Hot zone alert - Mar 18 2025
Your weekly guide to the the most promising trade setups in stocks, crypto, and currencies
GM everyone!
Back with another batch of stocks for you to watch closely this week.
Because while we’ve all these uncertainties hanging over the market, we can all rely on zones to bring us a little bit of sanity.
Let’s dive straight into it.
New here? Welcome to Zone Alerts.
This is where we highlight stocks that are approaching key support and resistance zones and analyze where the action might lead.
These alerts help you zero in on high-potential setups while keeping risk management in check.
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What’s in this issue:
• Who we are
• This week’s three new hot zones
• What are zones?
But wait… who are you people and what am I doing here?”
Welcome to Trading Places.
We’re just a bunch of market nerds, quants, and posers who’ve spent years deciphering price action, identifying high-probability setups, and questioning our life choices every time a chart pattern didn’t play out as planned.
After years of refining our approach, we built a quantitative system that cuts through the BS. Our algorithm highlights key market Zones—areas on the chart where real money moves, not just speculative noise.
Think of it as an edge—scanning stocks, currencies, and crypto in real-time to pinpoint where your attention is required.
Every week, we share these insights with you. No fluff, no hype—just actionable setups backed by real market dynamics.
Here’s what our zone algo picked up for you this week:
Shake Shack Inc. (SHAK)
Consumer Cyclical • Restaurants • USA • NYSE
It seems like SHAK’s three-month, 40% decline has come to an end last week—stopped cold by a zone that’s been around since May 2015.
Historically, whenever SHAK bounced off this zone—especially when there’s a strong confirmation candle to accompany it—big moves followed.
And if price action from the past two days has told us anything, it’s that this bounce isn’t just a tease.
Looking ahead, the stock might run into some mild turbulence around the $93 mark…
But if this setup turns out to be just as explosive as before, our eyes are set on the next key zone above, which is the June 2021 zone ($111-114)—a solid potential upside of over 25%.
Still, let’s not forget: past breaks of this zone have been spectacularly ugly (-60% in 2015, -30% in 2019, and -50% in 2021). And considering the jittery mood in the market lately, a SHAK breakdown could also make for a wild short opportunity.
National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG)
Energy • Oil & Gas Integrated • USA • NYSE
Fresh off hitting a new high, NFG is currently at a critical point. It’s staring down a very stubborn zone—the July 2011 one.
This zone has not been penetrated since 2014. (And even then, the breakout barely lasted a few days before tumbling back down.) Counting that out, you can pretty much say that the zone hasn’t been broken… ever.
The stock is also approaching the zone at an overbought level, which historically, is a precursor to big pullbacks.
And to make our bear case even stronger: 1) there’s a bearish divergence forming in the RSI, and 2) buying volume has been dwindling recently.
If this is indeed NFG taking a much-needed breather after a 13-month rally, we could see price cooling back down to the December 2010 zone—a possible 10-15% retreat.
But if bulls refuse to rest and the rally persists, its $78.79 all-time high might be beaten sooner rather than later.
Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (AXTA)
Basic Materials • Specialty Chemicals • USA • NYSE
AXTA has (mostly) been ping-ponging between its trusty May 2015 support and November 2017 resistance since mid-2024.
In just the past few months, these two zones have already witnessed over a dozen bounces—half of which brought at least 7.5% gains.
We guess you could say that zone plays here are pretty much automatic.
Right now, it looks like the May 2015 zone is gonna get another crack at AXTA. This time armed with a bullish RSI divergence.
If this plays out the way it usually does, another move toward the $37-38 range could be around the corner—about a 9% gain.
However, if the channel finally cracks, the May 2017 zone becomes our prime shorting target, good for a potential 7-9% return.
WTF are Zones, anyway?
Zones are key price levels where the market has reacted strongly in the past—such as sharp reversals or sudden swings.
They’re areas where actual supply and demand met in the past, and likely will meet again.
“Why are these significant?”
Well, it all comes down to three key principles. We like to call them The Principles of:
When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip (aka psychology)
Traders are aware that others are watching these levels (zones) too. With everybody paying attention, this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where everybody acts in anticipation of everybody else’s actions.
Markets Gonna Market ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (aka technical factors)
If the first price rejection at the top of a zone was violent, it’s likely that buyers who entered at that level are now holding losses.
But with each retest, the rejection weakens, as there are fewer buyers remaining underwater. This weakens that resistance (or support for all you short-sellers), and could eventually lead to a break through.
Killer Whales (aka institutional plays)
Big players need liquidity in order to place massive orders without moving the market against themselves. So they wait for these zones, knowing a lot of us small fry (retail traders) will come to play.
This allows them to buy low or sell high without causing a lot of waves.
But remember: Zones are NOT guarantees but rather regions of increased probability for market moves. So always, ALWAYS use proper risk management.
Trading Places: Launch coming soon!
Stop obsessively refreshing your charts like it’s your ex’s Instagram.
By combining historical patterns with real-time market data, Trading Places identifies zones and assigns probabilities to each one—helping traders spot potential plays with higher chances of success.
It automates all of the curation, chart-plotting, and alerting for you, so you can actually have a life (or at least pretend to)!
Stay tuned!
Disclaimer: This isn't financial advice. This shouldn’t be news to you.