Support & Resistance Cheat Sheet
Quick reference for drawing S/R levels that actually work, plus the most common mistakes.
Quick reference table
| Definition | Levels where price has historically paused or reversed. |
| Drawing on which timeframe? | Match your trade timeframe. Daily for swing, hourly for day trading. |
| Most reliable levels | Touched 2-3 times, on high volume, with clear bounce reactions. |
| Round numbers | Always significant (10, 100, 1000). Many traders watch them. |
| Prior swing high/low | Always relevant. Mark every clean swing point on the chart. |
| Polarity (role flip) | Broken support becomes resistance, broken resistance becomes support. |
| Trading range bottoms | Long on rejection + volume + tight stop below. |
| Trading range tops | Short on rejection + volume + tight stop above. |
| Breakout volume | Required. Breakouts without volume usually fail. |
| Fake breakouts | Common. Wait for 1-2 candles closing above/below before entering. |
Quick setups
- Long at support: rejection candle (hammer, bullish engulfing) + volume spike + break of prior bar's high.
- Short at resistance: rejection candle (shooting star, bearish engulfing) + volume spike + break of prior bar's low.
- Breakout long: clean close above resistance with volume > 1.5× average + retest of broken level holds = strong entry.