Resistance
A price level where selling pressure has historically halted or reversed an upward move.
Resistance is a price zone where supply has repeatedly overwhelmed demand, capping rallies. It mirrors support in structure and logic — what was once support often becomes resistance after a breakdown.
A clean resistance level has:
- Multiple prior highs clustered in a tight range.
- High volume rejections — long upper wicks on candles.
- Confluence with another tool (VWAP, Fibonacci, moving average).
Resistance is an area of expectation, not a guarantee. Price can grind through weak resistance on expanding volume.
On the desk
AAPL stalls at $195 three times over six weeks, each time printing a long upper wick. Short sellers mark $195 as resistance and look for a confirmed rejection — a bearish engulfing candle — before fading rallies to that zone.