"You want a profit plan. I've got one, but it requires that you embrace the wild and woolly world of stock options ..." --Tim Beyers, five minutes ago
Permit me to borrow a line from The Great Communicator, Tim: "There you go again." Weren't you listening? I said: "Investing isn't rocket science. ... Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be." And here you go telling people to play around with puts.
Which are, of course, a form of derivatives.
Which Warren Buffett has famously condemned as "financial weapons of mass destruction."
If this is the only way to make money on Apple
Simplify, simplify
In my opening argument, I pointed out how vastly overpriced Apple is. Tim agreed that it's "richly valued by almost any measure." But here's the good news: You don't have to make money on Apple. There are more than 10,000 publicly traded companies out there, folks. Why not pick one that doesn't require a session of extreme financial gymnastics to earn you a profit?
I've already mentioned that you can pick up shares of Motorola
-
Palm
(NASDAQ:PALM) for seven times earnings and a 0.7 PEG. -
CDW
(NASDAQ:CDWC) , selling for 17 times earnings, but with a PEG of just 1.1. -
Priceline.com
(NASDAQ:PCLN) -- a steal at five times trailing earnings and a PEG of 0.3.
Like Apple, these are all tech plays. Unlike Apple, they're all undervalued using the PEG metric. Also unlike Apple, each one bears the stamp of approval of the Motley Fool's flagship newsletter, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, an honor that Apple has yet to earn.
Why make things so hard on yourself? Buy value. Buy quality. Sell Apple.
Wait! You're not done. This is just a quarter of the Duel! Don't miss the bull and bear opening arguments and the bullish rebuttal. Even when you're done, you're still not done. You can vote and let us know who you think won this Duel.
Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. If he did (or was), The Motley Fool would require him to tell you so. We're sticklers about things like that.
