1,000,000,000,000

I normally don't write about the stock market. But just today Apple reaches $1,000,000,000,000.00 value. That's A LOT of ZEROS. Let me make a bit clearer for you, it's twelve zeros, which makes it one trillion dollars.

To put it in another way:

Apple vs. the world (relative valuations)
Apple: $1 trillion
Florida GDP: $1trillion
Small cap (S&P 600) $892 billion
Turkey (GDP): $851 billion
Netherlands (GDP) $826 billion

Apple is the first American public company to pass the $1 trillion thresholds. Just a few hours ago Apple stock surpassed $207 / share, which indicates it is now up more than 20% this year. Many Wall Street analysts believe Apple could even go higher to a range above $230.

Most of this increase is due to the increase in sales and profit for the strong demand of iPhone 8 and X, which most of us have, in China and Japan not to mention rising revenue from the App Store.

Other titans like Amazon, Google's parent company Alphabet and Microsoft all have surged to near record highs this year as well. For example, Amazon is now reaching $900 billion while Alphabet and Microsoft are each far more than $800 billion in valuation.

By the way, Apple is not the first publicly traded company in the world to exceeding the 1 trillion dollars. PetroChina very briefly reached a trillion dollar in valuation nearly a decade ago, when its stock was trading in Shanghai, but shares quickly plunged. Now is listed in NYSE or New York Stock Exchange.

Apple takes the title as the first $1 trillion US company. Apple is worth more than all the world's major automakers combined.

I'm not a stock picker, and I'm not advocating buying Apple Stock. I just started reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I can't stop thinking about how Apple began in the garage Steve Jobs in 1976; now it has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand, and many other countries. And much richer in valuation that 141 countries around the world

Steve Jobs is not here to see the market value of the company he co-founded, but he sure left us with excellent advice that reveals in all these zeros. "Great things in business are never done by one person. A team of people does them."

And you are probably reading this email on your iPhone:)