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)Nov 20th, 5:40:01 PMGS.CATNew High: +0.10. Next resistance 20.35 from 11/19/2009.more
New low (filtered)Nov 20th, 4:19:19 PMHALNew Low: -0.05. Next support 28.63 from 11/3/2009.more
Crossed daily highs resistanceNov 20th, 4:15:14 PMURSTCrossed daily highs resistance. Next resistance 0.54 from 11/18/2009.more
Crossed daily lows supportNov 20th, 4:18:34 PMDPSTFCrossed daily lows support. Next support 18.75 from 11/17/2009.more
Crossed above resistance (confirmed)Nov 20th, 7:52:28 PMINOCrossed above resistance, 1.59, confirmed by volume. Time: 8 hours 12 minutes. Volume: 3,067,820.more
Crossed below support (confirmed)Nov 20th, 4:33:34 PMCAE.CATCrossed below support, 8.43, confirmed by volume. Time: 5 hours. Volume: 782,256.more
Channel breakout (confirmed)Nov 20th, 4:38:41 PMNTGRChannel breakout from $20.19-20.25, 1 hour 44 minutes.more
Channel breakdown (confirmed)Nov 20th, 5:41:12 PMBCSChannel breakdown from $20.28-20.36, 2 hours 33 minutes.more
Channel breakoutNov 20th, 7:58:07 PMSVUChannel breakout from $14.91-15.00, 9 hours 21 minutes.more
Channel breakdownNov 20th, 7:59:48 PMYHOOChannel breakdown from $15.37-15.42, 5 hours 14 minutes.more
Rectangle bottomNov 20th, 4:38:05 PMCMTLRectangle bottom. Prices: 30.50, 30.43, 30.51, 30.39, 30.48, 30.40. Started 1 hour 52 minutes ago. Last turn 27 minutes 58 seconds ago.more
Rectangle topNov 20th, 5:41:12 PMBCSRectangle top. Prices: 20.36, 20.31, 20.36, 20.29, 20.35. Started 2 hours 4 minutes ago. Last turn 1 hour 42 minutes ago.more
Double bottomNov 20th, 5:54:45 PMDELLTriple bottom. Prices: 14.26, 14.29, 14.28. Started 3 hours 51 minutes ago. Last turn 1 hour 55 minutes ago.more
Double topNov 20th, 5:41:12 PMBCS5 top. Prices: 20.35, 20.35, 20.36, 20.36, 20.35. Started 7 hours 17 minutes ago. Last turn 1 hour 42 minutes ago.more

See Also

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