A price zone that held up falls several times is called support; one that blocked rises several times is called resistance. See them in range, breakout and breakdown examples.
Chart data
Step 5 of 12
What you will learn
Find price zones that blocked or held the price several times, and see support and resistance switch roles with range, breakout and breakdown examples.
Support and resistance examples — draw horizontal linesSample data · not a real stock
What to look forThe price moves up and down within set limits. The top that blocked it several times is resistance; the bottom that held it several times is support.
CautionRanges eventually break. It is more realistic to treat support and resistance as zones than as exact prices.
1260 bars · 2018-11-12 – 2023-09-08
On price
Lower panes
Auto
0 lines drawn (this chart and interval). Choose a mode above to draw.
Sample (synthetic) data: not a real stock or real prices, but prices generated to explain the idea. Drag the chart to move through time and use the wheel or two fingers to zoom.
Concept
Support: a zone where a falling price stopped several times and turned up — a sign that many people wanted to buy at that price.
Resistance: a zone where a rising price was blocked several times and turned down — a sign that many people wanted to sell at that price.
Role reversal: once resistance is clearly broken, that zone often acts as support afterwards; once support clearly breaks, it often becomes resistance.
In the chart above, choose Draw horizontal and click a level that blocked the price several times. Turn on Auto → Support/Resist. to see the zones this site finds (green: support, red: resistance) and how many times the price touched each one.
How to find support and resistance
Find the turning points (highs and lows) where the price changed direction.
Look for places where turning points cluster at a similar level two or three times or more.
Think of a zone with some width rather than an exact price. Something between the wick tips and the body edges is realistic.
A zone below the current price is called support; one above it is resistance.
The automatic display collects turning points higher (lower) than the five bars on each side, groups those within 2% of each other, and shows up to four zones touched at least twice, in order of touches.
Cautions when reading it
False breakouts: prices often break above resistance and soon fall back into the range.
More touches is not always stronger: some argue that a level tested many times eventually breaks, so the count alone is not enough to judge.
It depends on the time frame: support and resistance on a few-month chart can differ from those on a multi-year chart.
Support and resistance summarize where prices stopped in the past; there is no guarantee they will stop there again.
Chart shapes and indicators summarize past prices. The same shape is sometimes right and sometimes wrong depending on the market, and this page does not tell you when to buy or sell any stock. To practice yourself, try the chart lab or mock trading.