Two Chart Setups: 3M's Coiled Spring vs ARM's Breakout

Two Setups, One Big Decision

Licia Leslie

Hi Traders,

Licia Leslie is back, and she's got two setups that are about to make a decision. One's an industrial dinosaur that finally got its act together. The other's the company that powers every phone in your pocket but nobody's ever heard of.

The first one's been stuck in a box for weeks. Coiling. Compressing. Building energy like it's waiting for permission to move. Licia's watched this setup before. She knows what happens next.

The second one just broke out of consolidation. The charts are screaming. The fundamentals are screaming louder.

Here's what Licia's seeing.

Hi Traders,

I gotta come back to 3M Company (MMM) because it has not moved yet!

This coil is telling me once this stock decides on direction, it is really going to move:

Here's what the fundamentals are telling us. Since spinning off its healthcare division as Solventum last April, 3M has been a leaner, more focused company. CEO Bill Brown's turnaround strategy is gaining traction. Q3 2025 revenue grew 3.5 percent, the fastest pace in four years, and operating margin expanded to 24.7 percent. The legal overhang from PFAS and earplug settlements has shifted from open-ended risk to scheduled, modelable payments. That clarity matters.

Technical analysis tells us that when price compresses into a narrowing range like this, volatility contracts, but energy builds. Think of it like a coiled spring. The longer the consolidation, the more explosive the breakout. ChartMill gave MMM a Setup Rating of eight, noting that "prices have been consolidating lately and volatility has been reduced," which are textbook features of a stock preparing for a major move.

Wait for it to trade away from this box range and then ride it up to $173.15 or down to $158.

The Breakout the Charts Predicted

Arm Holdings (ARM) is breaking out of what the Japanese Candlestick system calls the box range:

I like it to trade to the 200 day moving average up at $138.66.

You have a nice stop loss with a close below $130.28.

ARM is a leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) company that designs and licenses high-performance, energy-efficient processor architectures. It's the backbone of the vast majority of smartphones and is rapidly expanding into data centers, AI, PCs, and more.

ARM doesn't manufacture chips. It creates CPU, GPU, NPU, and related IP designs, then licenses them to partners (Qualcomm, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and hundreds more) who build and sell the actual silicon.

This licensing approach (royalties plus upfront fees) creates high margins (often 97 percent gross) and massive scalability.

Trade Accordingly,

Licia Leslie

Which One Will They Choose?

Two setups. Two very different situations.

3M is the coiled spring. The turnaround is real. The legal mess is finally quantifiable. But the stock's been stuck in a box, waiting for a catalyst. Above $173.15 or below $158, that's when Licia pulls the trigger.

ARM is already moving. AI demand is through the roof. Data center royalties doubled year over year. The breakout happened. Now it's chasing the 200-day at $138.66.

One's waiting for permission. One's already gone.

Which one will the crew choose on Monday? Go here to find out as soon as it goes live.