Trend Lines

Trend lines are probably the most common form of technical analysis that is used today, but they are also one of the least-used. A trend line is formed when you can draw a diagonal line between two or more price pivot points. They are commonly used to judge entry and exit investment timing when trading securities.

A trend line is a bounding line for the price movement of a security. A support trend line is formed when a securities price decreases and then rebounds at a pivot point that aligns with at least two previous support pivot points. Similarly a resistance trend line is formed when a securities price increases and then rebounds at a pivot point that aligns with at least two previous resistance pivot points.

If they are drawn accurately, trend lines can be a very useful and precise technical analysis method. Unfortunately, most of the Forex traders don’t draw them correctly or try to draw a line in a way that the lines correspond to the market, instead of making it the other way around.

The support or resistance of an identified level, whether discovered with a trend line or through any other method, is deemed to be stronger the more times that the price has historically been unable to move beyond it. Many technical traders will use their identified support and resistance levels to choose strategic entry or exit prices because these areas often represent the prices that are the most influential to an asset's direction. Most traders are confident at these levels in the underlying value of the asset so the volume generally increases more than usual, making it much more difficult for traders to continue driving the price higher or lower.



Round Numbers

Another common characteristic of support or resistance is that an asset's price may have a difficult time moving beyond a round price level. Most inexperienced traders tend to buy or sell assets when the price is at a whole number because they are more likely to feel that a stock is fairly valued at such levels. Most target prices or stop orders set by either retail investors or large investment banks are placed at round price levels. Because so many orders are placed at the same level, these round numbers tend to act as strong price barriers. If all the clients of an investment bank put in sell orders at a suggested target of , it would take an extreme number of purchases to absorb these sales and, therefore, a level of resistance would be created.

Conclusion

Determining future levels of support can drastically improve the returns of a short-term investing strategy because it gives traders an accurate picture of what price levels should prop up the price of a given security in the event of a correction. Conversely, foreseeing a level of resistance can be advantageous because this is a price level that could potentially harm a long position because it signifies an area where investors have a high willingness to sell the security. As mentioned above, there are several different methods to choose when looking to identify support or resistance, but regardless of the method, the interpretation remains the same - it prevents the price of an underlying from moving in a certain direction.