As Apple basks in its post-earnings glow, one technician warns of a bumpier road that could put the path to a $1 trillion market cap at risk.
"We're gapping up into this huge, massive overhead supply," Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday. "Apple is trying to get through this $175 to $180 level all the way back from November of last year. There's a massive amount of resistance overhead."
Apple shares have struggled to break above the $180 mark outside of a mid-March spike that captured all-time highs. Its stock closed above $180 for the first time ever on March 12, a settlement it has yet to repeat.
The company's post-earnings rally on Wednesday did provide a "constructive" move that could fuel a break through resistance levels, Gordon says.
"We technicians refer to that as a breakaway gap which usually kind of starts the momentum going," said Gordon. "If you just do a little true line just over the last three significant highs, if we can get through $177 I think we have a shot to the topside."
Apple closed Wednesday's session more than 4 percent higher at $176.57. It has not settled above $177 in two weeks.
Gains in broader markets could also act as a barrier to Apple's advance higher, according to Gordon.
"If we just take a quick look at the indexes, we are so tight inside of these ranges. If we look at that QQQ, the Nasdaq 100, you can't squeeze this thing anymore," said Gordon. "Watch your technicals. We're very clearly defined in this consolidation."
To Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, Apple looks good, but not good enough to take on a lot of risk.
"It's certainly a buy, it certainly looks very good fundamentally but it is not a chase at this point," Schlossberg said Wednesday. "I would much rather be selling puts and basically letting it come to you rather than chase the stock."
The problem, he told "Trading Nation," is that Apple will struggle to expand its customer base.
"They've been able to retain their customer base, their customer experience is still very strong. They really aren't able to grow it forward," said Schlossberg. "As far as growth, organic growth, goes there isn't much there."
The quarter was "certainly was impressive on a bare-bones basis but I think ultimately it's still a slow growth story," Schlossberg added.
Apple beat estimates on its top and bottom lines in its fiscal second quarter and guided for a third quarter at the high end of expectations. Second-quarter iPhone sales, a key measure of growth, were just slightly lower than forecast. Apple also pledged $100 billion in stock buybacks.
The world's largest company is closing in on a $1 trillion market cap, a level never before seen for a publicly traded company. It currently has a market cap of $896 billion.
