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Comment by anoncoward111 | Hacker News Reader

Most people don't realize how slowly bubbles pop. There is a lot of inertia that props up stock prices.

Lehman Bros news broke around September 2008. The stock market didn't reach its lowest lows until March of 2009.

Losing 45% in 3 months is a failure. Maybe not a catastrophic one, but whoever was recommending buying apple in September 2018 is now revealed as having literally zero idea of what they're talking about.

I always feel bad for anyone who trusts institutional advice and buys stocks at all time highs.

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> Losing 45% in 3 months is a failure.

I had been critical of Tim Cook and his team for years - they had been mismanaging that beautiful company. But it is hardly their fault from middle term (few years) perspective.

They got golden goose and they had been milking every single dollar out of it. And returning some cash (which they clearly have no idea how to put to the good use) to investors. From their personal perspective (stock options, bonuses, fame and perks) and from the perspective of Apple shareholders (ca. 2008) it had been very good 10 years. And this is what you do - grab as much as you can because good times won't last forever. It didn't.

Sure - they had the opportunity to make Apple into Mercedes or BMW of personal electronics - delivering great products for 100 years. But who cares about forever?

PS. Same goes for FB. It was clear from the beginning that social networks is just a fad that won't last. 10 years and so much profits is a good run. Move on.

Interestingly I agree with you. I mean, I don't think Tim Cook has done a bad job of putting money in investors' pockets.

I am commenting more specifcally about institutional analysts (Goldman, Oppenheimer, Morgan Stanley, Jeffries, and so on).

They have been recommending people purchase Apple stock for the whole year now, saying the fair value for the stock is $220. As you and I know, it was not long ago that it was more fairly valued at $70-110.

I don't know how anyone in good conscience can recommend such overvalued prices on a clearly parabolic chart!

September 2018? Hmmmm.

Wasn’t that when Warren Buffet bought hordes of stock in Apple saying it’s a consumer company?

If he did buy at that time then he's lost a sizeable chunk of change on it. The price is the price.

He also bought Bank of America at all time lows, and now its a massively profitable company, so he is neither always right nor always wrong.

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