Are you a crypto trader struggling to find a footing in a volatile crypto market?
If yes, then the first thing you need to master is the art of identifying support and resistance levels.
Imagine bouncing a ball inside your house. There are two barriers that will limit the flight and fall of the ball – your floor and ceiling. In trading, there are similar barriers that limit the movement of price action known as support and resistance.
Such barriers in trading can have long-lasting effects on an asset, since price action rarely forgets its past. If traders regard a certain price level as a great entry or exit point, it will likely continue to act as a barrier for prices until all of their respective needs are satisfied.
Support
For example, buyers will generally continue to buy at a specific price, given the asset is perceived as undervalued, until all of their demand is fully absorbed by the market. So, if buyers engage at X price and the price moves upward only to later return, the same buyers will look to defend their positions at X and potentially add more to their positions.
New buyers will see that price fell no further than X before, so are likely to consider it a safe entry. This concentration of buy pressure will prevent price from falling any further, creating a temporary floor known as support.
Resistance
On the other hand, if an asset is perceived as overvalued at a certain price level, sellers will be sure to take advantage. Here, those large buyers from before will look to exit their position and take profit. It’s also possible traders will enter “short” positions at this level, given the perceived over-valuation, increasing the market’s sell pressure.
Just like when there was high buy pressure, this concentration of sell pressure will force the price level to act as a barrier, except this time it will act as a ceiling, rather than a floor, known as resistance.
