Buying shares in Apple Inc.

you do realize you may lose money right. apple is a risky stock. making money on a stock is not a sure thing and thats the impression i got from your post.

check out scottrade, ameritrade or many other online brokerages

the split would do nothing to you know unless you are strapped for cash. i mean say its $80 now, the split would make it two stocks at 40 a piece so you will still own the same amount of apple

as far as max/min time period maybe. if you bought shares you can hold on to them as long as youd like but if you say did a put option. you are betting the stock will decrease by a certian amt over a time period.

no one can say if youd make a worthwhile profit in 4-5 months. i mean if it was sure, then the price would be so high to begin with. i mean say steve jobs retires or something. apples' stock would decrease by alot id guess and youd lose money. there are ALOT of factors that make the stock go up or down

The reverse can be true too - I found a pension which invested on your behalf in the stock of your choice and I wanted to put everything on AAPL. An 'expert' advised however that tech stocks were too risky and that I should stick with a standard unit trust pension, so I did. AAPL stock at that point was $12

Oh, and hadn't yet split

Putting money in just one stock is high yield, but high risk. Having a diverse portfolio of stocks is a much safer way to get a consistent, albeit less spectacular, return.

As far as AAPL goes, the (average) target price is around $123 and it's currently at $113. So there is room to grow... but if the iphone doesn't do as well as expected it could also crash. It was under $100 not that long ago.

If you are only going to put the money in for a few months it is probably not worth it. Apple stocks have already jumped because of the iPhone when it was announced and Steve has said that product wise they are going to stick with what they've got for a while.

There is no reason so expect any kind of significant price increase which is what you would be relying on if you are only investing for such a short period of time. If anything you stand to loose more than you stand to gain.

High risk = high yeild but don't forget the risk part. Also... it's your money and do with it what you will. Nobody knows what the market will do.

DarrenSW said:

...An 'expert' advised however that tech stocks were too risky...

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the idea is that although in occasional cases this may be a good idea, you would be worshipping that "expert" if aapl went from $100 to $60.

it's safer to invest diversely, particularly given aapl right now at highs

reimerd10 said:

If you are only going to put the money in for a few months it is probably not worth it. ...

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The thing that everyone seems to have missed here is that you have to pay fees whenever you buy or sell stocks. The stock price may rise. If, however, the stock increase does not cover your fees, then you lose money. The chances of a tiny short-term investment returning money to the investor are slim.

it would be stupid to buy shares now, just to sell them as soon a new MBP comes out (which will be SOON)
the best way to invest is in share-holdings on long terms. This way you are pretty sure of an average growth rate of approx 10%, and when the economy is doing well, this could rise to about 70%
I for one have invested a few thousand Euros in the BEL20-holding, which is a holding that holds track of the 20 best companies in Belgium. I bought the shares in 2002, and since then (I was lucky) Belgian economy did extremely well, so this year I sold my shares at 3times the price I paid back in 2002!
So i would advice you not to buy shares on short-term, just use your money for your MBP, and if you want to invest later, go ahead, but pick a steady company, and leave your shares for what they are for a few years.