AAPL and H1-B
Apple reached an all-time high today. That is a market cap of $1.56 trillion. They revealed updates to all their operating systems today—iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS.
All of them look stunning to me. Apple mastered form factor in the earlier part of the decade, and since iOS 11, their software has been spectacular. I'm speaking both as a user and developer. iOS 11 and iPhone 7 were the two reasons why I started investing heavily in Apple, and I'm not disappointed so far. It remains the largest part of my portfolio.
After mastering the outside of their devices, they then mastered the software that runs in it, its time for them to upgrade the insides of their devices. They have been doing some of it with the A-bionic chips, but now they are going to replace Intel chips with their own. I already love how awesome MacBooks are. It's amazing how I'm able to run so many heavy Softwares without any performance issues. It's because of this piece of hardware I'm able to do what I'm doing now. I've used a few laptops in my life, and all of them have aged poorly. Either performance-wise or physically. I don't know if its the manufacturer or Microsoft or my choice in laptops. Probably a combination of all of them.
What I'm trying to say is, my next laptop is most likely going to be a MacBook Pro because of the hardware.
I'm still bullish on Apple, even though it's fighting against the law of large numbers.
Also, Trump announced a ban on a highly skilled work visa. Mainly H1-B, H2-B, J-1, L visas. It's sad to see this. I'm directly affected by this. For now, I might qualify for one of the exemptions but I'm awaiting confirmation from attorneys.
The ban can be because of the variety of factors:
High unemployment. (that's the official reason)
Appealing to his voter base since elections are almost here.
Using this opportunity to tackle "H1-B abuse"
What worries me though, is the duration of the ban. Dec 31st. Not another couple of months but all the way until the end of the year.
I think its a strong indicator of how damaging the second wave will be. This decision feels like the govt thinks that we're still in the middle of the crisis and not the end.