Trading glossary
Learn what support and resistance mean in technical analysis: price levels where buying or selling pressure has historically slowed a move. Neutral, educational.
Support is a price area where a downward move has tended to pause or reverse because buyers have historically stepped in. Resistance is the opposite: a price area where an upward move has tended to stall because sellers have historically become active. These are zones of observed behavior, not fixed barriers, and price can move through them at any time.
Analysts often mark support and resistance by looking at prior swing highs and lows, round numbers, or areas where price reversed more than once. Some use moving averages or trendlines as dynamic references. Because different people draw levels differently, support and resistance are best treated as approximate ranges rather than exact prices.
Support and resistance give traders a framework for describing where price has reacted before and for planning where they might reassess a view. A level that breaks can sometimes flip roles, with former resistance later acting as support. This is descriptive analysis of past price action and does not predict future outcomes.
No. They describe where price has reacted in the past, not where it must react again. Price can break through either level, and levels weaken or shift as new trading activity accumulates.
Yes. After price breaks decisively above a resistance area, that former ceiling can later act as a floor if price returns to it. Traders call this a role reversal, though it is not guaranteed.