苹果股票为什么让人如此痴迷？

    提起泰瑞和詹尼这对格里高利夫妇的投资组合，可能会让人觉得有点悬。退休的格里高利夫妇如今住在檀香山，他们差不多将毕生的积蓄约250万美元都买了一只股票：苹果公司（Apple Inc.）。

    格里高利夫妇如此执着一念地投资苹果股票，似乎与媒体（如《财富》杂志）和主流投资策略师们给出的建议格格不入。投资者不能将所有的资金放在一只股票里，退休人员尤其如此，他们的投资组合更应注重收益和财富保值，不应追求成长和冒险。没说错吧?

    哦，在您准备对格里高利夫妇的投资做法嗤之以鼻前，不妨问问自己下面这些问题。您住在一套离檀香山威基基海滩几步之遥、价值65万美元的豪华公寓里吗？您有这样的智慧、信念和坚持，将2004年一笔20万美元的投资（投资一家当时似乎已过气、市场份额仅3%的电脑公司的股票）变成了近300万美元的财富，帮助实现了提前退休的梦想吗？“所有的建议都是分散投资，但以我们的经验，分散投资并不管用，”62岁的詹尼•格里高利表示。她和她58岁的丈夫泰瑞在退休前都是从事广告行业。泰瑞说：“分散投资可能有助于财富保值，但我们需要让财富增长。”

    格里高利夫妇的情况并非个案。在MacObserver.com留言板、Proboards的苹果金融留言板以及Braeburn Group网站的投资者论坛中等等，到处都是苹果的铁杆粉丝骄傲地宣称，自己将所有或者大部分的钱买了苹果股票。

    对于他们中的很多人而言，投资苹果股票——持续关注苹果公司（往往每天都要花上几个小时）——已不只是一项金融投资那么简单。它是一个更高的追求。“苹果不光是一家电子设备或装置的生产商，”只投资苹果股票的罗伯特•保罗•雷涛是加州伯班克一家天主教堂的营运总监，也是Braeburn Group苹果独立分析师的创立人（雷涛对这家网站的命名也是带有苹果特色，具有“智慧和复合特色”）。“我相信，苹果产品的设计和功能给人们带来了美好的体验。”

    晨星（Morningstar）数据显示，十年前没有一家共同基金将苹果列为第一大持股。如今，这个数字已增至683家，差不多每8家基金中就有1家是这样。有些基金在美国国税局（IRS）关于共同基金分散投资条例许可的范围内，几乎将所有额度都投入了苹果股票。有12只基金持有的苹果股票已达到或超过了资产总额的20%。如今还有一只单单投资苹果的对冲基金Bullish Cross Asset Management，只交易苹果股票及其期权。管理这只基金的安迪•扎基是一位独立的苹果分析师，也是《财富》杂志网站的供稿人。

    Just thinking about Terry and Jeanne Gregory's portfolio can be a little scary. Retirees now living in Honolulu, the Gregorys have basically their entire life savings -- about $2.5 million -- invested in just one stock: Apple Inc.

    The Gregorys' love affair with Apple (AAPL) flouts every bit of investment advice doled out by magazines like this one and by mainstream investment strategists. No investor -- especially a retiree whose portfolio should be geared toward income and wealth preservation, not growth and risk taking -- should have all his money invested in just one stock. Right?

    Well, before you dismiss the Gregorys as fools, ask yourself these questions. Do you live in a $650,000 luxury condo a stone's throw from Waikiki Beach? And did you have the smarts, conviction, and stick-to-itiveness to turn a $200,000 investment in 2004 -- in a seemingly past-its-prime computer stock with a mere 3% market share -- into a nearly $3 million windfall that financed a dream early retirement? "All the advice was to diversify, but in our experience, diversification didn't really work," says Jeanne Gregory, 62, who, like her husband, Terry, 58, is retired from the advertising industry. "Diversification," adds Terry, "may be good for preserving your wealth, but we needed our wealth to grow."

    The Gregorys are not alone. Online message boards like the MacObserver.com boards, Proboards' Apple Finance Board, and the investor forums on the Braeburn Group website are filled with Apple obsessives who proudly admit to having all or most of their money in Apple.

    For many of these folks, investing in the stock -- and keeping tabs on the company (often for hours a day) -- isn't just a financial pursuit. It's a higher calling. "Apple is not just a maker of widgets or digital devices," says all-Apple investor Robert Paul Leitao, director of operations for a Catholic church in Burbank, Calif., and also the founder of the Braeburn Group of independent Apple analysts (a website Leitao named after an apple variety with "smart and complex flavor"). "I believe the design and functionality of Apple products speak to the dignity of the human experience."

    Ten years ago there wasn't a single mutual fund that counted Apple as its largest holding, according to Morningstar. Today there are 683 -- or one out of every eight funds. Some of the funds are just about as all-in on Apple as the IRS rules for mutual fund diversification allow. There are 12 funds with 20% or more of their assets in Apple. There's now an Apple-only hedge fund -- Bullish Cross Asset Management, which trades both AAPL shares and options -- run by Andy Zaky, an independent Apple analyst and a Fortune.com contributor.