has mostly been an exercise in futility. [I wait till we're too far off the peak. Then I buy back in on a sucker rally. Then I don't have the reserve cash to buy when AAPL really swoons, etc.] During this current post-earning period, though I am tempted to take profits, but I was too busy at work to follow the intraday quotes so I just let it ride. I investigated writing some mid-term calls, but found it's going to get me into a whole new tax area. I started investing in 1992. I've taken lots of short-term profits which looked (and felt) good at the time but were dwarfed by the long term gains I could've made. (We don't talk about the losses.) AAPL is still the cheapest, most disliked computer stock with (IMO) the best product and earnings outlook. It's certainly tempting, given how much suffering AAPL shareholders have had to endure, to take short-term profits. And given the overall market outlook (and the need to re-balance one's portfolio) it may even be wise. However, IMO, trying to short-term time AAPL's stock price with such violently exploding fundamentals (iMac, eMac, Alti-vec, G4, OSX, Web-Objects, etc.) is nuts. The greater risk is to be out of it and miss major-league long term upside. With short-interest continuing to be a major factor, any dramatic news announcement can cause a major surge and lose you an inexpensive re-entry opportunity. Bottom line advice: Re-establish your core position. Leave it alone. (Screw around with short-term options if you've got an itch.) Got it?