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Apple’s up 43,000 percent since its IPO, and could soon surpass $1 trillion in market cap

Could Apple hit $1 trillion in market cap?
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Could Apple hit $1 trillion in market cap?

Apple just celebrated a new milestone – 37 years since its IPO.

Apple made its Wall Street debut on Dec. 12, 1980, at $22 per share, or 39 cents split adjusted, and since then the stock has gained more than 43,600 percent to trade near $172 on Tuesday. For reference, the S&P 500 is up just shy of 2,000 percent, while the Dow is up roughly 2,500 percent and the Nasdaq has rallied more than 3,000 percent during that time.

According to Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, the stock looks as though it could soon be crossing another major level — $1 trillion in market cap.

Looking at a chart of Apple, Gordon noted that a parallel uptrend channel has formed over the past year. As the bottom line continues to serve as support, Gordon believe that the stock could soon reach the top of the channel at $190 in the next few months.

"You'll see that we'll likely greet that ceiling somewhere around the $190 region, which that will put Apple at that $1 trillion valuation," he said Tuesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "So the way I look at this chart is we have a chance to move up. We are a little bit in the middle of this channel, meaning we're not down at support, we're not up at resistance. So what I'd do rather than buy options to get bullish, I'd like to sell options also to be bullish."

To play for the move higher, Gordon recommended selling the January 19 weekly 170/165 put spread collecting $1.48 or $148 per options contract. This is a bullish strategy that allows Gordon to see profits if the stock rallies, stays where it is, or even falls slightly.

"We do have a skewed reward to risk ratio, but being that we have profitability all the way down another couple dollars below us, we have a high probability of success," Gordon said.

As a result, he advised traders stop out of the strategy at $165, as that is also the bottom end of the parallel channel that he initially established on the charts.

"If we do break through the $165 area between now and January expiration, we will have some premium remaining, and we will get out of that trade," he said.

Apple is currently up more than 48 percent year to date.