The smartest column about Apple that I’ve read all week

To get you started:

“Since hitting an all-time peak of $705 in mid-September, the shares have been on a long slide, reaching $419 before recovering a bit to almost $462 last week. At the peak, learned Wall Street analysts were speculating about how high Apple could go and whether the sky really was the limit; at the current trough, they’re all but proclaiming the end of the Apple era.

“Here are the questions on everyone’s lips: Who’s right? And where does it go from here?

“And here are the answers: I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody on CNBC knows. And if they try to tell you they do know, run for the hills with your hand on your wallet.

“What we can say, however, is that the sentiment and stock action related to Apple offer a perfect study in how conjecture and misunderstanding can trump actual knowledge when it comes to evaluating a company. When the company is as much the focus of worldwide attention and as uncommunicative about its own plans as Apple, the effect is even sharper.”

The piece appears on the front page of Sunday’s business section, but you can read it online today: How Apple invites facile analysis.

Thanks to reader Howard Kaplan for the link.