Support and resistance
Also called: support and resistance levels, S/R, support level, resistance level, support zone, resistance zone
Support and resistance are the most widely used ideas in technical analysis, and the most loosely drawn. Many traders shade wide boxes and call them zones. In the ChartThread course support and resistance are levels: exact prices where an important event happened, drawn from the exact high or low of the candle that formed them.
Support vs resistance
- Support is a level below the current price. Buyers stopped a fall there before, and may do it again.
- Resistance is a level above the current price. Sellers stopped a rise there before.
The difference is only where price is now. The level itself is one price, and the same price can be resistance today and support next month.
Why an exact price, not a zone
A big player who buys or sells a large amount puts limit orders at a chosen price, and price is stopped exactly there. That is why price so often comes back to the same price, to the cent or a few cents short.
An exact price also gives an exact stop. Example. The daily ATR is 20.00 and the stop goes 10% of it, 2.00, beyond the level. Buying at a support level of 500.00 puts the stop at 498.00: a risk of 2.00 per share. A trader who buys at the top of a “zone” at 506.00 with the same stop risks 8.00. For $100 of risk that is 50 shares against 12.
How to draw support and resistance
- Open the daily chart, about six months back.
- Find the events: a repeated low or high, a big move that stopped, a big move that started.
- Find the level-forming candle and take its exact high or low.
- Draw from that candle to the right.
- Never draw two levels close to each other.
- Check what price did at the level since: a level crossed again and again with closes on both sides is sawed through.
On a real market
Palantir’s perpetual contract rose to 161.52 on 6 March 2026 and turned down. On 23 March price rallied back and stopped at 161.44, 8 cents short of that resistance. The next day it went 0.90 above, closed back below (a shallow false breakout), and in the next eight days fell 17%.
Support and resistance in this course
The Levels module covers the topic from start to finish: what is a level, zones vs levels, how to draw a level and the eleven types of levels. ChartThread’s levels page shows support and resistance as exact prices for every instrument it covers.
Questions about support and resistance
What is the difference between support and resistance?
Only the side. Support is a level below the current price, where buyers stopped a fall before. Resistance is a level above it, where sellers stopped a rise. When price breaks through, the same price can switch roles: old resistance can become support. See support becomes resistance.
Should support and resistance be zones or lines?
Lines: one exact price, taken from the high or the low of a real candle. A zone hides whether the level held and pushes your stop further away. On Meta in October 2026 a zone made the same trade’s stop 4.6 times longer than the exact level. See zones vs levels.
Which timeframe is best for support and resistance?
The daily chart, about six months back, with the weekly or monthly chart for prices that have no recent history. Lower timeframes have hundreds of small turns and are for watching the approach and the entry. See why levels come from the daily chart.
How do you know a support or resistance level is strong?
In this course levels are not ranked by power: the situation around the level decides. Signs that strengthen a level include exact touches, near misses and shallow false breakouts; signs that weaken it include deep false breakouts and repeated closes on both sides. See no level is strong on its own.