New Year, New Zones (Jan 2 2025)
Well. That was one way to end 2024.
Santa Claus Rally not coming to town? Okay sure… You could say everyone kinda realized that already early last week.
But closing out an incredibly remarkable year with that fart of a last couple of days? Talk about a letdown.
Nevertheless, 2024—as crazy as it was—brought us a lot of growth (hopefully for you too), and we will cherish it in our hearts forever. Or at least for a couple of weeks.
After two straight years of bulls running wild in the market, it’s easy to be extra high on 2025.
But with so much geopolitical crazy going on in the world, the uncertainty over inflation and rate cuts, as well as the unlikelihood of yet another 20%-gain year, 2025 could just as easily screw all of us over if we’re not careful.
So. Let’s get this thing started, shall we? Time for our first Zone Alert of the year.
Oh, and Happy New Year, folks!
Our last zones
Each week, we release alerts on stocks that are nearing or entering key zones, i.e. stocks where the action could heat up soon. Subscribe to stay updated!
Here’s what happened to our previous zones:
Roper Technologies Inc (ROP)
With our zone scanner flagging ROP’s return to its 514-535 zone, we thought it could prove to be a quick 10+% play.
Well, it kissed the bottom of the zone on December 30th—where buyers lapped it up all the way back to $520.
Jury’s still out on this one, but it’s looking promising so far.
Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC)
Despite a brief scare of breaking down to the 120s, MPC’s strong support at 134-139 once again proved its mettle.
The stock has now broken through the top of the zone, and looks ready to climb to the next one—hopefully before the release of their earnings report in February… because those things can be a real bummer.
“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 stared at enough charts we dump our portfolios at the sight of a menorah.
After years of convincing ourselves that the lines and shapes we were plotting actually meant something, we finally figured it was time to upgrade our shtick a tiny bit.
So now, we get quant intelligence to do it for us.
We built an algorithm that’s deaf to the market’s siren songs. It cuts through the BS and pinpoints Zones of interest, i.e. places on the chart where actual money comes to dance.
Think of it as a Limitless pill for your stock, currency, and crypto plays—scanning the markets in real-time and determining where the action’s at.
Incoming!
Here are some stocks you should look out for at the start of this trading year:
Copart, Inc (CPRT)
Industrials • Specialty Business Services • USA • NASD
Following a strong upward move that ran from September through November, CPRT has been on a pretty steep correction.
It experienced a rough end to the year—with a failed bounce at its previous ATH, and a big red candle on NYE to cap it off.
But it’s hard to bet against a company that thrives on junk.
That support zone at 54-56 has been mighty resilient throughout the past year, and we’d be surprised if more traders don’t see it as a buying opportunity.
American Tower Corp (AMT)
Real Estate • REIT - Specialty • USA • NYSE
You only really need to know a few things about AMT to know why it is on our watchlist this week.
One, it’s trading at around $180 after peaking at $240+ in September.
Two, RSI is now down to the 30s—almost at oversold territory—which means selling pressure is waning.
Three, its valuations are insane. In a good way. Its forward P/E of 25.7x, while still expensive compared to the Real Estate sector, is historically cheap.
And four, it’s nearing a critical support zone at 179-181—one that’s seen plenty of reversals since it was established in July 2023.
All these factors could set the stage for a bounce early this 2025.
Amphenol Corp (APH)
Technology • Electronic Components • USA • NYSE
After a solid run through most of 2024, APH hit a wall in November and has been sliding since.
What’s worth noting here, however, is the stock has now revisited its 68-71 zone. It’s been here multiple times over the past year, each time resulting in a sharp price move.
With the RSI currently sitting at 47, this feels more like a wait-and-see scenario. But considering the insane growth of AI—and Amphenol being a company that makes the stuff that powers it… well, go ahead and connect the dots.
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. Did you really think it is? Come on. You’re better than that.