Winning Support and Resistance Strategy
Support and Resistance
Support & Resistance lines - Make or break price points
Support and resistance lines conform the most basic analytical tools and are commonly used as visual markers to trace the levels where the price found a temporary barrier. In other words, where price had trouble crossing.
From a strategic point of view, support and resistance levels represent smart places to anticipate a reaction in the price of an asset, and therefore represent a basic tool in technical analysis. Numerous traders use them, but the diversity in application and integration tell us that charting is definitely not an exact science and more of an art.
One of the most common mistakes that new traders make is buying too close to a line of resistance or selling too close to a line of support. In this page we provide enough set-ups and real-time examples, to make sure you thoroughly understand this simple yet important dynamic.
Latest Support & Resistance News
Price zones
Don't be disappointed if S&R lines haven't worked for you until now. You see, in reality, support and resistance are price zones, not exact numbers. This is clearly visible when switching from a higher timeframe to a lower one: an horizontal line on a weekly chart can perfectly be made by an horizontal price channel on a one hour chart.
This is why it often what appears to be a break of a support or resistance level is just the market testing it. These 'tests' of support and resistance are usually represented by the candlestick shadows piercing the S&R
levels.
If the market were made by S&R lines and not by people, then the exchange rate would always rise and fall to the same exact price points, over and over again.
But because that rarely happens it's important to think of support and resistance as zones on the chart where people buy and sell.
One way to induce the habit to treat S&R lines as zones is drawing them with fat lines, avoiding a fine-point trace. That way you won't fool yourself into believing you have identified the exact price at which a currency pair is going to turn around and start moving in the opposite direction. And even better: draw the lines, especially the horizontal ones using two lines, an upper and a lower one, or use rectangles to mark the zones. Your chart platform has all these fancy tools for sure.
Identifying Supply and Demand
There where the difference between the number of buyers and sellers get more remarkable, it tends to form a Support or Resistance level. Your next logical quest will be to identify them on a price chart.
Historical and potential levels, can
lead to several constructs: horizontal lines and dynamic trendlines are the most used ones and can be based on significant highs and lows. Lines are also used to delineate price channels as well as classical chart
figures such as triangles and wedges.
Some technical indicators can act as potential levels, such as sentiment chart, moving averages, Pivot Points and
Fibonacci cycles which are commonly used in Elliott Wave analysis.
Round numbers - those quotes ending in 00 or 50- and emotional spikes are often perceived as Support and Resistance levels.
When these levels encompass a larger area on the charts technicians speak of a Support and Resistance Zone.
Latest Support & Resistance Analysis
Editors' picks
EUR/USD struggles to hold above 1.0400 as mood sours
EUR/USD stays on the back foot and trades near 1.0400 following the earlier recovery attempt. The holiday mood kicked in, keeping action limited across the FX board, while a cautious risk mood helped the US Dollar hold its ground and forced the pair to stretch lower.
GBP/USD set to swoon on holiday-shortened week
GBP/USD waffled near the 1.2550 level on Monday, kicking off the holiday trading week with a third of a percent decline as market sentiment coils. Market volumes are set to drain out of global exchanges as investors broadly hang up their hats for the Christmas holiday, and global markets will be shuttered on Wednesday.
Gold flat lines above $2,600 ahead of holiday trading week
Gold price trades flat around $2,610 during the early Asian session on Tuesday. Markets face a relatively quiet trading session ahead of the holiday trading week. The US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for December is due later on Tuesday.
Ethereum risks a decline to $3,000 as investors realize increased profits and losses
Ethereum is up 4% on Monday despite increased selling pressure across long-term and short-term holders in the past two days. If whales fail to maintain their recent buy-the-dip attitude, ETH risks a decline below $3,000.
Bank of England stays on hold, but a dovish front is building
Bank of England rates were maintained at 4.75% today, in line with expectations. However, the 6-3 vote split sent a moderately dovish signal to markets, prompting some dovish repricing and a weaker pound. We remain more dovish than market pricing for 2025.
