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Support and Resistance

Support and resistance are important technical levels for a stock price.  Support describes a price level that the stock tried to cross below, but ultimately stayed above.  Resistance describes a price level that the stock tried to cross above, but could not.  The bare minimum requirement to draw a support line or a resistance line is that the stock must spend a significant amount of time or volume at the price level.  Specific types of support and resistance lines can be drawn based on additional chart patterns.

Trade-Ideas reports alerts labeled as "support" or "resistance" based on the simplest definition of support and resistance.  The stock price must trade a sufficient amount of volume at or near the price level, and very little if any volume on the wrong side of the price level.

Trade ideas also reports some alerts based on more specific types of support and resistance.  These are always labeled with more specific names, like "channel breakdown".

Alert Types

We offer the following alert types which are related to this topic.  Click on the icon for a detailed description of the alert, or click on the "more" link for additional examples of each type of alert.

Type Recent Examples More Examples
Time (NY) Symbol Message
New high (filtered)Jul 25th, 11:48:27 AMBQE.CATNew High: +0.01. Next resistance 3.28 from 7/22/2008.more
New low (filtered)Jul 25th, 11:48:27 AMCEPNew Low: -0.06. Next support 18.01 from 7/24/2008.more
Crossed daily highs resistanceJul 25th, 11:48:16 AMARTGCrossed daily highs resistance. Next resistance 3.75 from 6/11/2008.more
Crossed daily lows supportJul 25th, 11:47:55 AMADJ.UN.CATCrossed daily lows support. Next support 17.60 from 7/23/2008.more
Crossed above resistance (confirmed)Jul 25th, 11:48:00 AMMFL.CATCrossed above resistance, 10.027, confirmed by volume. Time: 1 day 23 hours. Volume: 417,220.more
Crossed below support (confirmed)Jul 25th, 11:46:47 AMAMEDCrossed below support, 61.677, confirmed by volume. Time: 2 days 23 hours. Volume: 1,789,568.more
Channel breakout (confirmed)Jul 25th, 11:46:31 AMRUS.CATChannel breakout from $26.60-26.60, 18 minutes 14 seconds.more
Channel breakdown (confirmed)Jul 25th, 11:47:34 AMSYKEChannel breakdown from $17.97-18.00, 1 hour 41 minutes.more
Channel breakoutJul 25th, 11:48:15 AMGDIChannel breakout from $44.23-44.76, 2 hours 3 minutes.more
Channel breakdownJul 25th, 11:48:01 AMOPC.CATChannel breakdown from $19.12-19.15, 12 minutes 47 seconds.more
Rectangle bottomJul 25th, 11:48:02 AMSMWFRectangle bottom. Prices: 0.0013, 0.0012, 0.0013, 0.0012, 0.0013, 0.0012. Started 54 minutes 50 seconds ago. Last turn Less than 1 second ago.more
Rectangle topJul 25th, 11:47:43 AMSMWFRectangle top. Prices: 0.0013, 0.0012, 0.0013, 0.0012, 0.0013. Started 54 minutes 31 seconds ago. Last turn Less than 1 second ago.more
Double bottomJul 25th, 11:48:08 AMCTCMQuadruple bottom. Prices: 21.374, 21.453, 21.47, 21.42. Started 3 days 2 hours ago. Last turn 13 minutes 11 seconds ago.more
Double topJul 25th, 11:47:43 AMSMWF5 top. Prices: 0.0013, 0.0013, 0.0013, 0.0013, 0.0013. Started 2 hours 14 minutes ago. Last turn Less than 1 second ago.more

See Also

Alert, Channel Breakdown, Channel Breakout, Technical Analysis, Technical Breakdown, Technical Breakout

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