Price Action · Classical · 1920s–30s · Any timeframe
Horizontal price levels where buying has repeatedly stopped a fall (support) or selling has repeatedly capped a rise (resistance). It's the most widely used idea in technical analysis — so widely watched that the levels partly work because so many traders act on them.
A level gains significance each time price reacts from it: one bounce is a point, two or three make a zone traders will watch. While price stays inside, support and resistance define a range to trade between. When a level finally breaks, it often flips role — old resistance becomes new support, and vice versa — so the first pullback to a broken level is one of the most commonly traded setups in price action.
Price rallies into a level and is pushed back, then finds buyers lower down. Two reactions start to sketch out a range: resistance above, support below.
Price returns to the same ceiling and is rejected again — and again. Each rejection makes the level more significant, because more traders now see it and act on it.
Price finally closes decisively above resistance. A clean close beyond the level, not just a wick through it, is what most traders wait for.
The first pullback stalls right at the old ceiling — buyers who missed the break step in there. This 'role reversal' is one of the most widely traded setups in price action.
Illustrative example only — not real market data.
The chart above shows the full life cycle: a ceiling rejected three times, a break above it, and a pullback that finds buyers at the old ceiling before the move continues. In real markets these are zones rather than exact prices — wicks will often poke slightly through a level without invalidating it.