How to Trade Apple Pre-Earnings: Brown

Rather than trying to figure out where Apple stock is headed following a dip below $500 a share, the best bet might be to wait, Josh Brown of Fusion Analytics said Monday on CNBC.

"I think for investors right now, this is way too difficult of a stock," he said on "Fast Money."

Brown said that too much uncertainty was enough to warrant keeping one's distance.

"I think what you probably want to do is take the risk of missing a pop and buy it after earnings," he said. "Let's see what they say on the call about guidance before we try to jump to conclusion and perhaps catch a falling knife."

Joe Terranova of Virtus Investment Partners revealed that he has reduced his position in Apple significantly.

"For Apple to open $12 higher last Thursday and go straight down, that's emblematic of a stock that really does have some problems," he said.

"I really can't tell you where we're going to be post-earnings other than to say, probably buying volatility in Apple after earnings might be best trade."

Trader disclosure: On Jan. 14, 2013, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Joe Terranova is long VRTS; Joe Terranova is long AAPL; Joe Terranova is long GS; Joe Terranova is long MS; Joe Terranova is long GLW; Joe Terranova is long DELL; Joe Terranova is long SWN; Joe Terranova is long XOM; Simon Baker is long AAPL; Simon Baker is long WFC; Simon Baker is long FB; Simon Baker is long AMZN; Simon Baker is long RIG; Stephanie Link is long AAPL; Stephanie Link is long GS; Stephanie Link is long WFC; Stephanie Link is long CSCO; Stephanie Link is long SBUX; Stephanie Link is long FDX; Josh Brown is long AAPL; Josh Brown is long BAC; Josh Brown is long JPM; Josh Brown is long WFC; Josh Brown is long GDX; Josh Brown is long GLD; Josh Brown is long XLU; Josh Brown is long TLT; Josh Brown is long XLF; Josh Brown is long TGT; Josh Brown is long WMT; Josh Brown is long JNJ;

For Glen Yeung
Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Advanced Micro Devices Inc; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Apple Inc; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Altera Corp; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Broadcom Corp; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Intel Corp; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Marvell Technology Group Ltd; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Micron Technology Inc; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of NVIDIA Corp; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Qualcomm Inc; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Texas Instruments Inc; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. owns a position of 1 million USD or more in the debt securities of Xilinx Inc.