Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 16th Jan 2006 12:55 UTC
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, Micheal Dell was asked what he would do to fix Apple. Dell replied: "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." Following Friday's news that Apple had surpassed Dell's value of $71.97 billion, Jobs wrote an email to his staff: "Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today." Who said capitalism is humourless?
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Member since:
2005-11-27
Some stock market tips for the folks here who tend to be somewhat more tech- then market-savy.
Nobody can predict the stock market one year ahead, let alone ten. Don't let anybody who told you otherwise fool you. Ok, maybe an exceptionally rare individual can, but picking out *those* amongst all stock market "analysts" is as difficult as picking the stocks in the first place.
If Michel Dell was good at picking stocks, whe would be better of a stock trader than a computer seller. Hell, it would have been a lot more profitable for him if he sold all his Dell shares back then and get Apple shares
Most important stock market lesson: hold some amount in fixed income (bonds) and some in a widely diversified stock portfolio (index tracker), and don't worry about them anymore. Do not go pick individual stocks for yourself unless you think you're a psychic, and do not pick individual stocks of companies that you like. Dell had an exceptional decade from 1990 to 2000, followed by 5 meagre years. Apple stock had been a star performer in the early eighties, followed by a period of mediocrity that lasted more than a decade. But the past three years had been pretty stellar. What does all this tell you about the next three years? The next decade?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
And that is the most important lesson of all.
Sure, but you are compeletely off-topic. Micheal Dell didn't make a prediction about Apple's stock. He said that the only way to fix Apple is to shut it down.
So the moral of the story is "don't be a smart-ass when you are talking on the record"