Support and Resistance Explained: Levels, Zones, Pivots and Previous Day High/Low

Support and resistance in one paragraph

Support is a price area where buying has repeatedly stopped declines. Resistance is an area where selling has repeatedly stopped rallies. Each time price reacts there, traders gain more confidence in it — within limits, because every touch also uses up resting orders.

How to find levels

• Swing highs and lows. Mark turning points and group those that land within a small distance of each other. More touches means a more watched level.
• Role reversal. A broken resistance often becomes support on a retest, and the reverse.
• Round numbers. Prices like 1.1000 or 2,000.00 attract orders.
• Previous day, week and month highs and lows. PDH, PDL, PWH, PWL, PMH and PML are widely watched because many traders plan around them.

Candles to expect before you enter

Classic pivot points

Intraday traders usually base pivots on the previous day, swing traders on the previous week and position traders on the previous month.

Lines or zones?

Treat a level as a zone about half an ATR thick. Price often wicks through a line by a few pips and still respects the area, so insisting on exactness leads to stops that are too tight. See ATR volatility explained.

Trading them

1. Pick the levels that match your style — a scalper uses nearby intraday levels, a position trader the weekly and monthly ones.
2. Decide in advance: bounce trade (enter at the level with a stop beyond it) or breakout trade (enter after a close beyond it, ideally on a retest).
3. Check risk/reward to the next level before entering.

The Support & Resistance option in the Forextity scanner shows only the closest levels for your trading style, with touch counts, key daily/weekly/monthly levels and pivots, and a plain-language reading of where price sits between them.

Risk notice: this article is educational and is not financial advice. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. Read our Risk Disclaimer.