Friday, October 27, 2006

Investing In Apple Computer (AAPL)

I decided to take a fairly large position in Apple Computer (AAPL). Sold five (5) cash covered puts with expiration of Nov 2006.

The reasons to invest in Apple Computer.
  • Great product line and growing - ipod, iTunes, iMacs and list goes on
  • Strong brand
  • Good demand in market place for its products - sales growth in excess of 30%
  • High caliber management team - read Steve Jobs
  • Stock price on an upswing
  • Good financials - profit margins, debt ratio etc
Apple's PE ratio of 36 is on high side but not so bad for a company with this kind of growth. Dell computer (DELL) has PE of around 20 with much lower growth rate and not as strong a product line.

I am violating one of my risk management rules of selling naked put options. But what the heck some time you have to take chances in life and this one seems like a safer bet. Time will tell :)

5 comments:

Thomas Williams said...

I have already done what you are attempting to do. You will probably find that you need to get into international equities to achieve 20% annual growth. Experimenting with a larger portfolio at Marketocracy is a very good exercise. PRESX and PRLAX also near or exceed your 20% goal. Good luck! Insights

Anonymous said...

By entering AAPL trade that late and ignoring all technical analysis as well as you own trading rules, you have proven to me that your trading skills are very poor, and I would not be surprised if you end up loosing you trading capital.

Paul Meyer - the Finance Ninja said...

I agree with other guys. I am also in an AAPL options $85 JAN 07 CALLS. I own 10 contracts at the moment. I'm not pro trader because of time to trade but I could of been up and out $600 for the past week! I believe Apple is going to $100 by end of Nov 2006.

I go by financeninja on wordpress.com
check me out.
http://financeninja.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

$100 for AAPL by end November???

That is a fairly ridiculous expectation.

You should change your name to financekamikaze ;-)

I went into AAPL when it was at $52 so I'm sitting pretty, and I expect themt to hit 85 by the end of November, more if they manage the true video iPod before Christmas.

Anonymous said...

naked puts!? You have got to be kidding. Even though I think AAPL will go to 100 by next june, doing what you are doing is ridiculous.