How to Use Daily Support and Resistance Levels

What every Trade Plan gives you

Every daily Trade Plan lists a small set of exact prices for each instrument: resistance above price, support below it, and the nearest pivot. It also names the next level in each direction, so you know where price is headed if a level gives way. Each market's levels are published about an hour after that market closes, for its next session: SPY, ES, QQQ, NQ and 19 more markets across Asia, Europe and the Americas. This page walks through each part with examples and shows how to turn them into a plan.

Resistance: the levels above price

Resistance levels sit above the last close. They are prices where the market has turned before, so they are where a rally is most likely to stall. Treat resistance as a place to watch closely before buying into it.

Worked example. Say SPY closed at 757.50 and the plan lists resistance at 758.70, 759.66, 761.53 and 762.67. A long taken just under 758.70 is buying straight into the first level overhead, so either skip it or size it small. A clean push through 758.70 that holds opens the path to 759.66, the next level up.

Support: the levels below price

Support levels sit below the last close. They are prices where the market has turned before, so they are where a selloff is most likely to slow. Support gives you a defined place to look for a bounce and a defined place to be wrong.

Worked example. With the same SPY close at 757.50, support sits at 757.05, 756.00 and 755.24. A pullback that holds 757.05 and turns back up is a setup at a published level. A close through 757.05 that stays there points to 756.00 next.

The nearest pivot

The nearest pivot is the published level closest to where price closed. It is usually the first level price meets when the session opens, so it is the line that decides the early part of the day. On the charts it is drawn in purple, with resistance in red and support in green.

Above and Lose: the next level in each direction

Each plan ends with two lines for every instrument:

• Above 758.70 → 759.66 next. If price gets above the first resistance level and holds, 759.66 is the next level to watch.
• Lose 757.05 → 756.00 next. If price breaks below the first support level and stays there, 756.00 is the next level down.

When there is no further level in a direction, the plan says open air. There is nothing published beyond that point, so stops and size need extra care.

Set up or sidelined

Some days an instrument has no levels worth trading, and the plan lists it as sidelined. The title tells you at a glance, for example “SPY set up, ES, QQQ & NQ sidelined”. A sidelined instrument means a patience day for that market. Trade only the setups you actually have a plan for.

The session review

Every plan opens with a free review of the session that just closed: where each instrument opened, what it did at its levels, where it closed, and the full set of levels that session was traded against. It describes how price behaved around those levels.

Levels on your chart

MyLinedChart draws the levels straight onto your chart, so you watch price against the same numbers the plan lists. You can also pull the numbers from the daily levels page, and each symbol has its own page, such as SPY levels.

Turning the levels into a plan

1. Check which instruments are set up and which are sidelined.
2. For each one you trade, note the nearest pivot, the first resistance above it and the first support below it.
3. Write both paths before the open: what you do above the pivot, and what you do below it. The Above and Lose lines give you the next level for each.
4. Put your stop on the far side of the level your trade depends on, then size the position so that stop costs what you planned to risk.

The levels describe market structure. You bring the entry, the stop and the size, and every trade is yours. For definitions, see the Trade Plans glossary, and compare free and Pro on the pricing page.