I am well aware of the difference. . . I've been a trader. Now I am a long term investor. The point I was making was that the basics of AAPL should not make it as volatile as it is except for the games being played with the news cycles and the popular misconceptions running rampant in the public.
The "lies" being published in the news media is for the benefit of the traders and should be stopped by the SEC. . . because the stories were and are false when they happen. The lies published on Tuesday at the close of market were blatantly so. . . and demonstrably so. . . especially when the same authors used different figures in the morning than in the afternoon for their FUD articles claiming Apple "missed" earnings when it was clear Apple did not miss anything, triggering a sell off that destroyed almost $80 billion in value in less than two hours! Despite Apple turning in a record breaking quarter, a quarter which broke the previous record quarter from a year ago, these liars reported is as "disappointing" and as a miss on earnings! What vile. corrupt, deliberate lies. Just what i've learned to expect from Liberals.
This manipulation has been done with regularity. . . and anyone who looks with an unbiased eye can easily see it being done. Often it starts in social media. . . picked up by these same "journalists" report on these rumor when they should not, giving them far more legs than they deserve. Last week it was purely a creation of the corrupt media liars.
If your friend took advantage of knowing it would happen because of observation and understanding, more power to him. . . unless he knew because he was part of the corruption, then he's as vile as the rest. I certainly hope that is not the case.
I have to go back to my assertion that you take this too personally, but again, you are a investor.
No, my friend is not a part of any attempted or actual news planting etc...although this practice, intentional or not has been in use for as long I have been in the markets...(long time..70s) he does not do that. What he does is read the tea leaves...especially the options activity.
Like a poker game there are tells. if you can read them, and he does, you can become wealthy, and he is....
I have known him since his second or third trade back in 2009. He was a novice and I helped him. He has since surpassed the master by a factor of ten, but he was well educated and is very intelligent.
I have heard this refrain for decades...Especially in regard to short selling.
The fact is that without shorts, there would be no market.
You MUST have someone on the other side of any trade.
Secondly, these are not lies (in fact), but are opinions issued by people who make their living by issuing opinions..so it follows that you cannot charge someone for a opinion. If you could, we would have a Iranian theocracy or worse.
What is illegal is insider trading, fraud, and other illegal activity..The SEC has their hands full dealing with that. Some of it is actually BS, but the people involved have to pay..
It's not easy sorting through all the fraud...I have been severely burned by the Chinese. Nearly 100k of earned money left my hands due to outright fraud.