What Is Support and Resistance

A floor, from real lows

Support is a price the market keeps refusing to close below. Resistance is a price it keeps refusing to close above. Both start the same way, with one high or one low that stands out, and both are made by what happens next. On 11 August 2025 the euro against the dollar made a low at 1.15901. Over eleven weeks it came back down to within 15 pips of that price on eight days — a pip is the fourth decimal place, the smallest step most people count in — and closed above it on all eight, twice after going under it during the day. That is a floor. On 31 October the close stayed 54 pips under it, and the floor was gone.

The six words

Six words, in the order they happen. A level is a price where the market turned once. When the price comes back to it, that is a test. If the day closes on the near side of the level, the test held; a level that keeps holding below the price is support, and one that keeps holding above the price is resistance. A close through the level that stays there is the break. The one that matters most is the last: a wick through a level is a test, and a close through it that stays is the break. The floor above was poked under three times and broken once.

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