Support (Support Level)

Categories: Trading, Charts

Stocks bounce around day-to-day. Even shares that are generally moving sideways never just hold at one particular price. They rise for a bit, then fall for a bit, then back up...back down...etc. This works because, as a stock falls, it gets more attractive to buyers. The price is lower, so more people are willing to buy it.

Eventually, it reaches a level that convinces a large group of people to move into the stock. That buying interest sends the stock higher. People continue to buy until it gets too expensive. At that point, buyers are limited and some of the holders start selling the stock to lock in profits. That selling pushes the stock lower...until, of course, it gets cheap again and buyers reemerge.

The points where the buyers come back into the stock, the price levels that the shares never seem to drop below...that area is known as support. It's like a floor underneath the stock.

Shares drift up from $12 to $15. At $15, the stock seems too expensive for most people. Holders start to sell. It falls back down toward $12. At around $12, people look at it and say, "Hey, that stock's gotten pretty cheap; I don't mind taking a flier on that." They start buying again.

That $12 level is called support. The more times it gets close to $12 and turns back toward the upside, the stronger the support is said to be.

Technical traders look for support levels. In its simplest form, this involves drawing horizontal lines across a chart at points where the stock has reversed course from a downward move, back to the upside. These lines define support. On a more advanced level, there are mathematical techniques to determine more precise support levels.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are support levels and res...0 Views

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Finance allah shmoop what Our support levels and resistance levels

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All right Support It's a broth for stock trading You

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know lifts and separates Sort of our resistance Well you

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know how the alien opines resistance is futile Well this

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is how new shmoop employees heir born low cost alien

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non union labour and nothing like it Okay so let's

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look at a few stock charts here Well support level

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cleverly named because here you can see support It's a

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ziff As soon as the stock touches anywhere close to

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this line well it bounces meaningful E up What does

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that mean It means that investors have a price at

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which the stock is a no brainer bhai and they

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all buy it right there So then what about a

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resistance level Well kind of inverse here like check out

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this little engine that could stock It's trying to break

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north higher and higher It thinks it can It thinks

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it can There's just too much resistance And it gets

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sent back down to the man Yeah well then it

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has to chug chug again thinking if can thinking can

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think it can't And then resistance So yeah that's resistance

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So this is where the collision between fundamental and tech

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analysis can emerge or at least drive into each other

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You might have a stock that has supported fifteen bucks

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and trades as high as twenty for a while But

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then it gets beaten back down with its resistance level

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touch that traders who control the pricing of a given

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stock on any given day will manage its pricing within

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that given range But over time the fundamental business or

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earnings power or profitability of the company well it wins

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out over its short term trading dynamics Fundamental investors might

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be the ones doing the buying at fifteen box not

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technical chartist that is you might have a stock that

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paisa in three percent dividend at twenty dollars a share

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or sixty cents a year but fifteen dollars a share

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Well then the dividends massive at four percent And with

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the dollar in change in earnings it's a steady eddie

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stock that investors will buy all day long at fifteen

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dollars So in essence the fundamental investors in fact are

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the ones providing quote technicals aboard unquote for the stock

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at that level And eventually if that stock ends up

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growing in producing same three dollars a share in earnings

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Well it won't be trading at anything close to fifteen

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dollars or twenty dollars anymore It will have broken out

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of the resistance level that was operating like gravity keeping

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it down you know like the man does so supporting

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resistance levels exist in a vacuum within trading days or

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weeks and they come in a variety of flavors Other

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kinds of support patterns happen as well Here's supporting a

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characteristic line and it supports all kind of right there

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and well here's support in a double bottom We cannot

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lie You know there's a port right there in there

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and here you have support in a rectangle But well

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note that you also have resistance up here and the

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line looks like it's trying to break out of that

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rectangular pattern But it's getting resistance and coming back down

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And he also see support in other areas like ascending

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tops And there's resistance that presses down new highs And

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you still have other patterns like well this congestion area

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which makes this doc look like a trading sardine where

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traders will buy it It's a support line and then

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sell it at the resistance line all day long and

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make nickels and dimes well The key notion and all

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of these supporting resistance style charts is that patterns work

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until they don't So check out this very decisively resistant

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top in this triple top pattern It's like the line

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just can't break out of it Ah ever But if

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you check out the breakout pattern in this breakout chart

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yes there was resistance until the company produced a dollar

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eighty three and earnings when everyone thought it would only

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produce a dollar forty and then blame Oh the stock

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breaks out to a new high level at which point

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all bets are off and the pattern picking charters take

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their losses from having been short the stock of the

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top And then they go hunting for some new pattern

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religion Sat words don't don't trust charts

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