Carl Icahn Not Selling Apple, Despite 'Extremely Overheated' Market

Carl Icahn, chairman of Icahn Enterprises LP IEP, posted tweets today that were seemingly in contrast to each other. His first tweet reads, "Sold last of our $NFLX today. Believe $AAPL currently represents same opportunity we stated NFLX offered several years ago," while the second one reads, "I believe the market is extremely overheated – especially high yield bonds."

So, why is Icahn not selling Apple Inc. AAPL when he thinks the market overall is "extremely overheated?"

Icahn was on CNBC recently to answer that question.

If Apple Goes Down...

"We haven't sold one share of Apple," Icahn said. "It's interesting, I am talking bearishly about this market. I mean, I am talking against myself in a way, because we have billions of dollars of long positions that we own, including Apple and so, but I am very hedged.

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"But I still have these positions. But I have not trimmed Apple because I really think that if Apple goes down – and I know it sounds a little bit maybe hard to believe, but if Apple goes down – I am not that upset because I'll buy more of it."

Energy In The Crosshairs

He continued, "And that's how I have looked at the markets for all the years I've been in it; if you really love a company in a strange way, perverse way, you almost don't mind it going down.

"Apple I really wouldn't mind. Most everything else, well a lot of the companies [be] in energy sector have reached a point where I wouldn't mind them going down, because I would buy more of them.

"I am not telling you to buy energy stocks here because I do think they could go down a bit more," he did caution aside.

Buy Apple, Short High-Yield Bonds

According to Icahn, Apple can go down if the whole market goes down, but investors can go long in Apple and "hedge them against – in some way – against high-yield bonds."