Recapping past zones (April 4 2025)
A follow-up to our weekly zone alerts
Good morning friends!
Welcome to this week’s edition of Zone Update—our weekly look-back at past zone alerts to analyze how the interaction between price and zone played out.
You’ve probably been hearing the term “short-term pain” a lot leading up to our recent Liberation. That we just have to endure this PITA of a market as we sprint toward “greatness.”
And well, sure—“Trade The Market You Have,” after all.
But while zones can’t tell for sure how short or how painful this “short-term pain” may be, they can definitely help you enjoy it.
So in this recap, we’re giving you a sneak preview of what that looks like—with three recent Short alerts that turned out pretty well.
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 to get these alerts before anyone else!
Check out this week’s hot zones:
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
Consumer Cyclical • Internet Retail • USA • NASD
Zone alert: March 31, 2025
“Oof, probably not yet. $AMZN” -@tradingplacesai on X
We started paying attention to AMZN after we saw a few people on X hyping its fundamentals and “cheap” price.
But with: 1) our charts showing that it had only very recently broken below its July 2021 zone, 2) the September 2020 zone below having acted like a price magnet in the past, and of course, 3) all the looming doom and gloom in the market—we thought… “not yet.”
The trapdoor had just opened, and the stock is just about to begin its free fall.
Turns out, the stock still managed to find some footing. It actually recovered that same day and even attempted a bit of a bounce after.
But alas, the day of reckoning came. AMZN opened well below the July 2021 zone and is currently sitting atop the September 2020 one. It’s 6% down since the alert as of writing.
Could potentially be a nice area to ride a quick bounce, but given everything going on, waiting for a confirmation here seems like the best move.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
Technology • Semiconductors • USA • NASD
Zone alert: March 27, 2025
“$NVDA at a precarious position currently. Another ~7% (or more) drop if $113 doesn't hold” -@tradingplacesai on X
NVDA’s February 3, 2025 zone has been tested a lot in the past few weeks. And despite a couple of penetrations in early March, it also had three bounces in quick succession—giving the impression that this support had some street cred.
But that’s the thing with newborn zones.
They might look tough at times, but until they’ve held up over time, they can’t be fully relied on.
Take for instance what happened after:
Immediately the day after the bonus alert, NVDA broke below the zone and continued sliding down to the March 11, 2025 zone… -7.5% at the open—right in line with what we estimated.
But as it was another infant zone, another penetration wasn’t totally out of the question.
The stock attempted a respectable bounce, but ultimately failed to fend off yesterday’s massacre.
As of yesterday’s close, the stock is already down about 10.5%.
Nike, Inc. (NKE)
Consumer Cyclical • Footwear & Accessories • USA • NYSE
Zone alert: March 21, 2025
“The March 2020 dip bounced at the Feb 2016 zone. 2025 likely has some more room to fall 📉 $NKE” -@tradingplaceai on X
These past few months, you’ve probably seen more than a few news articles and X posts talking about how “NKE is now at its lowest level since [insert key date here].”
March 21st saw another one of those reports. It had just penetrated below its January 2018 zone and was back to COVID levels.
To most, pandemic price is already a key area to buy. But our zone algo said otherwise.
We said a bounce is more likely to happen off the February 2016 zone.
The next few days after the alert saw the stock indeed sliding down toward the February 2016 zone, and began bouncing right after price touched it.
But, as you already know, tariffs hit NKE hard. And well, that bounce was short-lived.
NKE is now at its lowest level since… hell, we don’t even know anymore.
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That’s all for today, folks! Catch you again next week, when we drop another batch of zone alerts!
Good luck out there!
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.