Like Steve Jobs, Tim Cook Doesn't Care About Apple Stock

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- In addition to asking what they should do with Apple (AAPL) stock, the constant crashing causes people to panic. Panic triggers really bad ideas.

As explained in the above-linked article, never make sweet love to a stock. For as unjust (pardon the melodrama!) as AAPL under $500, let alone $600 or $700 feels, have some respect for the market's power. Sentiment and the trend is not your friend right now.

I don't know if you -- this specific person I feel like I know, but have never met -- should buy, sell or hold, but you probably should heed the general words of caution I spewed in April 2012 about falling head over heels for a stock.

Have a plan before all hell breaks loose. Because, when it does, it's tough to think straight.

Don't expect Apple to do anything about the stock's sharp fall. Do you think Steve Jobs would have cared or Tim Cook currently cares about what groupthink sentiment is doing to AAPL? Do you think either of these guys have time for that tripe? No way. And if Investor Relations starts whining, Cook would say the same thing Jobs likely would have: I don't give a damn about the stock; I've got a company to run!.

But scan the Twitterverse. You'll find a considerable number of people who want a special or increased dividend. Others expect a show of force via a massive stock buyback to prop up shares. We even have people saying Apple should issue a statement rebuking The Wall Street Journal report about alleged "weak demand" for iPhone 5. Others demand an earnings pre-announcement.

Would any of this fit with the Apple we know and make sweet love to?

This is what I don't understand. So many of us put so much faith in the Apple mystique. We blather endlessly about how the way Apple swings its member sets it apart from mere mortals. Yet, when things get ugly, some of us call for drastic action. That's got to give the bears one giant belly laugh.

Remember, all of this "news" that drags AAPL down -- not one bit of it, as far as we know, comes from Apple itself. In other words, all we know is that Apple Stores were packed over the holidays, the iPad mini appears to have succeeded in the face of considerable skepticism and Apple just snagged more than 50% of the U.S. smartphone market for the first time ever.

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