AAPL Investors are Selling the News

Apple investors are currently selling the news coming out of the MacWorld keynote at this moment. For a minute or two, I just gazed at the computer transfixed by the trading with waves of buying and then selling based on one-liners coming across the wires as the Keynote unfolded. I actually imagined hedge funds having employees in the MacWorld audience shooting information via a smartphone (probably a Crackberry) to their boss back in Greenwich that caused traders to buy and sell.

Then I realized the trend was down further and that I still owned calls! Yikes. Too late to sell them, I missed my trading window and the trade has gone south badly. Selling now has limited value, so I am breaking a golden rule and changing my thesis to hold into earnings next week.

So far with Apple, the news actually has me fairly excited. More than 4 million iPhones have been sold and they are now claiming 20% of the US smart phone market. Not bad for 200 days. They also announced new software upgrades to iTouch and iPhone hardware to allow for more tools to be added to the devices. Movie rentals are now a reality on iTunes with movies that can now be rented for $3.99 (so long Netflix)! Movie rentals can now also be seen using improved Apple TV software directly to your widescreen. They also introduced a very neat wireless back-up system for Macs called Time Capsule.

Finally, Apple will release a new laptop, dubbed the Macbook Air, priced at $1800. With a 13-inch display (larger than the "experts" thought), a full size keyboard, and a thickness of only 0.76-inches. Apple hopes to succeed where others have failed in this "ultralight" category. From my seat, I think they will succeed and feel that most of these critics also pooh poohed the iPhone last year.

To me, the selling seems overdone and that is why I am holding options (Feb175 and Feb185 calls). Unfortunately, you could basically say "oversold" to the entire market.

By the way, AAPL had an almost perfect double bottom at $168.30 today with their low fours trading days from now. Lets see if it holds, but this could still set-up better than where I am at now financially with my options.

p.s. GRMN is a broken stock. I covered the last remaining calls (just a hand full) left from the snapback rally we got last week. I was playing with the houses money on this one after selling a ton of calls for a profit, but I should have sold them all at once.