Longtime viewers know that we here at the AtAT compound know roughly as much about our stock portfolio as we do about the Krebs cycle: we know it exists, and that it's probably sort of important, but for the most part we just assume that if we leave well enough alone and don't think about it too hard it'll take care of itself. In the case of aerobic cellular respiration, that's a reasonable approach, but we're told it's not exactly a prizewinning investment strategy. Still, what can we say? The notion of learning about terms like "book value" and "P/E ratio" flat-out puts us to sleep, so the sad reality of the situation is that we're going to keep right on buying the stock of companies that offer products and services we use and love.

But while savvy investors always cringe visibly when we say that (we've been told that we invest like car-shoppers whose only directive is "we want a blue one"), maybe there's something to be said for that approach-- at least in the case of Apple. Faithful viewer Larry alerted us to the surprising fact that the company's stock closed up $1.61 on Thursday, and even hit $35.18 sometime in the middle of the day. We're not sure, but we think that was a new four-year high. In any case, the stock is currently trading at well over twice what we paid for it, and we didn't have to learn squat about high finance and big business to double our money. Yes, we're like that kid who cruised through high school with straight A's without ever studying. (Well, except that we own Palm stock, so we're more like the straight-A student who flunked gym and shop.)

According to Reuters, AAPL's sudden spike occurred because investors expect Hewlett-Packard's introduction of its own rebranded iPod on Friday will lengthen Apple's lead in the digital music race, shoring up defenses right before Microsoft enters the market. (Faithful viewer Rick Paul notices that Rob Enderle, the international "Guys in Suits Who Smoke a Lot of Crack and Still Make Six Figures" poster boy, says that "the expectation on the iPod is that HP's version will probably outsell Apple's version relatively quickly." We're not even remotely convinced, but who knows? Maybe he'll finally be right about something for once.) There's also the iMac factor; Apple has said that a G5-based, next-generation model will debut next month, and next month is just around the corner-- so investors are probably anticipating the same sort of media attention and customer interest that the intro of the two previous generations brought forth.

Interestingly, that's apparently all it takes to send Apple's stock price zooming, despite all the bad news that's been dogging the company in recent months-- iPod mini shipping delays, scarce G5s, RealNetworks poaching on the iPod's territory, that PowerBook battery recall, Steve Jobs's bout with cancer and subsequent month off, etc. And that's why Business 2.0 has dubbed AAPL the "Teflon tech stock." The article's author actually goes into a fair amount of detail about why he still considers Apple's stock to be attractive, including $5 billion in cash, the transient nature of component shortages, a healthy P/E ratio (zzzzzzzzzz), increasing consumer demand for Macs, and the way that it flips its hair back over its shoulder when it laughs.

Of course, all we take away from the article is that we should probably be buying more stocks that have a nonstick coating. We may have to pass, though, because we hear they aren't dishwasher-safe. What a hassle.