If you need yet another example of how the news can affect a stock price look no further than Apple. The company that created Cool Computing with sleek, easy to use notebooks and computers priced at a premium also brought the ubiquitous Ipod and Iphone to the market, forever changing how we listen to music and talk on the cell phone. Apple is a company actively engaged in creating the future one app at a time. And their stock price shows it. Those of us who survived the tech bubble pop may have had the foresight to hang onto some Apple at $22 per share. The stock is currently trading at 200 + per share and is up $2 in trading today. Why?
Read the news! Apple is going to release a Tablet and there was buzz on the internet and news services that they have narrowed the design down to ten finalists. They range from anything that looks like an over-sized Iphone, to a thin paperback like PDA but no matter what it looks like, what it will do is revolutionize the way we read. How do I know? Because Ipod rewrote the rules for how we listen to music, and Iphone reinvented how we use cell phones. Why wouldn’t a company that puts so much thought into design and use create a new computer tablet that can change how we do what we do? The answer is they will, because they have. I know it seems like a Zen concept, but that’s the way the apple crunches.
What does a change at Apple mean for you as a swing trader? Right now, you can plan your position for a stock price increase over the next 2Q’s for APPL stock. With the release of the new tablet, plus a holiday shopping season where Iphone’s and Ipods are still on Santa’s list, you can be sure that 4Q for the stock is going to look great. No lumps of coal for investors on this one.
Add to that the overall effect a tech bubble can have on the stock’s price, and a recovering economy which is indicated in 2010, Apple stands to keep growing. The only thing that may cause a dip in the stock’s rise is Steve Jobs. Too much is placed upon his health and speculators use his status to determine how the stock will perform. But Jobs has a solid team in place and products that create fans who are loyal and evangelistic. They are going to talk about what Apple makes, what Apple does, and how well they do it. In fact, I was in a chat conference just the other day when a participant went on a tangent about switching all of the business computers in a company off of OFFICE and onto an Open Source system. He was passionate, he was loud, and he was one hundred percent wrong. He demonstrated his loyalty to Apple, but also showed his ignorance of the cost associated with switching. But that’s another topic.
The point is Apple isn’t going anywhere soon, and with the introduction of their Tablet to the market they will be even more firmly entrenched in the minds and habits of consumers. A bet on Apple is a good stock play and investors should consider adding it to their portfolio before a split is announced.
