After the close today, Apple came out with their earnings, and the market loved them. The stock is trading over $200 (pretty much its lifetime high). I pretty much avoid the "four horsemen" (AAPL, RIMM, GOOG, AMZN) like the plague, so this is simply an interesting news item for me.
My attention is on individual stocks, both long and short. I have been, over the past couple of days (Friday and Monday), loading up on a wide variety of individual positions – mostly on the short side, but also some on the long.
My best cash performer so far in this array is Bank of America, which is also the stock in which I have the largest position. In spite of today's nearly triple-digit advance on the Dow, B of A continued to be weak. Unlike some stocks (like, say, AAPL), B of A is down two-thirds from its peak price, and I think the risk/reward on this is simply terrific.
I have also, for your viewing pleasure, assembled a modest array of some of the Many Faces of Ken Lewis. I'm not sure what it is with these finance guys; John Thain's face was frozen throughout human history, whereas Lewis just seems plain grumpy all the time. Is it fear over sexual inadequacy? It's impossible for me to tell.
So that's probably going to be it for me today. The march higher continues, and I'm busily in the background lining up my various positions. I'll probably get some time this week to share with you some of my favorites.
