Levels are not lines. They are places where people got hurt.
A support level is a price where buyers previously stepped in hard enough to stop a decline. Resistance is where sellers stopped an advance.
That is the textbook definition and it is incomplete in a way that matters. A level does not work because it is drawn on your chart. It works because real people have real positions around it, and those positions create predictable behaviour.
Why levels hold
Three groups of people care about a price where the market reversed sharply:
- Those who bought there and are in profit. They want to add more at the same price.
- Those who sold there and are underwater. They want out at breakeven — which means buying.
- Those who watched and missed it. They have decided to act if it comes back.
At the level, all three groups buy. That is the mechanism. It has nothing to do with the line being pretty.
And it is also why levels eventually break. Every time price returns, some of that pending demand is consumed. The third or fourth test has fewer buyers behind it than the first. A level that has held five times is not stronger — it is *weaker*, because most of the orders that defended it are already filled.