It's easy to look at the above chart and think "woulda, shoulda, coulda."
"I wish I had bought Apple at its inception."
Or "I wish I had bought Apple 10 years ago or 5 years ago."
After all, $100 invested in Apple, at the time of the above chart, is now worth $235,000.
If you start adding zeros, those numbers get astronomical.
Here's the thing though: Would you have held it? It's easy to look at the long-term chart and think things have been pretty easy along the way.
Not so.
How about this chart?
This reveals the drawdowns that Apple shareholders have had to endure along the way.
Look at how many there are!
It has fallen significantly over the course of its run-up.
It's been down over 60% many times.
Over the past decade and a half, it's lost over 1/3 of its value three times.
It almost went bankrupt in 1997.
Holding stocks in the present tense is never as easy as you think. That's why it's been said: "The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting."
What they don't tell you about investing in Apple is the patience it has required.