Apple trades like crazy

Apple was a huge drag on the broader index which eventually ended as close to flat as one could possibly imagine. Down a whopping 12 percent is where Apple finished, we are reminded that this is a very widely owned stock and if the majors are pushing and getting out at any level, it will have an impact. 52 million shares traded yesterday, that is around 5.4 percent of the entire outstanding shares (938 million) of Apple. 5.4 percent? In one day? At that run rate the entire share capital of the company would swap hands in less than 19 trading days. Talk about making up your mind!


But on closer inspection I saw that Apple trades on a normal basis, 19.72 million shares. True story, check out Google finance, where I have circled:





19.72 million shares trade each and every day? That is 2.1 percent of the volume trades each and every day. According to the NYSE Number of Trading Days 2013 pdf, there are 252 trading days in a year. So, if I multiply the average volume by number of trading days in a year I get to 4.969 billion shares trade a year. That is roughly 5.3 times the number of shares of Apple, which swap hands. Without using an enormous amount of expletives, WTF are people doing? Over what I consider a medium term as an investment, 5 years, the shares would have traded over 26 times their outstanding shares. No wonder those people who are hard wired to chopping and changing their views and flip flopping all the time. Nonsense. Idiots. Morons. Churning washing machines. Outrage. We continue to stay long. And all you folks doing market messages, please don't ever talk about investors again. These are short term market participants looking for what, I am not too sure. Perhaps their clients should ask them the same questions!