Steve Jobs announced his leave of absence from AAPL after the Close. AAPL was halted. At 5 PM it resumed trading. Here was the news from briefing.com:

Apple CEO Jobs announces medical leave of absence until the end of June (85.33 -2.38) -Update-

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: “Team, I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought. In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.” (Stock is halted)

I am not an analyst. I am a trader. It is not my job to analyze this news it is my job to trade AAPL after it resumes trading. However, one would think that this is horrible news for AAPL. Many think that AAPL is AAPL because of Steve Jobs. It is hard to find a CEO with a better reputation than Jobs. He is the MVP of the CEO’s.

But as a trader I cannot just hit the bids when the stock reopens. After you have traded for many years you learn that anything can happen. But I started looking at charts and running through some possibilities as to how AAPL would trade when it reopened. From a fundamental aspect I thought 70 was possible. From a technical perspective 60 was an outside possibility. Again this was horrible news.

But I also looked again at the long term chart and steep decline from 120. An upmove after it reopened was not impossible. I thought 60 for the downside and 90 for the upside. I was ready for anything. But I certainly had a bias that AAPL would trade much lower than it’s closing price of 85.33.

And AAPL opened up much lower. It reopened near 78. It’s first moves were down. I got short, playing the downside momentum with small size. In the After Hours there is less liquidity so I trade with smaller size. AAPL traded down near 76.35ish. And then it reversed. After the ARCA repeating seller lifted that caused the downmove, I covered. And then when the next level higher held, I got long and played the upwards momentum.

In the After Hours I play the momentum. I was short those first moves and then long after the seller disappeared. Then AAPL traded in a boring range which was surprising. AAPL traded between 78.50 and 79. There was a big seller at 79. And AAPL would drift down towards 78.50 but not violate this level. And then AAPL would trade back up to 79.

I had anticipated AAPL being more explosive after this news. This is pretty big news. A range? Finally AAPL traded above 79 so I aggressively paid the offer. It was a fake breakout. And AAPL traded lower so I hit the bids. AAPL did not trade down that much however and when it traded above 79 I got long again. This time it traded higher. So above 79, the resistance level from the 78.50-79 range, I got long and played the upwards momentum.

AAPL could not hold above 80.25 in the After Hours. I will watch for this level tomorrow. AAPL could not trade below 78.50 for an extended period after it reopened. I will watch for this level on the Open tomorrow.

AAPL will be crowded tomorrow. I will play the momentum. I will trade off of the levels that I leared trading it After Hours.

I am exhausted now. I can barely see what I am writing. Trading in the After Hours makes for a full day. But we made some money. And most importantly we learned important levels. And we will be back tomorrow to grind it out.

Best of luck with your trading!