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Using Heat Map Profiles

Heat Map profiles are prebuilt map views that answer a specific market question at a glance. Each profile combines a grouping category, a box size metric, a box color metric, and optional value ranges, so the map instantly shows you where money is moving, which groups lead, and where unusual behavior is developing.

They make it easier to:

  • Read the whole market on one screen without building the view yourself
  • Spot breadth, rotation, and leadership shifts as they happen in real time
  • Jump from the big picture into individual charts by clicking any box or group header
  • Track a specific behavior, like unusual volume, tight ranges, or high short float
  • Start from a working setup and duplicate it as a base for your own custom map

Profiles update with live market data and are grouped by folder to match market conditions or strategic focus. For how the map itself works, see Heat Maps Overview, and for building your own views, see Customizing the Heat Map.

When Should I Use Each Folder?​

Default​

Session-based maps that activate automatically depending on the time of day: Pre Market, Regular Market, Post Market, or Market Closed. All four show the market by sector and industry, sized by market cap, and swap the color metric to match the session. They are the natural starting point every time you open Heat Maps.

  • Get an instant read on the market's tone for the current session
  • See which sectors and industries carry the day's move
  • Use as a base view before switching to a more specialized profile

Market Breadth​

These maps split the market into two camps, advancing versus declining or above versus below a key moving average, so you can judge how broad a move really is rather than trusting the index alone.

  • Compare the size of the advancing and declining sides at a glance
  • Check how much of the market trades above the 50-day or 200-day moving average
  • Spot divergences where the index moves but breadth does not confirm

52 Week Highs/Lows​

Focused maps showing only stocks making new 52-week highs or lows, with every box the same size so you can count names rather than weigh them. Available for the pre-market, regular, and post-market sessions.

  • Judge whether new highs or new lows dominate the tape
  • Catch expansion in new lows as an early warning sign
  • Find fresh breakout names pushing into new-high territory

Performance​

Return-focused views colored by year-to-date performance or the day's change, grouped by sector and industry or by theme.

  • See which sectors, industries, and themes lead and lag this year
  • Track how each theme is moving during the current session
  • Spot rotation between winners and laggards

Momentum​

Maps built on Relative Strength ratings, gaps, and range compression. They highlight leadership over one day or one year and surface coiled setups before they expand.

  • Find long-term leaders with the 1-year Relative Strength view
  • Spot today's strongest and weakest names or themes in real time
  • Watch gapping stocks and tight-range candidates for expansion moves

Volume & Short Interest​

Activity-focused maps that show where trading volume concentrates, which stocks trade far above their normal volume, and where heavy short positioning creates squeeze potential.

  • Find where the day's trading activity is concentrated
  • Surface unusual volume before the price move gets crowded
  • Track heavily shorted stocks as potential squeeze candidates

Alpha Ratings​

Maps colored by MarketAlpha's proprietary ratings: the composite MarketAlpha Rating, EPS, Sales and Profit Ratings, and the Accumulation/Distribution Score. They show where quality and institutional support cluster across the market.

  • See where the highest-rated stocks sit within each sector or theme
  • Track institutional buying and selling pressure across groups
  • Combine fundamental quality with the market's live price picture

AI Setups​

Maps built on MarketAlpha's AI signals. One shows only the AI-detected Top Alpha Setups, the other groups the whole market by its current Alpha Strategy, so you can see trade-ready structure across the market at once.

  • Review the day's highest-conviction AI setups in a single view
  • Compare how much of the market carries a long versus short strategy
  • Prioritize setups by Risk/Reward and Path to Target

Earnings​

Event-driven maps for the earnings calendar: companies about to report, companies that just reported, and everything reporting within the next five days.

  • Prepare for upcoming reports without scanning a calendar
  • Watch how the market prices fresh earnings reactions
  • Manage event risk in names you already hold

Corporate Events​

Maps for structural events. Recent IPOs shows companies within 60 trading days of their listing, where volatility and early leadership often form.

  • Monitor the newest listings as one group
  • Catch early momentum in recent IPOs before it broadens

Explorations​

Discovery views that slice the market in less common ways, like grouping non-US stocks by their home country.

  • See how each foreign market is trading through its US-listed names
  • Find country-level strength or weakness worth a closer look

Example Workflows​

Morning Session (Pre-Market to Open)​

During the Day (Regular Session)​

After Hours (Post Market to Closed)​

Specific Use Case Examples​

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Heat Map Profiles​

  • Favorite the maps you check daily so they are one click away in the main navigation
  • Click a group header to open that whole group in Multi-Charts and review the names chart by chart
  • Duplicate a ready-made profile and adjust its categories, metrics, or ranges to make it your own
  • Combine a breadth map with a leadership map to confirm that strength is broad, not just concentrated
  • Let the session defaults do the switching: the map automatically loads the right default profile for pre-market, regular hours, post-market, or closed sessions

Want help understanding a profile's logic? Every profile page includes a breakdown of its map configuration, the metrics behind it, and practical use cases. Just click into any one from the folders below.