The top performing chipmaker this year might keep on rallying.
Advanced Micro Devices has soared 114% in 2019, the best gain on the SMH semiconductor ETF, and moving back to levels not seen since 2006.
Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Jaffray, says it could be susceptible to some weakness before carrying on higher.
"This stock is ahead of itself, it's short-term overbought," Johnson said on CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday. "It's starting to fade in here a little bit. I see good support coming in at about $35. I think that's going to be the spot where you want to be buying the stock."
AMD would need to fall 11% to touch $35. AMD traded at that level earlier this month.
"When I look at the size of the setup that this stock broke out of though, this is the pullback you buy because I think over the next nine to 12 months, this is probably a $50 stock. I'm a buyer of the pullback in here," Johnson said.
The chipmaker would need to add another 26% to reach $50. It would also mark a new record for the first time since mid-2000.
AMD also finds a fan in Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management.
"I've been a huge bull of AMD on 'Trading Nation' for a long time. Actually the stock is up 22 times since its lows, it's an amazing performer and it's been tremendous execution by the executive team there, and they're definitely eating Intel's lunch," Schlossberg said during the same segment.
However, Schlossberg agrees with Johnson that the stock could be due for a setback before it continues on. He has a strategy to protect against any near-term downside.
"If you have lots of profit built in, it's probably wise now to do a call substitution strategy where you just simply get a long-term call and sell the shares because it's a very high beta stock, any kind of a decline in the equity market is going to just crush the stock just simply on volatility alone," he said.
