I was in love once. It was during my high school years that I fell in love with a beautiful redhead. Well, as beautiful as one could be in the 80’s. But no matter, I loved her.
I was fixated on her, obsessed almost. I would spend my whole day thinking about her.
Watching every move she made. And trying to figure out what the hidden context was of everything she said to me.
I wasted almost four years acting this way, and though my heart was true, she didn’t feel the same way about me. She was in love with another. A college “man” who played guitar in a punk rock band.
They eventually got married, had kids, and then he left her for a flight attendant. It serves her right. But I’m not bitter…..
Years after I graduated from high school I happened upon my old yearbooks. I took a moment and began to browse through them, reading the inscriptions left by my classmates. And after I was done I wanted to slam my head in a car door.
What a complete idiot I had been. I spent some of the best years of my life pining away for my redheaded goddess. In fact, if you had looked up the definition of “pining” in the dictionary during that time you would have seen a mildly pathetic picture of me. And yet I missed all the other opportunities that were surrounding me.
In my yearbook were written such wonderful and sincere words from all types of girls. Tall girls. Short girls. Pretty girls. Smart girls. Funny girls. Sweet girls. Yet I never noticed any of them and only focused on my quixotic quest to win the love of my carrot-topped beauty.
A lot of traders these days seem to take the same approach when it comes to Apple, Inc. (AAPL). They obsess over every move the stock makes. Every bit of news catches their attention. Every analyst’s recommendation is poured over and dissected in great detail.
But in this process they overlook other, better stocks that they can trade with a lower risk. For example, last week as AAPL was going nowhere fast, they could have made a relatively easy 7-10% in Micron Technology (MU).
Once you drop your fixation with AAPL you will find that there are many other opportunities in the market, you just have to look for them. If you have trouble, I do a chart post every Monday morning where you can get some ideas, and MU was one of those ideas last week.
