Glossary · Chart and price

Resistance

A price area above the current price where rallies have repeatedly stalled and turned down, suggesting sellers tend to appear there.

By Sky Trade editorial teamUpdated November 5, 2026

Resistance is the ceiling counterpart of support: an area where rallies have run out of steam before. It often forms at previous highs, round numbers and old support levels that have been broken.

Why do such areas matter? Partly because orders cluster there — traders who missed the last top sell at the same level, others take profit. Partly because so many people watch the same obvious levels that their reactions become self-fulfilling for a while. Neither mechanism is dependable enough to trade blindly.

Practical points:

Mark resistance as a zone a few pips wide, using candle bodies and wicks together.
Fresh, obvious levels tend to matter more than old, faint ones.
The approach tells you something: a slow grind into resistance with shrinking candles is different from a fast surge that may break straight through.

For Higher/Lower trades resistance is mostly useful as a warning. A Higher trade opened just below a major ceiling needs price to break it before expiry, which is a harder job than it looks on the chart. See support and resistance and tweezer tops and bottoms.

Example

USD/JPY has turned down from 151.90–152.00 twice. Price now approaches 151.85 with shrinking candles: a Lower trade near the zone is one option, and a close above 152.05 would invalidate it.

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