A Bite of Apple ($AAPL)

Yesterday, Apple ($AAPL) hit a massive milestone.  It became the 1st US company to hit the $1 trillion market cap.  Recent positive earnings provided a catalyst that enabled Apple to hit the milestone.  If you look at the long term chart, the stock seemed to be always on an uptrend.  However, I want to discuss about the time when I first bought Apple.

Look at that amazing chart! 

Apple is one of those companies that is difficult to find an entry point.  It seemed as if every week, it kept making new highs.  I was always waiting for a dip in share price but that day never seemed to come.

On August 2011, I finally took the plunge and bought some shares....it the same month that Steve Jobs announced his resignation as CEO and assumed the position of chairman of the board.  The stock dipped a bit during after-hours trading but recovered the next day.

From the days after Steve Jobs passed away, the stock eventually would plunge about 14% from its all-time high.  As time went on, the stock recovered.  Though, people began doubting Apple's success once it implemented the dividend, which signaled that the company's growth may be slowing.  At one point, shares of Apple plunged over 50%.  Yet, shares always recovered.  Along the way, Apple kept increasing the dividend and share buybacks.  And here we are today, a $1 trillion market cap.

High of 100.01
Low of 55.79 (scary ain't it?)

The moral of the story? The stock market will always be unpredictable but if you buy shares in worthwhile companies, you can always be ahead in the long run.  It's as they say, "time in the market beats timing the market."

That brings me to one of my favorite quotes by Warren Buffett:
"If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes. Put together a portfolio of companies whose aggregate earnings march upward over the years, and so also will the portfolio's market value."

The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett (You should definitely get to know this guy lol..)

First Post

Hello everyone,

After much contemplating, I decided to make a site about my investing experiences.  For several years, people have been telling me to write about investing so I finally took the plunge.  I don't intend to give investing advice but rather, I want to share what I've learned and observed throughout the years. I guess in a way, it's my thoughts and rationales behind the stocks I bought/sold throughout the years.

I am by no means, a professional investor.  Perhaps not even an amateur investor.  Most of the stocks I bought were from my own due diligence.   I'd spend a few hours during the day reading up on companies, deciding whether or not I'd want to add them into my portfolio.  Some stocks were suggested by my financial adviser.  Sometimes I listened to my financial adviser, sometimes I didn't.  Sometimes you experience regret but I find that it always keeps you humble.

Anyway, here's some information about me:
-I started investing in 2010.  My first 2 stocks I bought were Hawaiian Electric and Google (Currently known as Alphabet).

-I'm a millennial.  You can say I'm on the wrong side of my 20's lol..  Another reason why I wanted to make this blog was because everything you read about millennials and investing is correct unfortunately.  A vast majority of people that I know aren't in the stock market and are afraid of investing in general because of what happened during the Great Recession.  As company retirement programs and pension plans become a thing of the past, I feel there's no other options available to gain wealth for retirement.  Aside from possibly real estate but sorry this has never outperformed in the long run.  Or inheritances but how often does that happen? I feel the benefits outweigh the risks when it comes to the stock market.

-I work a bunch of odd jobs.  In fact, I currently have 4 jobs.  Well..I'm actually currently employed at 4 different companies.  Long story short, I quit my full time job and went to grad school.  I graduated nearly a year ago and I'm still job searching because the job market for my profession is rather..how do you say, requires strict qualifications.

I'm beginning to to think this quite a long first post so I'll end it here.  I'll be posting as I can but for my next post, I'm going to write about Apple.

Hope you all have a nice day!