Portfolio managers’ most beloved stock, the 600-pound gorilla of publicly traded companies, met all of our upside objectives last week save one: a thrust to new all-time highs. We’d been looking to short the stock when it approached this threshold — the ‘nifty trick’ I’d referred to in the Trading Room. Alas, last week’s high at 319.69 fell somewhat shy of January’s 327.85 record. AAPL ended the week with two straight days of egregious manipulation by the usual sleazeballs. Specifically, they opened the stock well beneath the previous day’s close in order to dry up sellers. This set up a flurry of short-covering on both days, but neither exceeded the previous day’s highs. This smacks of distribution, and although it doesn’t necessarily portend a collapse in the stock in the days ahead, it does tell us that the aforesaid scumballs were having difficulty rounding up enough suckers to float this hoax to any impressive new height. We’ll watch from the sidelines until it becomes apparent whether a new herd of clapping seals is waiting to do the bidding of AAPL’s canny masters. ______ UPDATE (May 18, 10:01 p.m. EDT): Perhaps we’ll get a chance to short a return to the old highs after all — not because we’ll be trying to nail The Top, but because we can make money regardless of what it does, especially in spots where others fear to  tread. All you newbies watch closely, because, as I promised, this is going to be a nifty little trick.