Buy Low, Sell High

Here's an article from today's Washington Post, online.

"A Little E-Mail Prank, And a $2.8 Billion Panic

By Sam Diaz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 18, 2007; Page D01

Internet pranksters pulled a fast one on Apple shareholders this week, proving that even the slightest hint of negative news about the highly anticipated iPhone can create a frenzy on Wall Street.

Just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, a spoof e-mail posing as an internal Apple news alert was sent to Apple employees, informing them that the release of the iPhone, a touchscreen hybrid phone-and-music player, was being delayed from June to October.

At 11:47 a.m., Apple sent a real e-mail to employees calling the first one a fake.

But by then, the spoof news had already hit the fast-moving blogosphere. At 11:49 a.m., news of the alleged delays appeared on Engadget, a technology blog owned by AOL, which posted the news because a trustworthy source had passed along an e-mail from within Apple's internal system, according to an update to that blog.

Seven minutes after that posting, at 11:56 a.m., a trading frenzy of Apple stock hit Wall Street, and the company's market value plunged $2.8 billion, or 3 percent, in six minutes. Its stock plummeted from $107.89 to $104.61 by 12:02 p.m.

By day's end, the stock had largely recovered, closing at $107.29 a share.

An Apple spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that the e-mail was fake but would not comment on whether the company was looking for the culprit. The company said the iPhone and Leopard releases remain on schedule. A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission declined comment on whether the spoof's impact on the market would warrant an investigation."

I guess it's kind of funny except to the people that sold off their shares for their "share" of the almost three billion dollar temporary loss.

This re-emphasises a rule I established some time ago. Stocks are long term investments. Damn Intel. Yeah NewsCorp.