Apple getting golden to $301.56W Formation formed on Apple and the breakout was strong and confirmed.
With the momentum up and the strong demand and buying, we can expect this market to rally up.
Nature: HIGH Probability
Target $301.56
Longapple
Update on Bullish APPL (APPLE STOCK) LongPrice has hit my target area.
Take a look at the original analysis, below
Bullish on APPL (APPLE STOCK)Price has failed to break below the support/demand zone.
As you can see price has been respecting this area for quite sometime.
If you look at the weekly time frame, you will notice where I have the listed as the neckline is where price broke below that minor former support area. I am expecting price to possibly "retest" this area.
Price has began it's push to the upside. I'm looking forward to price to ultimately test the resistance/supply area.
AAPLApple seems to be on the roll. Still barely under the main channel could see a breakout to 245 or even 250, expected time frame would be right before their Earnings or after.
APPLE: POST EARNINGS - 1.42EPS & $42.4BN BEAT - UP 8% @ 103.5 PMApple beat expectations marginally at 42.4bn and 1.42EPS.
Apple reported not outstanding results, but nonetheless, the earnings call from Tim Cook et al. gave Apple the momentum to break the 101 resistance level and we closed post market up at the last low 100 resistance level at 103.5 (filled the low 100's resistance gap in).
Today the market will go either way -
1) With more liquidity backing the move break-out to the 104's - from here I would advise buying with a target of 110-112.
- Signs of this move would be a bullish pre-market e.g. 104-5; I would advise buying this level ASAP OR risk-averse traders could wait and see if we get a pullback into the 103.8 resistance level at some point after the rally as a recovery leg of the move higher which would be almost inevitable
2) and my preferred prediction is that more liquidity brings us back down to at least the previous resistance level at 101 before then moving higher in the next few days to break-out the 104 and trade towards 110, as IMO 103.4 is high relative to the results - yes they just beat estimates but IMO the estimates were very low and i infact expected more. Nonetheless, given apples depression and even at 110 trading 20% down I can easily see this becoming a recovery rally to the 112 level before reversing (especially as the Nasdaq continues to make new 12m highs on its way to ATH). BOJ on friday is something to watch out for though - a miss will likely turn risk markets sour and take the carpet from under apples feet say if it was at 107.
- Signs of this will obviously be a quiet pre-market or a bearish pre-market e.g. trading at 103 flat, then when market opens we see a cascade of old TPs move us to the 101 level where supply/ demand stabilises. Or simply in pre-market we've already moved to 101 and are ticking along. IMO if this is the case it is best to see if we can get a 102/104(breakout) before buying as at 101 we run the risk of breaking lower (as we have seen apple break lower from 101 several times).
3) Also it is possible that the market sees apple as expensive at 103/4 so sells off straight through the 101 resistance say to low 99/100's - this imo is a bearish setup and i dont think Apple will plan on having any upside momentum going forward e.g. no 104 breakout if today in pre/ normal market we see 100 or less.
- Signs of this will obviously be a sell-off from the 103.5 post market to the 100 level in pre/normal market. Here I have no interest in buying as i expect apple to move back into the 90's with time - also you have to remember even a sell-off to the 100s shows apple up 4% as it closed at $96 yesterday.
Personal Note:
I have long been an apple bull so i like the topside possibilities but equally Apple has struggled of late to hold onto gains/ rally. that said, the time to rally would be now (on target earnings/ bull market/ upbeat earnings call/ broken initial resistance levels) - it would have been nice to see apple trade through the final level at 104 which is the last highly restrictive technical level left, but the fact it held means we have to be vigilant - read the above and make smart decisions.
APPLE: EARNINGS PREVIEW - LOW BAR; 1.38EPS & REVENUE $42.34BNApple earnings to be released after market today
Expectations:
1. 1.39EPS and $42.31bn Revenue
- I personally have been an Apple bull for some time - I believe the bar for apple has been set low, with EPS 25% lower than last year and Revenue target also 15% lower than last year - I think this is achievable as Iphone SE sales will be included in the income statement for the first time this quarter which should help beat the low 42.34bn target.
Risks:
1. Obviously, if Apple misses these expectations i see downside to $89-90 immediately happening - nonetheless I think this opens up a valuable buying opp and I will be buying any 89-90 (or lower) lows, once the earnings hit/ miss flows are over as i believe apple is very cheap on a multiple basis some 10x.
Trading Strategy:
1. On an earnings beat I think because AAPL price has been depressed for so long (30% for 6m+), APPL will see significant topside e.g. to $111 so you should BUY AAPL at market and hold past the 101 breakout for 110tp.
2. Equally, if AAPL misses, we should clear existing risk at $95 and reenter APPL at the MISS bottom which should be $89, or perhaps less.
- I like owning Apple as it is one of the least leveraged companies, with over 250bn in cash & marketable securities (highly liquid) and generates 40-60bn dollars in bottom line profit, with 200bn revenue - thus it is one of the most profitable companies. With this cash, Apple in the future (under new leadership) can regain its prowess and make new highs e.g. 140-160 within the next 12-18m - before if they actually invest in M/A or some heavy R/D - poor leadership by Tim Cook is to blame for APPL's stagnant performance imo - they should have purchased Yahoo to compete with Google ad rev, Twitter to compete with FB and Netflix to grow their Apple TV business - all of which would have worked due to Apples massive worldwide brand and i believe such acquisitions can be made in the future thus I value owning Apple.
Any questions let me know.
LONG APPLE: $100 BREAKOUT? LOW VOLUME, VOL DEMAND & MA CROSSApple looks poised for the $100-101 level breakout
Volume:
- Volume has traded below the quarterly average for the past 10 days , consistent with apples post-Brexit bull run. Low volume is a bullish signal as it indicates investors do not want to offer their apple risk at current prices and wish to hold for further upside before increasing their offering.
- In particular yesterday volume traded 40% lower than the quarterly average at 23m, this bodes well for a bull run/ $100 break-out today as if new buyers with to get on the apple curve they must bid the price higher (and through the $100 level).
Volatility:
Whilst volatility isn't at the 12m lows that we saw at the end of may, IV has certainly came off somewhat from the Brexit highs at 30%, to trade currently at 23.77. This too, along with the low volume has been consistent with apples post-brexit bull run and continues to provide investors the assurance they need to fund further liquidity and push apple higher/ through the $100-1 breakout level.
- Historical Vol trades close to implied at 20%, once again providing a close to ideal buying environment (ideally HV is higher than IV for buying conditions).
Option Demand:
- Apple end of week option demand looks healthy, with there being a huge skew for apple topside options e.g. the 25 delta calls (101) trade at 17,500 contracts, whilst the downside 25 delta puts (98.50) only trade at 9,000 contracts - almost half. Given this skew in upside demand, this could fuel a apple breakout at the 101 level. Even at 102 there are 20,000 demanded at 13 delta calls vs only 12,000 demanded for 13 delta downside puts - so all in all this excessive bullish option demand could have a magnet affect as these prices are reach in spot as they come in the money and are brought causing a cascade of fresh demand from the option space.
Technical
- Apple 2-days ago broke out its second key MA resistance, which was at 98.69 and the quarter MA, this too is a bullish sign and provides downside support if it be the case.
- Apple trades in the middle of its +/-2 standard deviation channels which means there is certainly room for a topside breakout without any probability prejudice that may occur if it was close to the +2 SD channel which provides strong resistance - the +2 12m SD channel trades at approx 107 - this is a clear target for the apple breakout if it materialises.
Market sentiment:
- As we know the past 2wks have been strong risk-on sentiment with SP and DJ setting new highs by 1-2+%, though Nasdaq has lagged new highs but nonetheless broke-out from the 4600 resistance and has given tech stocks a fresh lease of life.
- Also Microsoft outperformed earnings expectations which no doubt will help give investors confidence about adding more apple to their portfolios or adding fresh positions going into apple earnings next week, since the two have revenue streams closely linked - Microsoft traded up 4% in post market yesterday, and in pre-market trades up at new highs of 56 - 5.44% on the day.
- Safe havens trade down quite aggressively today - gold, usdjpy and TNX - about 1% down on average, thus this is the perfect day for an Apple breakout as there is excess liquidity to be allocated to risk assets.
APPLE: BULLISH VOL CROSS AND SUPPLY SIDE; BUT DEMAND DEFICIENCYVolume
Apple Volume traded up for the first time in 4 days on thursday, increasing 25% from 20m to 26m, whilst this may be considered bearish - as increased selling, it is important to not 26m is still 35%-40% below the 4wk and 6month average.
Volume cannot fall forever and we have been trading at extremely low volumes all week, so given these facts, a modest rise from 20m-26m is still bullish IMO given that apple traded at 46m last week, so even at 26m now we are still significantly depressed on the supply side - though the demand deficient problem of the recent times remained rife in the stock yesterday, where the stock fails to attract new liquidity, which is all the stock needs to ask the price up given the perfect, low supply environment apple is currently in.
Historical and Implied Vols
We continue to have a bullish view from a vols perspective as implied traded flat yesterday, up only 10bps at 21.02.
Also, a bullish cross pattern emerged between HV and IV, where HV is crossing lower then IV.
The shorter period 5/10 HVs are already trading below IV, but yesterday the 20/30 period HV also made a bid to make a move below IV in the coming days.
As i have highlighted from the last bull cycle on the graph, when the 4 HVs traded bid and started falling (to eventually trade below IV), Apples price was bullish, rising over 10usd, such interactions between HV and IV is historically highly correlated bullish behaviour. In april as you can see it was Earnings uncertainty that caused the relationship to unnaturally break down - in previous bulls, the HV < IV has allowed bull runs to continue for several months before.
Vol correlation with apples price also traded flat remained above the -90% and maintaining my bullish view with the indicator.
Evaluation
Much of same from apple, where we are witnessing a perfect "bull run" environment (low all round vols, low volume, low price) but the demand side remains the issue - likely due to apples poor mirco-econ environment of poor confidence/ fear regarding their future performance and the ever looming July Earnings, which is artificially keeping demand low for apple.
I dont expect any significant upside today from apple, given fridays are normally the worst day for stocks due to the "end of week" sell-off that occurs as some money managers cannot hold open risk on their books over the weekend.
IMO i expect apple to close 99.2, higher if we are lucky.
If we dont have a bull run soon, we may not see one until august, given that i expect apples price to trade low/ down in the 3 weeks before earnings as investors remember Aprils tragic sell-off and try to avoid a similar event (even if it is unlikely).
BUY APPLE: 2016 @$117 & 2017 @$151 - HISTORICAL MONTHLY ANALYSISApple shows a strong and consistent monthly trend of each bull-bear cycle lasting approximates 2-3 years.
The first bull cycle yielded between 200% and 700% growth, the second much less at 145% growth, and the third we estimate using regressions to be approximately between 67% and 106% (or 67% for the next bull run to $151 and 105% for the 4th bull run to $181).
Looking at apple from this monthly perspective gives me reassurance that the $134-$89 or 33% pull back we just saw was merely a macro cyclical correction (which was actually less severe than the pullback in 2012) rather than a structural bearish re-trend - assuming we go on to make $150+ highs in 2017.
With this assumption/ thought in mind it actually makes sense to buy apple heavily whilst its at such a discount - after-all apple historically has shown steep price extensions that offer few significant (-10%+) pull backs to buy, thus we should realign our attitude to factor in where apple sits in its cycle.
It is often too easy to get caught up in the daily +/1 $2 moves, you sometimes can forget the bigger picture of making the most of a great stock fundamentally, thats trading at 10x p:e.
A key statistical measure that reaffirms the above is Apple's monthly price action and its 120 month Linear regression line which together returns a Pearson's R Coefficient of 0.95, meaning time and price as plotted on the x and y axis for Apple hold an almost perfect linear relationship (Apples data is 95% about the linear regression line).
This means we can extrapolate the price trends for the bull-bear cycles, by simply extending the x axis (time) along the regression line to estimate future prices, to a decent degree of statistical relevance.
If the Peasron's R Coefficient was 0.1 it would mean monthly prices are only 10% about the regression, thus extrapolation of price through time would LIKELY yield very little correlation to the actual future price, based on past prices.
Look out for my fundamental analysis of apple in the coming weeks
APPLE LONG: $151-$182 - CYCLICAL ANALYSIS & REGRESSION FORECASTAnalysing Apple's (AAPL) historical cyclical price movements and using the +/- 2SD of the linear regression to forecast a naive regression price for the next extension phase.
* Extension leg Regression Forecast*
1. For leg A (Extension Leg 1) we use a start point of $12.5 or $33 (phase doesnt have a clear start), or we could assume a mean value of (12.5+33)/2= $22.75.
- Leg A is then, $12.5, $23.5 or $33 divided by $100, which means Leg A is a price increase of = 700%, 310% or 200%
2. For Leg C (Extension Leg 2) the price increased from $55 to $134.5 which is a 145% increase.
3. For Foretasted Leg E (Extension Leg 3), we start at $89 and we derive the price "%" increase by:
- Using the regression of the price increase % from Leg A to Leg C e.g. 145%/700%= 21%; 145/310 = 46%; 145/200= 73%, so this means for each of the calculations we can then assume each is the regression growth differential from Leg C's 145% increase to foretasted Leg E's "%" increase
4. e.g. Foretasted Leg E / Extension Leg 3:
21% of 145% = 31% increase; $89 * 31% = $117
or 46% of 145% = 67% increase ; $89* 67% * $89= $151
or 73% of 145% = 106% increase; $89 * 106% = $182
- Thus Apples Leg E/ Extension Leg 3's Naive Regression Forecast = between $151 and $182
* As shown on graph.
Furthermore, another interesting statistical measure for apples 10year/ 120 Month +/-2SD channel was that the Pearsons R was 0.95. This means that the linear correlation between Apples Price over the measured time period was 95%. 95% of all values observed lie averagely on its linear regression line (middle line of the Stan Dev channel) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_product-moment_correlation_coefficient
- Having such a high Peasons R means the regression line holds true for 95% of past data and therefore is MAY also include 95% of future data thus extrapolating the linear line (or using basic regressions as i have done) is of some statistical significance.
A Pearsons R coefficient of 0.3 means there is little positive correlation between Price and Time, thus extrapolating prices through time using basic regressions/ forecasts is much less statistically prudent, since only 30% of past data correlated about the linear regression line.
