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)Mar 19th, 4:58:53 PM$INXNew High: +0.06. Next resistance 1169.84 from 3/17/2010.more
New low (filtered)Mar 19th, 4:12:19 PMSGANew Low: -1.02. Next support 21.67 from 3/16/2010.more
Crossed daily highs resistanceMar 19th, 4:10:11 PMMGA.CATCrossed daily highs resistance. Next resistance 0.60 from 3/15/2010.more
Crossed daily lows supportMar 19th, 4:10:17 PMFINNCrossed daily lows support. Next support 2675.00 from 2/16/2010.more
Crossed above resistance (confirmed)Mar 19th, 6:20:18 PMSONSCrossed above resistance, 2.676, confirmed by volume. Time: 1 day 4 hours. Volume: 4,343,296.more
Crossed below support (confirmed)Mar 19th, 6:58:39 PMTSFGCrossed below support, 0.674, confirmed by volume. Time: 1 day 6 hours. Volume: 9,584,640.more
Channel breakout (confirmed)Mar 19th, 6:20:18 PMSONSChannel breakout from $2.56-2.57, 2 hours 20 minutes.more
Channel breakdown (confirmed)Mar 19th, 4:38:38 PMAGENChannel breakdown from $0.76-0.7601, 2 hours 4 minutes.more
Channel breakoutMar 19th, 8:00:00 PMBQIChannel breakout from $0.77-0.7772, 7 hours 33 minutes.more
Channel breakdownMar 19th, 8:00:00 PMHIGChannel breakdown from $27.26-27.35, 4 hours 24 minutes.more
Rectangle bottomMar 19th, 4:46:30 PMTWMRectangle bottom. Prices: 21.13, 20.98, 21.13, 20.96, 21.15, 20.99. Started 5 hours 23 minutes ago. Last turn 47 minutes 50 seconds ago.more
Rectangle topMar 19th, 4:36:25 PMOCRectangle top. Prices: 23.71, 23.66, 23.71, 23.64, 23.70. Started 3 hours 17 minutes ago. Last turn 5 minutes 41 seconds ago.more
Double bottomMar 19th, 5:04:53 PMEVCDouble bottom. Prices: 2.44, 2.44. Started 3 hours 21 minutes ago. Last turn 4 seconds ago.more
Double topMar 19th, 4:47:13 PMTLCR9 top. Prices: 21.26, 21.12, 21.12, 21.19, 21.14, 21.15, 21.20, 21.19, 21.21. Started 3 hours 9 minutes ago. Last turn 24 minutes 5 seconds ago.more

See Also

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