Steve Jobs Steps Down as Apple CEO: Is the Stock a Buy or a Sell?

Will the departure of the legendary Steve Jobs as Apple CEO provide a catalyst for broader profit-taking in the stock market? With the stock trading lower by as much as 5% in the afterhours Wednesday evening, is the stock a buy or a sell?

Shares of ^AAPL^ closed higher for a third day in a row ahead of trading on Thursday. The stock’s rally came courtesy of a four-day pullback that took shares of AAPL into oversold territory above the 200-day moving average for two days in a row.

AAPL chart

AAPL has not earned PowerRatings higher than 8 all year. So upgrades to 7 have served as alerts to swing traders using PowerRatings that the stock had pulled back toward levels from which, historically and statistically speaking, AAPL has moved higher in the short term.

Recent rallies in the wake of PowerRatings upgrades to 7 in Apple are just one set of examples of how PowerRatings upgrades have helped traders identify potential opportunities in the market for AAPL shares.

AAPL2 chart

No one knows how the departure of Steve Jobs from the position of CEO will affect Apple.  Jobs reportedly will remain with the company as Chairman of the Board.  And the likely new CEO, Tim Cook, is someone who has played understudy to Jobs for years.

But when it comes to short term trading of the stock, the principles of high probability trading and resources like PowerRatings remain among the best ways to determine both when and how to trade stocks like Apple – even when a man who is likely one of America’s greatest CEOs is no longer running the show.

For more on trading stocks using high probability trading principles, click the link below to learn more about the Fall Semester of the Swing Trading College. Led by TradingMarkets founder and CEO Larry Connors, the Swing Trading College is a 10-week program dedicated to helping traders become the best traders they can be, using 21st century technology to grow and manage their money smoothly and consistenly over time.

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David Penn is Editor in Chief of TradingMarkets.com