Trading in the company's shares Monday was slower than it's been since New Year's Eve, 2010

Click to enlarge. Data: NASDAQ

Apple (AAPL) has been trading in a narrow band this year -- to the undying frustration of investors who think the stock's price ought to reflect the company's breakneck earnings growth (EPS up 75%, 68%, 75% and 92%, respectively, over the past four quarters).

Apple's trading volume, by contrast, is as changeable as a baby's bottom, swooping and diving with the news.

But Apple's third busiest day of the year, it happens, was Friday, April 28. That was the last trading day before NASDAQ put itself on an Apple diet, reducing the company's weight in the heavily traded NASDAQ-100 from 20.5% to 12.3%. Nearly 36 million shares of Apple changed hands before the closing bell, plus another 8.4 million in after-hours trading, as fund managers rushed to rebalance their portfolios. (See An orgy of last-minute AAPL trades.)

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