Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"It was 3:48 p.m. on Friday April 29 and traders who had purchased Apple (AAPL) April 29 $350 "calls" -- options that gave them the right to buy Apple shares in blocks of 100 for $350 per share -- were sitting pretty. The stock was trading around $353.50 and those calls were worth more $350 apiece (the difference between the price of the stock and the so-called "strike price" of the option times 100)."

What is happening is that just before they can exercise these calls, there is a flurry of trading, which in turn drops the share price below the target price of the call. What this means is they can't exercise the calls and they basically become worthless. The phenomena is called "Max Pain" and what is boils down to, according to the website Maxpa.in, is that it hits the "price that causes the highest dollar value of options to expire worthless, causing everyone to go home in financial pain," or maximum pain if you will. Manipulating stock like this is illegal and since, according to the article, it's been happening frequently to Apple, it does lead one to believe there may be some manipulation going on with the stock. An interesting read, and I'm curious to see if it's all conjecture or if there are legs to this story.

"Apple Inc shares reached their all-time high on Thursday as excitement builds over the expected release of its tablet computer. Although Apple has never acknowledged that a device exists, anticipation is peaking as the company enters the new year."

The previous all-time high was $208.71 USD, which was surpassed on Thursday as the stock hit $209.35 USD before the dust settled and it closed at $209.04 USD. There are lots of quotes about this being anticipation of an Apple Tablet, and since it is expected to be announced in January, I suppose buying based on tablet anticipation isn't too far from the truth.

"Shares of Apple Inc. today rose US$3.99, or 2.14%, to close at $190.01 on volume of 21,556,721 shares to set a new 52-week closing high."

This was news from yesterday, which beat the previous 52-week closing high of $186.15 USD from September 28th this year. In comparison, the 52-week low was on January 20th, 2009 when the stock dropped to $78.20 USD. Market value for Apple is $170.21 billion USD, which tops IBM at $159.08 billion USD but doesn't quite achieve the monster Microsoft at $233.75 billion USD.

"The stock is not what it was in 2007, when it rose nearly 136% in the space of 12 months, but Apple (AAPL) is off to a good start in 2009. From Jan. 2, when it opened at $85.88, to April 2, when it closed at $112.71, Apple has gained 31.24% - easily outpacing the Dow, which is still down more than 9% for the year."

Apple is a bright spot in the dismal Dow news that is for sure. RIM and Google are also up, 21% and 18% respectively but none of the three compares to the jump for Amazon.com, which is up about 48% for the year. Incredible. The "Four Horsemen of Tech" as Cramer calls them are having a pretty good year so far for their investors. Let's see what today brings shall we?

"Apple shares plunged 10.8 percent a share in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the company announced CEO Steve Jobs would take a medical leave until June."

I guess this was to be expected, coming on the heels of Steve Jobs announcement, but from everything I've read regarding this, pundits and "investment experts" still believe Apple is a buy and a great investment. This type of news would be alarming if it weren't about a company like Apple, in my opinion, since they seem to have been prepping for the eventual passing of the torch for some time. Good companies prepare for all kinds of contingencies, and while I hope Steve Jobs is going to be with the company for years to come, it sounds as if Apple has set the groundwork. At least that is what the "experts" believe.