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Support and resistance

Not tested by us Not tested by us yet as a general concept.

In one line: Price areas where traders say the price often stopped falling (support) or rising (resistance) before.
Watch: Breakout? Wait for the Retest, Sweep, and Dead-Cat Bounce · open on YouTube · 1-minute Short
More videos on this (2)

Support is a floor, resistance is a ceiling, at least on the chart. Traders draw lines where price turned before and watch what happens next time.

There is no agreed recipe for where to draw them, so two people can draw different lines on the same chart. Treat them as a way to describe the past. Want to know if a level 'works'? Test it, see How to test a trading claim.

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Related

Sources & studies

  1. Investopedia (secondary): Technical analysis
  2. Lo, Mamaysky & Wang (2000), Journal of Finance (author PDF)

Trading termsTrendDo chart patterns work? What the research says

Last checked: 2026-11-04 · Educational, not financial advice.

Education only, not financial advice. No signals. Backtests are hypothetical: real trading can be worse. Past results don't predict future results.