Investor Alert: Wall Street Analysts Screwing You on Apple

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This might end up the shortest article I ever write because, really, the title says it all:

Investor Alert: Wall Street Analysts Screwing You on Apple

Apple (AAPL) knocked below $500 in premarket trading Monday morning. It rebounded nicely, but who knows where it will end the day or what the week holds?

Why is it down? Because of pathetic, know-nothing Wall Street analysts.

Last night, Citi downgraded the stock and set a price target below $600. Just this morning Pacific Crest did the same. Canaccord Genuity also lowered estimates and set its target at $750. They're all doing it on the basis of what they call weak demand. And they're certainly not doing it independent of one another.

You mean to tell me that each of these guys, suddenly, spotted this weak trend in iPhone and iPad sales and just so happened to lower estimates and price targets at the same time, on the same morning. Give me a freaking break! Do they think we're total idiots?

This is absurd. Absolutely absurd. These guys need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Long-term I am cautious Apple, however, that thesis has hardly even started to play itself out.

Here's what matters today: Demand for Apple products, particularly iPhone 5 (2 million sold in China over the weekend) and iPad mini (flying off of the shelves in America this past weekend) is through the roof. Apple will annihilate the holiday quarter.

If Apple has a demand problem other retailers/tech names such as Microsoft (MSFT) should close shop today out of embarrassment and investors should send their stocks to zero.

Many Wall Street analysts try to make you believe they use some sort of reliable scientific method to get to their price targets and iPhone "estimates." They don't. They employ old tired "models" you can find in the 45th edition of textbooks really bad MBA programs use.

If Apple is in trouble, you might as well just give up. I don't mean give up on the market. You can still make money with plenty of stocks or simply by checking your emotion at the door and trading/investing on somebody else's psychological missteps. I mean give up on the hope that logic prevails.

That said, rationality will win out here. It just might not happen until retail numbers start to trickle out and we discover that the only clear winners were Apple, Amazon.com (AMZN) and an online story here or there.

For now, plain and simple, you're being screwed by the people who, apparently, own the responsibility of guiding you, managing your money and analyzing the companies and stocks you invest in.

Follow @rocco_thestreet

--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.

Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.