AAPL has been on a rampage since April, gaining hundreds of billions of dollars in valuation with a run-up of more than 60%.  How long can a stock that is already the most valuable in the world continue to rise vertically?  Probably not forever, it can be safely inferred. It’s not as though Apple has no competitors. Indeed, the day is probably not far off when Chinese manufacturers are churning out smart phones that will do just about everything an iPhone can do, but for one tenth the price. Samsung is having troubles of its own coping with brutal competition in mobile devices — but then again, the company does not enjoy Apple’s cult status, nor the kind of caché among customers that has inspired some of them to have the Apple logo tattooed on their butts.

From a technical standpoint the stock is closing on a very compelling target at 125.87 that comes from the weekly chart (see inset). I expect this Hidden Pivot to show stopping power that will be compounded by the 126.87 target of a lesser rally pattern that is clearly discernible on the hourly chart. The implied $7+ rally is reason enough to try to get long here if you are not already on board. However, it is also reason to take profits, do covered writes against stock held in a portfolio; or more aggressively, to reverse long positions and get short. In any case, I’ll use the 126.37 midpoint of the targeted range as my minimum upside objective for the near term, to serve you in any way that suits your goals.