--- title: "What Are Support and Resistance Levels?" term: "Support and resistance" type: glossary_term canonical: https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/support-and-resistance.html --- # What Are Support and Resistance Levels? > Price levels where a market has repeatedly turned: support below price where declines have stalled, resistance above where advances have stalled. More touches means a better-tested level. **Support** is a price area below the current price where past declines have repeatedly stopped and reversed. **Resistance** is the mirror: an area above price where past advances have repeatedly stalled. They are among the oldest ideas in chart reading, and they describe where a market has been willing to turn, not where it must turn next time. ## Why levels form Traders remember prices. A level where a market bounced before tends to attract attention again — orders are placed near it, stops are placed just beyond it — and that shared attention can make the level matter for a while. When price finally breaks through decisively, old resistance is often watched as new support, and vice versa. ## How MoonWire finds levels Hand-drawn lines vary from one reader to the next, so our [technical reads](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/multi-timeframe-analysis.md) use a mechanical method that anyone can reproduce: 1. **Find swing points.** A swing high is a candle whose high is above the candles on either side of it; a swing low is the reverse. 2. **Cluster them.** Swing points close enough together — the tolerance scales with [average true range](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/average-true-range.md), so it widens in volatile markets — are merged into a single level at their average price. 3. **Count touches.** The number of swing points merged into a level is its touch count. A level touched six times has been tested more than one touched twice. 4. **Report the nearest.** Each read lists the nearest support below and nearest resistance above the latest close, with distance as a percentage of price. We also report the **support-to-resistance band**: the distance between those two levels as a share of price, which shows how much room the market has between its nearest tested floors and ceilings. ## Limits A level is a summary of past turning points. It is broken regularly, and a high touch count can also mean a level has been leaned on until it gives way. That is why our reads give touches and distances rather than calling levels that "will hold". Zones built from a different idea — where orders concentrated before a big move — are covered under [order block](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/order-block.md). ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Support and resistance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Support_and_resistance) - [Wikipedia: Average true range](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_true_range) ## Where this appears in MoonWire analysis - [What Is the Efficiency Ratio in Trading? Kaufman's Measure, With Real Readings](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/what-is-the-efficiency-ratio-in-trading.md) — Sep 12, 2026 - [Bitcoin: all three timeframe scans now name the same resistance shelf, 82,575 to 82,850](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/btc-technical-read-2026-09-10.md) — Sep 11, 2026 - [Bitcoin: the converged 80,600 floor has left both the 3D and weekly ledgers as price gives back 4.54%](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/btc-technical-read-2026-09-03.md) — Sep 11, 2026 - [Ethereum: RSI 74.27 on the 3D is the highest reading in this week's nine-cell board](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/eth-technical-read-2026-08-25.md) — Aug 29, 2026 - [Bitcoin's Breakaway Chain Has Mined the Same Two Blocks Since Saturday](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-09.md) — Aug 9, 2026 - [Solana: the 3D trend flips up because the moving average fell to price, not because price rallied](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/sol-technical-read-2026-08-04.md) — Aug 5, 2026 --- *MoonWire surfaces and summarizes public crypto news.* **General information only — not financial advice.** MoonWire Ltd. is not licensed by ASIC and holds no AFSL. This content does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs, and is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. *This analysis is generated by artificial intelligence and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated. Independently verify before acting.* © 2026 MoonWire Ltd. · [Terms](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/TOS) · [Risk Disclosure](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/RISK_DISCLOSURE) · [Privacy Policy](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/PRIVACY_POLICY)