Investing
The perils of putting all your nest egg into Apple's basket
December 6, 2012: 11:54 AM ETFortune profiles investors who have done just that
FORTUNE -- Given that Apple (AAPL) suffered its worst trading day in four years Wednesday -- losing nearly $35 billion in market value by the closing bell -- this might seem an odd time for Fortune to run a profile of investors like Terry and Jeanne Gregory (pictured at right) who have put almost their entire life savings -- about $2.5 million -- into the stock.
They're not alone. Apple millionaires can be found by the dozens at bulletin boards devoted to the stock -- including Investor Village's AAPL Sanity, where the Gregorys hang out.
The fact is, most of them became millionaires by ignoring the advice of professional investors and putting the bulk of their nest eggs into Apple -- many, like Terry and Jeanne, when the company's shares were still trading in double digits.
What's not clear is whether the strategy still works with Apple trading in triple digits.
The story, Why you're right to be obsessed with Apple stock, is part of Fortune's annual investing issue. It's a good read.
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How to play Apple's quarterly earnings reports
The weeks before the numbers are released are critical
FORTUNE -- No matter how the market may squeeze Apple (AAPL) in the up and down of daily trading -- its forward P/E ratio as of Monday's close had been compressed to 10.53 -- the stock tends to seek its own level by the time the company issues its quarterly earnings reports.
Which makes the charts posted over the weekend by aapltrader99's Randy MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 26, 2012 7:07 AM ET -
How 137 Ventures hacked the stock option tax code
Three Silicon Valley insiders created an investment fund to solve the ultimate tech-boom problem: owning too much startup stock.
FORTUNE -- In 2010, after three years as a communications manager at Facebook, Kathy Chan left. The 28-year-old's Facebook shares were the equivalent of a winning lottery ticket -- the company's valuation in private markets had already soared to $23 billion, but it was still a few years from its IPO. To MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - May 17, 2012 5:00 AM ET -
What's the point of those Apple price targets?
Like the tortoise in Achilles' footrace, they may be perpetually unreachable goals
"There's scant evidence that the stock market itself has paid much if any attention to analysts' price targets in recent years," writes Needham's Charlie Wolf in a note to clients Thursday that raises his own Apple (AAPL) target $80 to $620.
He's got a point. the average target among the two-dozen analysts we sampled on October 19, the day after Apple's MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 9, 2012 9:14 AM ET -
Apple hits a new all-time high
Breaks through previous intraday record of $427.75 set last week
UPDATE: Apple closed Wednesday up $4.41 (1.04%), to hit a new all-time high of $429.11. At one point in afternoon training it hit $429.47.
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Apple (AAPL) quickly set a new intraday high Wednesday and kept climbing in early morning trading, although it's not clear why.
It could be that investors are moving into the stock ahead of next week's quarterly earnings MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 18, 2012 10:08 AM ET -
How NOT to bet on Apple's quarterly earnings report
Buying puts or calls just before the numbers come out is a fool's game
Apple (AAPL) is a company that tends to surprise Wall Street every time it reports its quarterly earnings, usually on the upside, occasionally on the down.
As a result, the stock often makes big moves the next day -- sometimes as much as 5% and 6%.
Given the power of stock options to leverage your investment dollars, you might MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 15, 2012 8:12 AM ET -
Apple puts and calls top Monday's crazy options trading
Strike prices range from $335 to $400 as traders scramble to deal with a market in free fall
A hedge-fund trader hoping to make some quick money in Apple (AAPL) weekly options would be hard-pressed to make sense of the chart at right, a snapshot of thinkorswim.com's AAPL options board taken at 10:30 a.m. Monday morning.
The bottom two graphs show open interest in Apple weekly calls (left) and puts (right) as of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 8, 2011 11:35 AM ETPosted in: Apple, Bank of America, CitiBank, General Electric, Hedge fund, Investing, Max pain, Options, Standard & Poors, Weeklys -
Apple hits record high $364.92
After a five months of jagged ups and downs, AAPL overtakes a record set on Feb. 16, 2011
Investors who stuck with Apple (AAPL) through thick and thin this year got their earthly reward Friday.
With only two trading days left before what's expected to be yet another boffo earnings report, the stock broke out of its Max Pain trading range and set a new all-time record.
After hitting an intraday high of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 15, 2011 4:07 PM ET -
AAPL: Back in the groove
Take away the crash of 2008, and you can see Apple's share price go up $100 every year
Terry Gregory, who collects what he calls "useful stats" at AAPLInvestors.net, has created the chart at right that shows the year-over-year percentage increases in Apple's (AAPL) share price every month for the past five and half years, starting with January 2006.
Investors troubled by the stock's lackluster performance in the winter and spring of MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 10, 2011 6:19 AM ET -
The blogger who called Apple's bottom
On June 17, he told readers to buy AAPL at $320. The stock took off two days later.
We gave Andy Zaky, an independent analyst with a enviable track record, a hard time a few weeks ago.
He had just published a report on his Bullish Cross blog (reposted on Seeking Alpha) advising investors to buy Apple (AAPL) at $320. Although his three previous Apple buy signals had proved prescient, we took MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 8, 2011 7:06 AM ETPosted in: Andy Zaky, Apple, Bullish Cross, Financials, Investing, NASDAQ, Seeking Alpha, Stock market
