Bulls got sandbagged last week, paying as much as $174 on Thursday for shares that would trade $15 lower 12 hours later. They’re not going to forget how they were sucker-punched either, so look for a tough slog if and when AAPL rallies back into the danger zone between around 165 and 174. For now, though, we should expect at least some sort of bounce from the 159.53 target shown. This Hidden Pivot support is sufficiently clear and compelling that no bounce would be akin to the Phil the groundhog seeing his shadow: yet more weeks of winter. _______ UPDATE (Feb 5, 8:37 p.m.): Assuming the stock market doesn’t get buried for a third consecutive day, I’ll be looking for AAPL to turn from a Hidden Pivot support at 153.78. On the 15-minute chart, A=168.10 on 2/1. I have NOT used overnight bars to calculate this target. [Late-breaking note: If I did, 156.43, which as of 6:10 a.m. has been slightly exceeded, would look appealing as a possible bottoming spot.] _______ UPDATE (Feb 8, 6:08 p.m.) AAPL looks headed down to at least 149.10, a Hidden Pivot support that can be bottom-fished with as tight a stop-loss as you can abide. You can widen it if you’ve made money on the way down. _______ UPDATE (Feb 11, 6:11 p.m.): Buyers turned AAPL higher from a 150.24 low that was well above the 149.10 target flagged in my last update. This is mildly bullish, but the stock would need to push above 161.00, the penultimate of two recent peaks recorded on the way down, to turn the hourly chart bullish. Here’s the chart. _______ UPDATE (Feb 12, 6:36 p.m.): With a rally to 163,89, AAPL has done more than we’d asked of it. To be certain, though, let’s ask buyers to do a little more — specifically, to exceed the 168.60 peak shown. Were this to occur with no discernible pullback on the hourly chart, that would be even more believably bullish.
