Time to Sell Apple? (AAPL)

Apple has been one of the best performing stocks of the market rally, a true institutional favorite that professional money managers have favored.

Last night the company posted a superb quarter. The outperformance of the stock has promised a reacceleration of slowing growth and last night was the delievery of that promise.

The stock surged to all time highs in post market trading. This morning it opened higher but did not take out those highs. As we publish price is trading near the $200 level.

We think it's time to sell AAPL. This morning's gap up violated an upper trend line that spans the entire gain off the March lows. This is normally a key sell signal.

If you have been long this stock this could well be an excellent opportunity to harvest a terrific gain.

Momentum can often be maintained far longer than one expects. But when we see this key sell signal, we take profits first and ask questions later.