Recapping past zones (7 Feb 2025)
A follow-up to our weekly zone alerts
GM everyone!
Back with another issue of our Zone Updates—where we look back at past zone alerts to see how the action went down.
Apart from highlighting how zones work (and that they work), this series is designed to:
serve as a guide for subscribers who tuned in to prior alerts
demonstrate how to navigate different zone-by-zone setups
This week, we’ll be doing more of the latter. We’ll look at three zones we neglected to cover in past recaps—AMGN, CRUS, and MLM.
In case you’re new here, each week we highlight stocks nearing or entering Hot Zones, i.e. key levels on the charts with great risk-reward setups. Stay tuned and subscribe for future updates!
Check out our zone alerts for this wild week:
Amgen Inc. (AMGN)
Healthcare • Drug Manufacturers - General • USA • NASD
Zone alert: January 7, 2025
With how January flew by, it doesn’t feel like it’s been a month since we first flagged this.
We called AMGN as it was lingering in a zone that has harshly turned away each and every retest since October 2023.
There was also the fact that, during this approach, RSI had dropped into the very-low 30s—lower than even previous retests.
After nearly a month of climbing the stairs, AMGN’s positive earnings (released early this week) elevator-ed it up to its next zone.
Taking profit at this level would’ve netted an impressive 17.5%.
Cirrus Logic, Inc. (CRUS)
Technology • Semiconductors • USA • NASD
Zone alert: January 28, 2025
Last we checked on CRUS, the stock was on a three-month holding pattern between its February and March 2023 zones—the last few weeks of which were spent closer to the support.
There was also the matter of a bullish divergence forming on its RSI, which made the setup worth a closer look.
We said that should this bounce gain momentum, we expect an 8-11% move.
It took the scenic route, but the stock has since taken off.
Just the other day, it even attempted to break through the February resistance zone—opening just above its upper threshold.
That was, incidentally, also the perfect time to exit this play, and selling near the highs would’ve resulted in 12-13% gains.
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (MLM)
Basic Materials • Building Materials • USA • NYSE
Zone alert: January 8, 2024
MLM was a bonus zone which we flagged on X (@tradingplacesai).
The stock was then on a sharp free fall toward its December 2023 zone, with RSI at levels it hasn’t reached since January 2022.
We figured the first conservative target here was the zone immediately above it, but noted that this zone hasn’t always fared very well when it comes to penetration.
And wouldn’t you know it, we were right.
First, MLM did bounce off the support. And second, the July 2024 zone did break without any fight.
Had you gone in on this setup, the ideal time to exit would’ve been when it hit the April 2024 zone two weeks after, for a 9+% profit.
Moreover, had you swung both ways on this play. The way down—back to the July zone—could’ve also netted a quick 5%.
Even this week, our zone algorithm spotted three additional opportunities with compelling risk-reward potential.
To get these delivered straight to your inbox weekly, subscribe to our newsletter. A new zone alert is dropping this Tuesday!
“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.
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.
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.