Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad  By Carl Howe
Are you wondering how you can profit from the all-but-certain
refresh of the iMac Tuesday? I am too, so I thought I'd do a bit
of research.  I took a look at the closing stock prices of Apple
(AAPL) stock for the day before and five business days after
four iMac launch events:  1. The launch of the original iMac on
August 15, 1999 2. The launch of the iMac G4 on January 7, 2002
3. The launch of the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004 4. The launch of
the iMac Core Duo on September 6, 2006  [Click on the graph for
a larger version]  I chose those events because I judge those to
be "significant" changes in the iMac line, both in packaging and
processors. I didn't include changes in screen sizes, such as
the introduction of the 20-inch and 24-inch iMacs.  If we view
the closing price on launch day as "L", here are how stock
prices changed as a percentage of L:  Event L-1 L+1 L+2 L+3 L+4
L+5 iMac G3 +0.7% -0.3% -0.6% -2.8% -2.8% -2.1% iMac G4 -3.4%
-1.2% -5