CONCEPT OF SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE

You may have heard to the old business cliché “buy low and sell high”. New forex traders usually ask the question how low is low and how high is high. One way we can quantify these levels is using areas where price has stopped and changed direction. The area where price stops after moving up and then turns around is called resistance. Resistance acts as a “ceiling” capping the further advance of price.

THE CONCEPT OF SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE

Resistance is not just some random area where price turns around. There are potential sellers, traders who have sold a Forex currency pair once before and remember the collective power they had to push price lower. There are also buyers who went long at support and were disappointed that price did not go higher and will close their buy positions with sell orders at or just before price gets to the resistance ceiling.

Another group that make up resistance are the ones that bought at or near resistance and are trapped when price fell at resistance. These traders are begging for price to come up one more time to get them out at breakeven. All of these groups work together to send prices lower and make up the “supply” in the supply and demand equation. More supply than demand, price falls, more demand than supply price rises; Resistance=Supply