The experts seemed stumped by Apple’s wicked plunge yesterday, although MarketWatch came up with a list of five possible reasons that, taken together, might explain the $40 drop. Missing from the list was the possibility that the stock’s institutional sponsors, after goosing it nearly 20% since mid-November, have elected to bring AAPL back down to relative bargain levels before running it up again into year’s end.

Whatever the case, from a technical standpoint Apple seems fated to fall to at least 522.66 over the near term if the 539.05 midpoint support associated with that number fails. It was exceeded by 28 cents yesterday, but that’s probably not enough for us to infer that 522.66 is a done deal.  Let’s plan on buying down there if AAPL continues to fall. Camouflage is advised, so you should set a screen alert somewhere around 523.30 to warn when the opportunity ripens.  If you’d rather try this trade the easy way, use a 522.73 bid, stop 522.49, 200 shares. _______ UPDATE (9:47 a.m. EST):  For the third day in a row, Apple has opened on a bearish gap. This one made short work of  bids other than those down near the so-far low,  518.63. The move was so precipitous that even on the one-minute chart there are no camouflage opportunities to be found. Current projections call for 447.55 (!) now that this Hidden Pivot’s midpoint sibling at 521.07 has been shredded. Alternatively, it would take an impulsive thrust exceeding 603.00 on the daily chart to at least temporarily neutralize the bear. Click here if you want to learn more about ‘camouflage’ trading, a technique developed to reduce entry risk very significantly.