Apple Stock Tops its Record High

Apple closed at $133, and I've sold half my shares (I'll sell the rest at $140 or so). It's my fifth consecutive killing in the stock.

Every year or two, some analyst gets spooked, the rest glom on, and Apple's stock price plunges 30% or so. At that point, I buy (appearing crazy because the price is going down!, and even intelligent people can't grasp "buy low, sell high"). I hold on for as long as it takes, and when it rises back up, I sell. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again.

Watch! In a year or so, there'll be some new trumped-up issue - bad reception, or bending or cracking or whatever. The stock will, irrationally, plummet, remaining low even after Apple's fixed the issue. I'll buy again, hold patiently again, then ride it back up again.

The risk is that it won't recover next time - that the most successful company in the history of the world, sitting on a cash pile of $250 billion, will shrivel up and die because of some fleeting issue.

I just don't see that as a real risk. That cash horde alone - which doesn't even do anything! - dwarfs the total market value of all but seven other corporations. Apple could throw their entire mega-successful business in the garbage and buy Starbucks, Boeing, and Goldman Sachs. If customers update their iPads more slowly than expected, or a phone antenna doesn't work properly, or a new product line undersells expectations, that's just not going to cause a death spiral. I'm not saying they'll be dominant forever (if I thought so, I'd be buying, rather than selling, at $130). But the downside of buying at Apple's inevitable 30% bullish downturns strikes me as minimal.