01Why levels work
Support is a price area where demand has repeatedly overwhelmed supply, stopping declines. Resistance is where supply has capped advances. Levels form because traders remember them: those who missed the last bounce leave buy orders there, those trapped at the top sell their break-even, and algorithms watch the same prices.
02Zones, not lines
Price rarely turns at the exact same tick twice. Draw levels as zones that cover the cluster of wicks and bodies. A zone a few ticks wide reflects how real order flow behaves; a single line invites you to be stopped out by noise.
| Strength factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Higher timeframe | A daily level carries more orders than a 1-minute level |
| Number of clean touches | More reactions = more participants defending it |
| Sharp reactions | Fast rejections show strong, urgent orders |
| Round numbers | 5,000 and 1.1000 attract stops and options activity |
| Recency | Fresh levels have unfilled orders; old ones are often used up |
03Role reversal and fake-outs
When resistance breaks decisively, traders who were short are trapped and buyers who missed the move wait for a pullback. That often turns old resistance into new support — the classic break-and-retest.
- A full-bodied close beyond the zone
- Follow-through on the next candles
- Retest holds from the other side
- Only a wick pokes through
- Close back inside the range
- Fast move the opposite way
Professionals rarely buy a level blind. They wait for evidence that it is being defended — a rejection wick, a lower-timeframe shift in structure — and put the stop just beyond the zone.
- Support and resistance are zones where orders cluster.
- Higher timeframe, clean touches and recency make a level strong.
- Broken resistance often becomes support (role reversal).
- Closes confirm breaks; wicks through a level are often sweeps.
- Drawing dozens of minor lines until everything is a level
- Buying support blindly with no confirmation
- Treating a wick through a level as a breakout
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