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
Japanese Yen remains offered near 158.00
USD/JPY manages to gather some composure and partially leave behind the recent severe pullback, approaching the key 158.00 hurdle and opening the door to a probable retest of its key 200-day SMA. The pair’s bounce comes amid steady caution in light of another potential intervention in the FX universe to support the (until last week) beleaguered Yen. Moving forward, Japan’s Average Cash Earnings and the final Services PMI are due seconded by the BoJ Minutes.
AUD/USD challenges multi-week tops near 0.7050
AUD/USD regains balance, sets aside Monday’s losses and shifts its attention back to the 0.7050 region, or seven-week peaks, ahead of the opening bell in Asia. The daily recovery in spot comes in response to a decent decline in the US Dollar in a context of persistent uncertainty surrounding the Middle East conflict. In the meantime, the release of the final Services PMI will take centre stage in Oz seconded by China’s RatingDog Services PMI.
Gold keeps the range despite fresh optimism
Gold extends Monday’s optimism and approaches the $4,100 mark per troy ounce on Tuesday. The yellow metal’s recovery remains on a positive footing as uncertainty surrounding US-Iran peace efforts and the Fed’s policy outlook keeps traders prudent.
Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index extends historical negative streak as risk appetite deteriorates
The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index extends its negative streak to 78 consecutive days on Tuesday, the longest on record. This reading comes amid the ongoing bearish trend, which has seen Bitcoin (BTC) drop by almost 50% from its record high to trade around $64,000.
Why the WTI sell-off may be hiding a supply warning
Prices for the barrel of the American Oil benchmark have fallen sharply as hopes of a US-Iran agreement have resurfaced, but a deeply backwardated Oil curve, tight Cushing stocks and light speculative positioning all warn that the sell-off may have gone too far.
