Apple has taken a nasty beating lately, but the stock could be ready to turn. Notice that although yesterday’s opening-bar high was a bull trap, it also laid down a bullish impulse leg that should be leveraged today by buyers if the pattern plays out in accordance with our rules. I’ve sketched out a possibility, but I’ll leave it up to camouflageurs to plot their entry on the 5-minute chart or less once an ‘x’ entry trigger occurs on the hourly. Your theoretical entry risk should be held to no more than 12 cents per share — the distance from C to ‘x’ on whatever chart you happen to be using. _______ UPDATE (10:39 a.m. EST): A buy signal was tripped on the opening bar at 502.85. However, because the opening occurred on a $4 gap, safe entry via camouflage — or by any other means that I could come up with — was effectively precluded. However, exactly 21 minutes later, on the 1-minute chart, there was a second opportunity to get aboard at 504.64. You may want to check this one out (a=503.89 at 9:48 a.m.; b=505.45; c=504.24), since, from a camouflage perspective, it verges on perfection. (Webinar grads: Do you understand why? Incidentally, the same, very tradable pattern was manifest in AMZN’s chart at the same time.) AAPL has upside potential here to as high as 513.48, based on the hourly chart (a=493.55 at 11:30 a.m. on 1/31). The midpoint pivot at 506.36 has been decisively exceeded, lending weight to the prospect of a run-up to the target. _______ UPDATE (February 5, 12:38 a.m.): The 513.48 target remains viable, and any pullback to the 506.39 midpoint pivot should therefore regarded as a buying opportunity. A ‘camouflage’ entry on the 3-minute chart or lower is suggested. _______ UPDATE (10:06 a.m.): The 506.39 Hidden Pivot given above came within 14 cents of nailing this morning’s bear-trap low. The stock has subsequently rallied $5 to a so-far high of 511.53, presumably bound for 513.48. Subscribers should report any fills in the chat room if you want me to provide tracking guidance for a position. _______ UPDATE (11:40 p.m.): Some subscribers reported catching a ride based on my bullish target, but apparently no one remained long at the close. Since AAPL exceeded the target by a robust $1.80, still-higher prices appear likely. By implication, pullbacks to p or d targets should be viewed as a buying opportunities. ______ UPDATE (February 10, 10:24 p.m.): DaBoyz have encountered precious little supply over the course of the engineered, $40 run-up since January 31, but the going will get much more challenging between 535 and 560, since the stock did a lot of chopping around in that range over the last two months. For purposes of getting long, camouflage traders should treat the lows I’ve labeled (see inset, a new chart) effectively as prior peaks. _______ UPDATE (February 24, 2:06 a.m.): The rally, a ferocious run-up of 11.5 percent, sputtered out at 551.19. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that there’s now a reason for weakness other than the usual shakedowns engineered by DaBoyz to haul the stock back down to bargain levels. Smart-phone competition is tougher than ever, especially for a company that continues to cling to a pricing strategy that worked best when other phone manufacturers were just also-rans. We should never count this stock out, but neither should we assume that every downtick is a buying opportunity.
