One subject
Support and resistance
7 lessons and 37 glossary terms cover this across the academy. Each one links to its own page, and nothing is repeated here.
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The curriculum
7 lessons cover this.
In curriculum order, which is the order you would meet them.
- Trends and rangesModule 07Reading the chart9 min
- Swing highs and swing lowsModule 07Reading the chart7 min
- What support and resistance areModule 07Reading the chart10 min
- Trend lines and channelsModule 07Reading the chart7 min
- Candlestick patterns and what they describeModule 07Reading the chart9 min
- Chart patterns and what they describeModule 07Reading the chart9 min
- Where a stop sits on the chartModule 09Risk, plan and practice13 min
The glossary
37 terms belong here.
Alphabetical, each defined in one sentence on its own page.
- All-time highThe highest price an instrument has ever traded at, measured across its whole recorded history rather than a window, and superseded the moment it is exceeded.
- Ascending triangleA chart formation in which highs stall along one roughly horizontal level while lows step upward beneath it, compressing price into a narrowing space against that ceiling.
- BreakoutA move carrying price beyond a level that had been containing it, such as the edge of a range or a trend line, after which chart traditions treat that level as broken.
- Chart patternA chart pattern is a shape read from the arrangement of highs and lows on a price chart, such as a triangle, a flag or a head and shoulders.
- ConsolidationConsolidation is a phase in which price moves sideways inside a defined band after a directional move, with successive highs and lows contained rather than extending.
- Cup and handleA cup and handle is a chart pattern in which a rounded recovery back towards a prior high is followed by a shallow drift lower before that high is tested again.
- Descending triangleA chart formation whose successive highs fall toward a level where lows keep stopping, drawn as a downward sloping upper line converging on a flat lower one.
- Double bottomTwo lows made at approximately the same level with a rally between them, counted as complete only once price closes above the high of that intervening rally.
- Double topTwo highs made at approximately the same level with a dip between them, counted as complete only once price closes below the low of that intervening dip.
- FakeoutA move that breaks a watched price level convincingly enough to look like a breakout, then reverses back through it, leaving the level intact and the break unconfirmed.
- Fibonacci retracementA grid of horizontal lines drawn across a completed price swing at fixed proportions of its height, used to measure how far a pullback against that swing has travelled.
- Flag patternA short consolidation drifting against a sharp preceding move, bounded by two roughly parallel lines, which chartists read as a pause inside that move rather than the end of it.
- Head and shouldersA chart formation of three consecutive peaks in which the middle peak is the highest, with a neckline drawn through the two lows that separate them.
- Ichimoku Kinko HyoIchimoku Kinko Hyo plots five calculated lines and a shaded cloud on one chart, so that trend, support and resistance and momentum are read from a single picture rather than from several separate indicators.
- Inverse head and shouldersAn inverse head and shoulders is a chart shape of three troughs, the middle one the deepest, joined by a neckline drawn across the two peaks that separate them.
- Key levelA key level is a price a market has turned at more than once, marked on a chart from earlier highs, lows, closes or round numbers rather than calculated.
- Pivot pointA pivot point is a reference level calculated from the previous period's high, low and close, published with a ladder of support and resistance levels derived from the same three numbers.
- Price actionPrice action is the practice of reading a market from the movement of price itself, working from bars, candles and levels rather than from indicators calculated out of them.
- PullbackA pullback is a move against the prevailing direction that pauses a trend without ending it, usually shallow and brief before the earlier direction resumes.
- RangeRange means two things on a chart: the distance between the high and the low of a period, and the condition in which price keeps turning back inside a band instead of travelling in one direction.
- Range tradingRange trading is an approach that treats the edges of a sideways band as its reference points, working on the expectation that price returns towards the middle rather than leaving the band.
- Rectangle patternA rectangle pattern is a stretch of chart in which price travels between a roughly horizontal ceiling and a roughly horizontal floor, drawn once each boundary has turned the market back more than once.
- RejectionRejection describes price reaching a level and being pushed back inside the same interval, leaving a long wick and a close some distance from the extreme it touched.
- ResistanceResistance is a price area where selling has appeared often enough to halt advances, so a market rising into it has previously stalled, turned back, or needed a second attempt to pass.
- RetracementA retracement is a move against the prevailing direction that gives back part of a prior advance or decline, measured as a proportion of the swing it is retracing.
- Stop runA stop run is a fast move through a level where protective orders are known to cluster, which triggers them and produces a burst of one sided volume before price frequently returns.
- SupportSupport is a price area where buying has repeatedly been sufficient to halt a decline, read from prior lows rather than calculated, and treated as a band rather than as a single line.
- Swing highA swing high is a peak on a chart, a bar whose high stands above the highs of a stated number of bars on either side of it, which means it can only be identified once those later bars exist.
- Swing lowA swing low is a trough on a chart, a bar whose low sits beneath the lows of a stated number of bars on both sides of it, so it is confirmed only after the bars to its right have printed.
- TrendA trend is a market's sustained bias in one direction, conventionally identified by successive highs and lows that both progress the same way rather than by any single move.
- Trend channelA trend channel is a pair of parallel lines drawn to contain a directional move, one along the swing points the move has bounced from and one along the extremes on the opposite side.
- Trend lineA trend line is a straight line drawn through a series of rising lows or falling highs, used to describe the slope of a move and the level at which it has repeatedly turned.
- Triangle patternA triangle pattern is a stretch of chart in which highs and lows converge, so each swing covers less ground and the boundaries drawn through them meet at a point ahead of price.
- UptrendAn uptrend is a stretch of chart in which each significant high and each significant low sits above the one before it, so peaks and troughs are both progressing upward.
- Wedge patternA wedge pattern is a chart shape drawn where two converging lines both slope the same way, so a market's swings narrow while the whole range still drifts up or down together.
- Zig zag indicatorThe zig zag indicator connects successive swing highs and lows with straight lines, ignoring every move smaller than a stated threshold, so only the larger turns remain on the chart.
- Zone (supply and demand)A supply or demand zone is a band on a chart, not a single line, marking an area price left rapidly and which chartists read as holding unfilled orders.
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