Apple: Just Like a Stinking Penny Stock

All else equal, AAPL is the absolute best investment on the stock market. Everything you look for - fundamentally, quantitatively, qualitatively -- it's all there. Then there's the ultimate differentiator: Apple has no meaningful competition, therefore it winds up competing against itself.

With that, longs should welcome a healthy amount of skepticism and constructive caution vis-a-vis the future. That's what I attempted to bring to the conversation during the first half of 2012 when I wasn't the biggest AAPL bull. But then, somewhere along the way, a gaggle of Wall Street and media hacks hijacked my reasoning and turned end-of-year tax-related selling into the type of hysteria that shouldn't pressure the stock six months to a year, if ever.

We're dealing with the same smoke-and-mirrors, dog-and-pony show type stuff you see in penny stocks. Again, don't think specifics, think theoretically.

Too many bad hands in this stock now -- trash talkers, flippers, traders and, despite the hefty price tag, penny stock guys. Though I suspect many of the biggest influencers here -- media cats, bloggers, Wall Street types, etc. -- don't even own this thing. But that does not stop them from poisoning the waters.

Like I said, I am all for being critical. I even love more than an average amount of controversy. But, man, somewhere in the last few weeks or months, we crossed the line with AAPL.

That makes it a stock not worth owning. Even if it ends up $700 again or realizes price targets of $1000-plus, the crap and anxiety that accompanies AAPL if you attempt to buy-and-hold it precludes the stock from being an reasonable option for investors who do not have nerves of steel or, as, Alec Baldwin said in "Glengarry Glen Ross," "brass balls."

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--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.

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