Historically, the iPod 3 was a significant turning point for Apple, second only in importance to Steve Jobs creating Apple, the birth of the iPhone, the birth of the iPhone 4, and Steve Jobs' return to Apple.
The iPod was the world's first mass-market electronic device to be entirely controlled by a touchscreen. This novel user experience led the iPod 3 to quickly conquer the world.
Therefore, there are quite a few shareholders present, but they had all secretly sold a significant portion of their shares to the market beforehand. At this time, Apple's stock had fallen to around $10.2 per share.
However, upon hearing the specific figures from this sales report, they immediately understood that once this report was released, Apple's stock price would likely surge towards a valuation of tens of billions. In the coming year and more, Apple's stock price would only trend upwards.
"Now is the opportunity! Buy a large number of newly issued shares immediately after the market opens!" The shareholders present instantly understood what they needed to do.
Those who had the authority to make decisions began making calls to mobilize funds.
Those who did not, immediately reported to their superiors.
Soon, large sums of money began to be moved in secret. What they didn't know was that Apple had also made this report public that morning.
Indeed, this was information that had to be disclosed, otherwise, if discovered, it would involve insider trading.
Of course, most individual investors, unless they held a substantial amount of Apple stock, would not immediately pore over these lengthy, tens of thousands of words professional reports.
After all, there are over 6,000 different stocks in the United States. According to regulations, all listed companies must publicly disclose their various information, and hundreds of different professional reports can be issued daily.
Unless they are professional investment institutions, ordinary shareholders would never pay attention to these reports.
And even professional institutions would not focus on these Apple reports in a short period.
This created an investment opportunity for the shareholders present, allowing them to buy shares ahead of individual investors. By the time individual investors received this news, several hours or even days might have passed, and Apple's stock price would have already been rising for several days.
Therefore, even without insider trading or market manipulation, retail investors can never compete with professional institutions because they are at a natural disadvantage in terms of information acquisition efficiency.
To get back to the point, at 9:30 AM, Nasdaq opened precisely on time, and Apple's 200 million shares were officially released to the market. According to the rules, these 200 million shares would be sold at the closing price of the previous day.
Under normal circumstances, with such a large volume of circulating shares entering the market, it would be impossible to sell all 200 million shares in a short period. It's quite possible that even after a full day, no one would have bought these 200 million shares.
After all, this was not an initial public offering where investors had high expectations for the stock price. It wouldn't be like the A-shares market, where there would be several consecutive daily price limits upon opening.
[PS: It seems there was a subscription phase before, but I'm not very familiar with the specifics of the issuance process, and this book isn't focused on the stock market. So, I'll omit it. It's a parallel world anyway!]
"However, within just a few minutes of the market opening, many people who were paying attention to Apple's issuance discovered that one hundred million of these 200 million shares were already gone."
"Calculated at $10.2 per share, it means $1.02 billion in funds had absorbed all these shares."
"What's going on? This doesn't seem right!" Many shareholders were stunned. They had initially expected Apple's stock price to fall and were planning to observe the situation before selling their shares, but this scenario was quite unusual.
Thus, they decided to hold onto their Apple shares.
Consequently, quite a few astute individuals began researching Apple's recently released information and then saw the sales performance of the iPad 3. They then joined the buying frenzy, investing all their available funds to snap up these 200 million shares.
However, only these few intelligent individuals managed to seize the opportunity. Because within 10 minutes, more institutions mobilized even more funds, and in the blink of an eye, all 200 million shares were completely absorbed. Apple's issuance stock was only available for 20 minutes before being entirely bought up by the market.
Then, a staggering $2.04 billion would appear in Apple's accounts within minutes. Apple received a massive infusion of $2.04 billion in an instant, allowing Jobs to spend freely for the next two to three years.
However, Jobs still felt a pang of regret, as he believed the price of $10.2 per share was too low. After all the 200 million newly issued shares were sold, some institutions that missed out on the opportunity turned their attention to stocks listed on the market at prices above $10.2.
They then swept these shares up, and the stock price quickly returned to its recent peak of $12.5 per share.
This scene stunned many. They had prepared to witness the spectacle of Apple's stock price plummeting, but who would have thought that they would instead witness such an astonishing surge?
Then they became very curious about what had happened. Consequently, Apple's iPad 3 sales report was released, and many financial media outlets immediately began writing articles, quickly disseminating this news as a headline.
This highlights the advantage of online media. Traditional media would take at least half a year to print such text on paper, and then another day or so to distribute it to the public.
But it's different for online media. The moment an article is written, it is published across the entire network.
As a result, more shareholders who were glued to their computers learned about the astonishing sales figures of Apple's iPod 3. Then, even a fool would realize that Apple's stock price was about to experience an incredible surge.
Even though the stock price had risen to a peak of $12.5, it was insignificant compared to the future price of at least $20. Thus, Apple shares listed at higher prices were quickly gobbled up, and Apple's stock price soared at an unimaginable speed.
By the time the market closed at noon, Apple's stock price had risen to $21 per share. Compared to the opening price of $10.2 per share, it achieved an astonishing 100% gain in half a day.
Indeed, only the US stock market can achieve such remarkable performance, as the US stock market has no monopoly mechanisms. If this were the A-shares market, it would require several days of consecutive daily price limits.
In the afternoon, this stock price was likely to continue to rise, as they had already seen buy orders at $22 per share posted on the exchange.
It was at this moment that people realized they might have underestimated Apple. Previously, it was predicted that the stock price would likely reach $20 per share within a year. Now, it seemed to be heading towards a stock price of $30.
This was because the sales report for Apple's iPad 3 had not yet been widely disseminated and was still considered major news within a small circle.
However, starting tomorrow, this news would be heavily featured in newspapers across America and even the world.
Not only financial media, but all sorts of media outlets would report this news. After all, the event of Apple's stock price doubling in 100% is itself a huge news story. The herd effect triggered by this news would continuously drive up Apple's stock price.
Unless Apple's next product experiences a sharp decline in sales and suffers heavy losses, Apple's upward trend is unlikely to stop in the short term.
Apple stock holds significant investment value!
"What a stroke of luck!" Kapaard's expression was very complex as he looked at Little Swift in the distance, who was toasting with guests. The man's jet-black skin made Kapaard feel extremely uncomfortable.
With Apple's stock surge this time, the investment return rate of Western Wild Horse Company was about to break through 400%. If all goes as expected, this return rate would top the charts for 2003, becoming the global stock fund with the highest return rate and reaching the coveted throne that all investment institutions dream of.
This record was actually set by a black man who was only in his early twenties. Kapaard could imagine how much support this guy would gain from black people, and then how he would secure even more substantial funds from those damned n-words.
Of course, Kapaard only felt uncomfortable; as for emotions like jealousy, there were none at all.
It was a joke; this was just someone who won through luck. Kapaard firmly believed that Little Swift would rise and fall with Apple.
Whatever money he made on Apple today, he would have to give it all back in the future, and he would surely shatter into pieces.