Zach Bass submits:

I have no position in Apple (AAPL) right now, and haven’t for a few weeks. Why, you may ask? Because the short-term trend has been indeterminate, sideways and choppy at best. Over the longer-term, the downtrend is intact, albeit in a weakened fashion. And it’s very difficult to profit in this kind of environment, so I have been recommending cash to Apple Investors and my subscribers. But the downtrend is about to resume, and it’s time to take a stand.

In a sideways and volatile market like this, individual stocks can make or break you. There’s simply too much risk for the small investor to profit from individual stocks. Look at AAPL over the past week. It’s down just 0.5% for the week, but intra-week it has moved in a range spanning over 8%! AAPL started the week with a huge gap up, a very encouraging sign, as gaps can provide good support going forward. But it didn’t hold, as AAPL erased the gap the following day. Wednesday was a day of indecision, followed by a weak attempt to regain the gap on Thursday. But then Friday revealed the true intent of the market, and that’s to resume the overall downtrend.

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