Support and Resistance Explained

Support and resistance are the two most useful concepts in technical analysis, because they describe where price tends to pause, bounce, or reverse. Once you can spot them, charts stop looking random and start telling a story.

Support: a price floor

Support is a level where falling prices have repeatedly stopped and turned back up. It marks an area where buyers consistently see value and step in, absorbing selling pressure. The more times price tests a support level and holds, the more significant traders consider it.

Resistance: a price ceiling

Resistance is the mirror image — a level where rising prices have repeatedly stalled and turned back down, as sellers step in. When price finally pushes decisively through resistance, that old ceiling often flips and becomes new support, a phenomenon traders call a role reversal.

Using levels to plan trades

Support and resistance help you plan, not predict. Many traders look to enter near support in an uptrend and place a stop-loss just below it, so the trade is invalidated if the level breaks. Combine these zones with candlestick patterns for confirmation, and always size positions with sound risk management. Practise drawing levels on a demo account first.