Markets move on emotion, greed and fear being the main ones. Along the spectrum lay profits and losses. We see price action move due to rumors, stories, influence and innuendo. It's a natural reaction to try and exit before the crowd does, and to jump in with the masses. Spinning news and rumors can take different shapes, and depending on perspective and tone, can see drastically different results.

Is the Apple Green or Red?

Apple is a great company to trade. The action up and down is fantastic and offers tremendous profit potential with options. The speed of the moves are hyper, perfect for a volatile name. A high profile company such as Apple trades on the whims of news and rumors. There are several websites out there with information that just anticipate what Apple is doing, or speculate what they may be up to. That's just enough to draw interest to the name.

Lately, the stock has been strong, bouncing off lows in the 115 range to close about 20% higher in March. The trend is very strong, volume is good and resistance is being taken out. Yet I find the latest news a double-edged sword.

Apparently the iPhone is sold out of stores, which is being viewed positively. That's right. How so? Speculation of a new 3G phone is probably in the works, but of course no confirmation of this. This came out last week, and caused the stock to rise about 5%. Call buyers and put sellers made out.

A month ago when the stock was in a downtrend, this news would have been spun negatively, and who knows how far the stock would have fallen. Sometimes perception is reality.

How the Markets React to Spin

It certainly doesn't take much to move markets these days. Just a brief news clip can bring buyers in, while the latest bank failure rumor will rush people to the sidelines.

Was the Lehman cash infusion truly positive last week, as the markets ran with the news and chased prices higher? Who knows, but down the road I imagine existing shareholders won't be happy about the earnings dilution.

The media plays a critical role as spin doctors. Why? Everyone loves a market that's going up. It brings readers, listeners and viewers. Put some positive spin on the situation and the ad rates rise.

Bottom line, put the spin in its place and put it under control. It's noise that should be filtered.

Price Headley is the founder and chief analyst of BigTrends.com.