What else can I say? I think everyone had a miserable day in the markets today. AAPL & HLF down. Ouch.
I’ve been watching the DOW and it has been slowly turning upside down. I suppose today it threw-up some gains. I got smacked in the face with the ongoing Hacker news piece regarding Apple and Facebook. I sold out of my call options this morning when AAPL didn’t rally after its morning sell-out. I took a loss but not as bad as if I’d stayed in it and hoped for the best which I find even if I get out now I can get back in later at a better price and regain my lost. As for Herbal Life I should have gotten out of it after it didn’t rally – after 11am. Soon the positive earnings weren’t good enough. I didn’t see it turning over with the rest of the market. Around 1pm the market changed it’s position from buy to sell. HLF down -2pts is nothing good for me. I’m glad I had a small position and now will only have around 20 days to pray that Carl Icahn does a private buyout of HLF so the stock shoots up. It keeps hitting around $44-46. If it is 30-60% undervalued at under 10x earnings then I might be able to see the light again under all this heavy cold water pouring on top of me at the moment…I probably took a 25% hit on my account. On a positive note if the market finally does fall some it will be easy put options and I’ll just reverse my position on AAPL because it has the largest downtrend and my early up-entry was just premature. So Apple down -12 today I figured it will go down another -20 what the hell. The apple is falling from the tree and since it has fallen it has become more rotten and who wants to eat a rotten apple?
Paul Meyer 
I do not think it is a miserable day. Apply slowly became a design company – not manufacturing nor software. Essentially it competes with Samsung, HTC, etc… it is a rough business to be in and the consumer base changes with a new product.
Unlike, for example, Microsoft which with all ups and downs have sustainable base of Windows & Office users.
Apple has enjoyed unreal stock growth, with Steve gone, I think it will slowly return to where it was back in 2000 (inflation adjusted, of course)…
March 3, 2013 at 12:02 pm
Apple is below $400 now. I don’t think apple’s “specialness” will last for long but I do but them in the “Nike, BMW” ex category of making better looking functional products. MSFT does make the XBOX and even though I own one but rarely play my friends never complain about it and the games. However MSFT never pursued to become like Apple more of a monopoly on software and it won that game clearly. Apple falling to $40’s? Quite possible after a new company comes along – likely Google getting bigger / smarter.
April 21, 2013 at 3:19 pm