The most anticipated earnings report of the season comes today when Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) reports its fiscal Q4 results after the bell.

Our long-term outlook on Apple remains bullish. I see this stock going to $200 a share.

We’ll hang on to AAPL and watch it grow. In the meantime, there are ways to score extra profits every quarter when earnings trigger short-term moves in Apple’s share price. Last quarter, for example, my Money Calendar Alert members made as much as 175% on AAPL stock in the 11 days it took shareholders to book just 2.46%.

I spot these opportunities by studying price patterns before and after earnings reports. The best part is, with the right strategy, it doesn’t matter which way the stock moves, just that it moves.

And from what my charts show me today, this is the perfect way to trade Apple at earnings time…

Tracking AAPL Price Moves Ahead of Earnings

While many options strategies are directional – relying on the underlying stock to go either up or down to be successful – some are non-directional. They just need the share price to move to pay off for the trader.

That’s why earnings season is the best time of year for traders; reports trigger short-term jumps and dips in share price. And my option analysis tools can tell me a great deal of information about the behavior of stocks before and after their earnings over the last four quarters.

For Apple, Q4 earnings typically aren’t the most interesting. They come out before the big holiday sales quarter, which is why January’s Q1 report is the company’s biggest.

But today’s earnings report could have a bigger impact on AAPL stock than the usual Q4 release, as it will really give us an idea of what the consumer was thinking during the China crisis last month.

You see, not that long ago, there were concerns that China was going to put a dent in Apple’s year-over-year growth potential.