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2021-07-12

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Apple: New Highs, But Now What?

Apple hit an all-time new high last Friday, but where do we go from here?There is one chart in particular that every investor should be watching as it could dictate the stock's next move!AAPL has the potential to produce 12%+ annualized income with a decent margin of safety using the Triple Income Wheel strategy.Looking for more investing ideas like this one?Get them exclusively at Option Income Advisor.Learn More. So Apple Inc. is at a new high... again. But this time feels a little different.

Apple: New Highs, But Now What?

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

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{"i18n":{"language":"en_US"},"data":{"magic":2,"id":146810340,"tweetId":"146810340","gmtCreate":1626065277280,"gmtModify":1703752666202,"author":{"id":3586319265001556,"idStr":"3586319265001556","authorId":3586319265001556,"authorIdStr":"3586319265001556","name":"Huatster88","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/82dee0ccc52926bc1c4816a00bd03f84","vip":1,"userType":1,"introduction":"","boolIsFan":false,"boolIsHead":false,"crmLevel":2,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"individualDisplayBadges":[],"fanSize":5,"starInvestorFlag":false},"themes":[],"images":[],"coverImages":[],"extraTitle":"","html":"<html><head></head><body>Great ariticle, would you like to share it?</body></html>","htmlText":"<html><head></head><body>Great ariticle, would you like to share it?</body></html>","text":"Great ariticle, would you like to share it?","highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/146810340","repostId":1155038838,"repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1155038838","pubTimestamp":1626057810,"share":"https://www.laohu8.com/m/news/1155038838?lang=&edition=full","pubTime":"2021-07-12 10:43","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Apple: New Highs, But Now What?","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1155038838","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"Apple hit an all-time new high last Friday, but where do we go from here?There is one chart in particular that every investor should be watching as it could dictate the stock's next move!AAPL has the potential to produce 12%+ annualized income with a decent margin of safety using the Triple Income Wheel strategy.Looking for more investing ideas like this one?Get them exclusively at Option Income Advisor.Learn More. So Apple Inc. is at a new high... again. But this time feels a little different.","content":"Summary\n<ul>\n <li>Apple hit an all-time new high last Friday, but where do we go from here?</li>\n <li>There is one chart in particular that every investor should be watching as it could dictate the stock's next move!</li>\n <li>AAPL has the potential to produce 12%+ annualized income with a decent margin of safety using the Triple Income Wheel strategy.</li>\n <li>Looking for more investing ideas like this one? Get them exclusively at Option Income Advisor.Learn More »</li>\n</ul>\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/24b65798f03c6f9376257bba2741e588\" tg-width=\"768\" tg-height=\"531\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News\nSo Apple Inc. (AAPL) is at a new high... again. But this time feels a little different.\nMarket valuations, in general, are stretched, as stocks just notched the 2nd best first half of the year performance in history (up ~14%).\nInterest rates don't seem to know where they are going.\nInflation is spiking (although many think this is \"transitory\").\nUnemployment is still stubbornly high.\nYou get the picture... there's uncertainty.\nAll that said, I could make a case for Apple to go either higher or lower over the short term... and there is one chart, in particular, that could dictate that!\nThe Most Important Chart For Apple\nAs much as we all like to talk about 5G rollouts and the growth of Apple's wearables segment, nothing will be more important to the stock over the next 12 months than what is in the chart below.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/cc8b9e7dd9a7a29241bc334872748b52\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"377\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">Yes, this is a chart of Apple's stock price vs. the 10 Year Treasury rate. We are at that point in the cycle, folks. Growth stocks are already starting to react to movements in rates... and even Apple has not been able to hide from it.\nThe good and the bad of this is that if interest rates stay low (the good), Apple will likely continue to trend higher... but if rates spike (the bad), Apple will get crushed along with the rest of the growth stocks. Unfortunately, the consensus is that rates will certainly increase over the next 12-24 months. That said, the short-term is up in the air. So keep this chart on your radar.\nIntroduction\nWe primarily trade an income strategy that we call the Triple Income Wheel, which starts with writing cash-secured puts on high-quality stocks that you would like to own at a lower price. We won't go into full detail here, but the diagram below is a good summary of the strategy.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dfdd16ba25690201bcb1771ec8a557b9\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"640\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nSince cash-secured puts are short-term trades in nature (typically less than 60 days until maturity), our analysis certainly depends more on short-term catalysts and technical support levels, but we also like to be long-term neutral or bullish on the stock as well.\nHere is our typical framework for analysis (which is a good outline for the article):\n<ul>\n <li>Long-Term Thesis (Dividend, Safety, Value)</li>\n <li>Short-Term Thesis (Strike Zone, EPS Risk, Technical Support)</li>\n <li>Cash-Secured Put Analysis (Premium Yield, Margin-of-Safety, Delta)</li>\n <li>Downside Considerations</li>\n <li>Conclusion</li>\n</ul>\nApple designs a wide variety of consumer electronic devices, including smartphones (iPhone), tablets (iPad), PCs (MAC), smartwatches (Apple Watch), and TV boxes (Apple TV), among others. The iPhone makes up the majority of Apple’s total revenue. In addition, Apple offers its customers a variety of services such as Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Care, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Card, and Apple Pay, among others. Apple's products run internally developed software and semiconductors, and the firm is well known for its integration of hardware, software, and services. Apple's products are distributed online as well as through company-owned stores and third-party retailers. The company generates roughly 40% of its revenue from the Americas, with the remainder earned internationally.\n(Source: YCharts)\nLong-Term Thesis (Dividend, Safety, Value)\nIn general, our high-level long-term investment thesis on a stock is more quantitative in nature than qualitative.\nThat said, here is how Apple currently ranks across our key long-term ranking measures: Dividend (4), Safety (9), Value (3).\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/30644bfee0b070e2d9015bff11598f30\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"122\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nNote that our rankings are from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).\nDividend\nWe all know that Apple has the potential to be the greatest dividend stock of all time...it just isn't ready yet! That said, the company has raised its dividend in each of the past 8 years and currently yields 0.61% with a really low payout ratio of 17.0%.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2ee1e06934335af3e4f5201e9e7957e3\" tg-width=\"564\" tg-height=\"349\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nIn addition, the company has steadily been growing its annual payout, with 1-year and 5-year compound annual growth rates of 6.0% and 9.9%, respectively. Basically, everything looks pretty good except for the yield!\nSafety\nApple's historical sales and EPS growth charts have always been a thing of beauty (hence the Safety Rating of 9)! Although some sales were certainly pulled forward during the pandemic, the company is expected to earn $5.17 per share in 2021 (a 58% increase over 2020). However, EPS is expected to stabilize in 2022 with projected EPS of $5.30.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f9bfeb0d3855a566e05ec26e7af849a8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"246\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">That said, the company's balance sheet is also extremely strong with $69.8 billion of cash/short-term investments and management is producing an amazing return on invested capital of 141.5%!\nApple's reasonable historical stock volatility, with a 5-year standard deviation of 29.4% and beta of 1.2, is also helping to maintain its high Safety Ranking.\nValuation\nApple currently carries a low rating of 3 for valuation. As shown in the table below, the company is trading at a premium (even on a forward basis) compared to its historical averages for price/sales, price/earnings, and EV/EBITDA. That said, the market has \"repriced\" Apple over the past few years as the company has transitioned from a hardware business to more of a services business. As such, historical valuations are not a good proxy or comparison for future valuations.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a83b3d7c6ac8daaf28bd3b7266725a04\" tg-width=\"564\" tg-height=\"226\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nDespite having a really low dividend yield, Apple actually has a decent shareholder yield of 3.8%.Note that shareholder yield is the combination of buyback yield and dividend yield.\nLong-term View\nBased on the data above and our various rankings, we have a Neutral long-term perspective on Apple. As sales and earnings growth stabilize and slow post-pandemic, the catalyst for earnings surprises may be limited. In addition, the company's valuation feels full at current levels.\nShort-Term Thesis (Strike Zone, EPS Risk, Technical Support)\nFrom a short-term perspective (especially as it is related to selling cash-secured puts), estimating a good \"strike zone\" is key to our analysis. Our strike zone takes into account (1) the stock's volatility, (2) recent performance (i.e., how much has it already pulled back from its recent highs), (3) near-term EPS risk, and (4) the overall volatility of the market (i.e., VIX level).\nAs shown in the table below, our strike zone for Apple is currently $119.00-$133.00, representing a required minimum margin of safety of 8.5%.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/7ac7007040b92ed0d32a8eb27c8620c3\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"164\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nAs discussed in the safety ranking analysis above, Apple ranks positively on a relative basis for Volatility/Risk (rating of 8). However, the stock just made a new 52-week high last Friday (so its Pullback Indicator of 2 has a negative effect on minimum required margin of safety, which is currently at 8.5%).\nThat said, AAPL also reports earnings within the next 30 days, so that will need to be on our radar for the option analysis.\nAs shown in the chart below, the stock is still in a very strong uptrend with its 50-day moving average (blue line) trading above its 200-day moving average (red line). We now have three good levels of support to watch:\n<ol>\n <li>50-day MA (~$130.00)</li>\n <li>200-day MA (~$126.00)</li>\n <li>Recent low in March 2021 (~$120.00)</li>\n</ol>\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0b4071baef483a8e8478deb78e45bb73\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"395\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nShort-Term View\nThere appears to be some decent technical support around our strike zone of $119.00-$133.00, which obviously makes us feel relatively good about selling a cash-secured put in the strike zone if we can.\nCash-Secured Put Analysis (Premium Yield, Margin-of-Safety, Delta)\nIdeally, when we sell a cash-secured put and start the Triple Income Wheel process, our put is in our \"Strike Zone\" for that stock. In our opinion, that puts the odds of long-term success in our favor.\nThe three main data points we look at when analyzing a cash-secured put trade are:\n<ul>\n <li>Premium Yield% (or Average Monthly Yield%):Measure of expected return on capital assuming that the option expires worthless (out-of-the-money).Assumes that the option is fully cash-secured.</li>\n <li>Margin-of-Safety %:Measure of downside protection or the percentage that the underlying stock could decline and would still allow you to break even on the option trade.</li>\n <li>Delta:A good proxy for the probability that the put option will finish in-the-money.</li>\n</ul>\nNote that there is always a negative correlation between Premium Yield and Margin of Safety: The higher the Premium Yield for a given strike month, the lower the Margin of Safety.\nAn investor should always be honest with themselves about their risk tolerance! The Triple Income Wheel can be adapted to suit your needs.\nNow let's look at the cash-secured put analysis for Apple. We are focused on the August monthly contract that expires on 8/20/21.\n<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/6b192ce564ff2fe4aaaf8abf9f4c7542\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"334\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\">\nWe have highlighted 3 levels of trades based on various risk profiles: Aggressive (-A-), Base (-B-), and Conservative (-C-).\nIdeally, we like to stick with our target levels for our Base portfolio:\n<ul>\n <li>Average Monthly Yield % (AMY%): 1.0%-1.5%</li>\n <li>Strike price that is in the strike zone (i.e., margin of safety above the required minimum)</li>\n <li>Delta &lt; 30</li>\n</ul>\nThe AAPL Aug 20th $135.00 put option @ ~$1.92 meets all of our criteria with an AMY% of 1.0%, a Margin-of-Safety of 7.0%, and a Delta of 22.\nAgain, based on your risk tolerance, you could choose a strike price that is more aggressive ($140.00 strike) or more conservative ($130.00 strike) than the base trade.\nDownside Considerations\nAssuming we sold the AAPL Aug20th $135.00 strike put option @ $1.92, we would collect $192.00 of premium for each option contract sold. In return for this premium, we agree (and are obligated) to buy 100 shares of AAPL stock for each contract sold at the strike price of $135.00.\nIf the stock stays above $135.00 between now and expiration (8/20/21), the option expires worthless and we keep the premium of $1.92.\nHowever,the downside of this trade comes into play if the stock closes below $135.00 on expiration (8/20/21). Since we are obligated to buy the stock at $135.00, we would have a potential unrealized capital loss on our hands (depending on how low the stock closed on expiration). We do get to keep the premium either way though, so our breakeven cost basis would be $133.08 ($135.00 - $1.92).\nAll that said, when managing the Triple Income Wheel, you should expect to take assignment (buy the stock) on 5-10% of your cash-secured put trades.\nBut when this happens, we get to move to step 3 in the diagram above and sell some covered calls on our stock position to start the income flowing again and start mitigating our risk right away.\nConclusion\nBased on our long-term and short-term views on Apple, we believe that a cash-secured put strategy makes a lot of sense right now for investors interested in a new position in the stock. The AAPL Aug 20th $135.00 put option would generate an average monthly yield of 1.0% (or 1.4% over the next 42 days) with a margin-of-safety of 7.0%.\nAssuming you could continue to roll this position every 45-60 days with similar risk/reward parameters, you could build 12%+ annualized income from Apple over the next 12 months (no bad for a stock that currently has a dividend yield under 1.0%).","source":"seekingalpha","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Apple: New Highs, But Now What?</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nApple: New Highs, But Now What?\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2021-07-12 10:43 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4438692-apple-new-highs-but-now-what>seekingalpha</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\nSummary\n\nApple hit an all-time new high last Friday, but where do we go from here?\nThere is one chart in particular that every investor should be watching as it could dictate the stock's next move!\n...\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4438692-apple-new-highs-but-now-what\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"AAPL":"苹果"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4438692-apple-new-highs-but-now-what","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","article_id":"1155038838","content_text":"Summary\n\nApple hit an all-time new high last Friday, but where do we go from here?\nThere is one chart in particular that every investor should be watching as it could dictate the stock's next move!\nAAPL has the potential to produce 12%+ annualized income with a decent margin of safety using the Triple Income Wheel strategy.\nLooking for more investing ideas like this one? Get them exclusively at Option Income Advisor.Learn More »\n\nJustin Sullivan/Getty Images News\nSo Apple Inc. (AAPL) is at a new high... again. But this time feels a little different.\nMarket valuations, in general, are stretched, as stocks just notched the 2nd best first half of the year performance in history (up ~14%).\nInterest rates don't seem to know where they are going.\nInflation is spiking (although many think this is \"transitory\").\nUnemployment is still stubbornly high.\nYou get the picture... there's uncertainty.\nAll that said, I could make a case for Apple to go either higher or lower over the short term... and there is one chart, in particular, that could dictate that!\nThe Most Important Chart For Apple\nAs much as we all like to talk about 5G rollouts and the growth of Apple's wearables segment, nothing will be more important to the stock over the next 12 months than what is in the chart below.\nYes, this is a chart of Apple's stock price vs. the 10 Year Treasury rate. We are at that point in the cycle, folks. Growth stocks are already starting to react to movements in rates... and even Apple has not been able to hide from it.\nThe good and the bad of this is that if interest rates stay low (the good), Apple will likely continue to trend higher... but if rates spike (the bad), Apple will get crushed along with the rest of the growth stocks. Unfortunately, the consensus is that rates will certainly increase over the next 12-24 months. That said, the short-term is up in the air. So keep this chart on your radar.\nIntroduction\nWe primarily trade an income strategy that we call the Triple Income Wheel, which starts with writing cash-secured puts on high-quality stocks that you would like to own at a lower price. We won't go into full detail here, but the diagram below is a good summary of the strategy.\n\nSince cash-secured puts are short-term trades in nature (typically less than 60 days until maturity), our analysis certainly depends more on short-term catalysts and technical support levels, but we also like to be long-term neutral or bullish on the stock as well.\nHere is our typical framework for analysis (which is a good outline for the article):\n\nLong-Term Thesis (Dividend, Safety, Value)\nShort-Term Thesis (Strike Zone, EPS Risk, Technical Support)\nCash-Secured Put Analysis (Premium Yield, Margin-of-Safety, Delta)\nDownside Considerations\nConclusion\n\nApple designs a wide variety of consumer electronic devices, including smartphones (iPhone), tablets (iPad), PCs (MAC), smartwatches (Apple Watch), and TV boxes (Apple TV), among others. The iPhone makes up the majority of Apple’s total revenue. In addition, Apple offers its customers a variety of services such as Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Care, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Card, and Apple Pay, among others. Apple's products run internally developed software and semiconductors, and the firm is well known for its integration of hardware, software, and services. Apple's products are distributed online as well as through company-owned stores and third-party retailers. The company generates roughly 40% of its revenue from the Americas, with the remainder earned internationally.\n(Source: YCharts)\nLong-Term Thesis (Dividend, Safety, Value)\nIn general, our high-level long-term investment thesis on a stock is more quantitative in nature than qualitative.\nThat said, here is how Apple currently ranks across our key long-term ranking measures: Dividend (4), Safety (9), Value (3).\n\nNote that our rankings are from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).\nDividend\nWe all know that Apple has the potential to be the greatest dividend stock of all time...it just isn't ready yet! That said, the company has raised its dividend in each of the past 8 years and currently yields 0.61% with a really low payout ratio of 17.0%.\n\nIn addition, the company has steadily been growing its annual payout, with 1-year and 5-year compound annual growth rates of 6.0% and 9.9%, respectively. Basically, everything looks pretty good except for the yield!\nSafety\nApple's historical sales and EPS growth charts have always been a thing of beauty (hence the Safety Rating of 9)! Although some sales were certainly pulled forward during the pandemic, the company is expected to earn $5.17 per share in 2021 (a 58% increase over 2020). However, EPS is expected to stabilize in 2022 with projected EPS of $5.30.\nThat said, the company's balance sheet is also extremely strong with $69.8 billion of cash/short-term investments and management is producing an amazing return on invested capital of 141.5%!\nApple's reasonable historical stock volatility, with a 5-year standard deviation of 29.4% and beta of 1.2, is also helping to maintain its high Safety Ranking.\nValuation\nApple currently carries a low rating of 3 for valuation. As shown in the table below, the company is trading at a premium (even on a forward basis) compared to its historical averages for price/sales, price/earnings, and EV/EBITDA. That said, the market has \"repriced\" Apple over the past few years as the company has transitioned from a hardware business to more of a services business. As such, historical valuations are not a good proxy or comparison for future valuations.\n\nDespite having a really low dividend yield, Apple actually has a decent shareholder yield of 3.8%.Note that shareholder yield is the combination of buyback yield and dividend yield.\nLong-term View\nBased on the data above and our various rankings, we have a Neutral long-term perspective on Apple. As sales and earnings growth stabilize and slow post-pandemic, the catalyst for earnings surprises may be limited. In addition, the company's valuation feels full at current levels.\nShort-Term Thesis (Strike Zone, EPS Risk, Technical Support)\nFrom a short-term perspective (especially as it is related to selling cash-secured puts), estimating a good \"strike zone\" is key to our analysis. Our strike zone takes into account (1) the stock's volatility, (2) recent performance (i.e., how much has it already pulled back from its recent highs), (3) near-term EPS risk, and (4) the overall volatility of the market (i.e., VIX level).\nAs shown in the table below, our strike zone for Apple is currently $119.00-$133.00, representing a required minimum margin of safety of 8.5%.\n\nAs discussed in the safety ranking analysis above, Apple ranks positively on a relative basis for Volatility/Risk (rating of 8). However, the stock just made a new 52-week high last Friday (so its Pullback Indicator of 2 has a negative effect on minimum required margin of safety, which is currently at 8.5%).\nThat said, AAPL also reports earnings within the next 30 days, so that will need to be on our radar for the option analysis.\nAs shown in the chart below, the stock is still in a very strong uptrend with its 50-day moving average (blue line) trading above its 200-day moving average (red line). We now have three good levels of support to watch:\n\n50-day MA (~$130.00)\n200-day MA (~$126.00)\nRecent low in March 2021 (~$120.00)\n\n\nShort-Term View\nThere appears to be some decent technical support around our strike zone of $119.00-$133.00, which obviously makes us feel relatively good about selling a cash-secured put in the strike zone if we can.\nCash-Secured Put Analysis (Premium Yield, Margin-of-Safety, Delta)\nIdeally, when we sell a cash-secured put and start the Triple Income Wheel process, our put is in our \"Strike Zone\" for that stock. In our opinion, that puts the odds of long-term success in our favor.\nThe three main data points we look at when analyzing a cash-secured put trade are:\n\nPremium Yield% (or Average Monthly Yield%):Measure of expected return on capital assuming that the option expires worthless (out-of-the-money).Assumes that the option is fully cash-secured.\nMargin-of-Safety %:Measure of downside protection or the percentage that the underlying stock could decline and would still allow you to break even on the option trade.\nDelta:A good proxy for the probability that the put option will finish in-the-money.\n\nNote that there is always a negative correlation between Premium Yield and Margin of Safety: The higher the Premium Yield for a given strike month, the lower the Margin of Safety.\nAn investor should always be honest with themselves about their risk tolerance! The Triple Income Wheel can be adapted to suit your needs.\nNow let's look at the cash-secured put analysis for Apple. We are focused on the August monthly contract that expires on 8/20/21.\n\nWe have highlighted 3 levels of trades based on various risk profiles: Aggressive (-A-), Base (-B-), and Conservative (-C-).\nIdeally, we like to stick with our target levels for our Base portfolio:\n\nAverage Monthly Yield % (AMY%): 1.0%-1.5%\nStrike price that is in the strike zone (i.e., margin of safety above the required minimum)\nDelta < 30\n\nThe AAPL Aug 20th $135.00 put option @ ~$1.92 meets all of our criteria with an AMY% of 1.0%, a Margin-of-Safety of 7.0%, and a Delta of 22.\nAgain, based on your risk tolerance, you could choose a strike price that is more aggressive ($140.00 strike) or more conservative ($130.00 strike) than the base trade.\nDownside Considerations\nAssuming we sold the AAPL Aug20th $135.00 strike put option @ $1.92, we would collect $192.00 of premium for each option contract sold. In return for this premium, we agree (and are obligated) to buy 100 shares of AAPL stock for each contract sold at the strike price of $135.00.\nIf the stock stays above $135.00 between now and expiration (8/20/21), the option expires worthless and we keep the premium of $1.92.\nHowever,the downside of this trade comes into play if the stock closes below $135.00 on expiration (8/20/21). Since we are obligated to buy the stock at $135.00, we would have a potential unrealized capital loss on our hands (depending on how low the stock closed on expiration). We do get to keep the premium either way though, so our breakeven cost basis would be $133.08 ($135.00 - $1.92).\nAll that said, when managing the Triple Income Wheel, you should expect to take assignment (buy the stock) on 5-10% of your cash-secured put trades.\nBut when this happens, we get to move to step 3 in the diagram above and sell some covered calls on our stock position to start the income flowing again and start mitigating our risk right away.\nConclusion\nBased on our long-term and short-term views on Apple, we believe that a cash-secured put strategy makes a lot of sense right now for investors interested in a new position in the stock. The AAPL Aug 20th $135.00 put option would generate an average monthly yield of 1.0% (or 1.4% over the next 42 days) with a margin-of-safety of 7.0%.\nAssuming you could continue to roll this position every 45-60 days with similar risk/reward parameters, you could build 12%+ annualized income from Apple over the next 12 months (no bad for a stock that currently has a dividend yield under 1.0%).","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":263,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":[],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"EN","currentLanguage":"EN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":36,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ORIG"},"commentList":[],"hasMoreComment":false,"orderType":2}