Apple (AAPL) is attracting attention on the bullish end as the stock barrels toward what investors hope is a bottom.
The shares are decelerating on Tuesday and have slid consistently aside from a small poke above Monday's close shortly before noon.
However, technical indicators and the options market are signaling a bounce could be coming as the market registers a bottom for the company that is holding on to its "most valuable" status by only $1 billion.
Oversold Indication
An indicator of a turnaround that is turning in afternoon hours is the Relative Strength Index, which has dipped below the oversold band amid Apple's continued slump.
The momentum indicator may be a signal that bears on Apple may have taken their bulk of their bite out already as the stock inches toward a bottom.
Encouragingly in the immediate term, the stock has recovered slightly since crossing beneath the band in early afternoon hours. Any piece of good news is helpful to beleaguered Apple investors at this point.
To be sure, as the stock continues to slide amid bearish market conditions, Apple's reaction to the technical signal may not be in conjunction with expectations and further support could be necessary.
"Apple still has a lot of work to do, and it will take a rise above $180 to get the change in trend," Mott Capital CEO Michael Kramer predicted.
Options Market Orients Itself to Bulls
Predicting a move past that point and indicating some positive sentiment for investors is the bullishness of the options market.
In particular, call options on a $200 strike price for January 2019 are heating up, seeing some of the highest volume on the day.
Traders seem to be indicating that tariff concerns are overblown and that the company will recover around the same time many fear additional tariffs could be inbound.
BTW. The WSJ reporter raised the $aapl question to get his story to travel. Trump didn't say "I'm putting a 10% tariff on the IPhone". Now it's getting spoken about all day. PS it held yesterday's low and was a nice trade.
— Scott Redler (@RedDogT3) November 27, 2018
For Real Money's options playbook, Tim Collins laid out a playable strategy in his column Tuesday afternoon.