resistance investment & finance definition

In technical analysis, a price point or points that a futures contract or other financial instrument will have difficulty rising above. Resistance is a price level where selling pressure overcomes buying pressure and a price advance is turned back. The opposite is support, which is a technical analysis term. It indicates a price point that prices will have difficulty moving below. Technical analysts look at resistance in order to determine the market’s next likely move. For instance, if gold prices have been attempting to move higher but each day’s gain stops at $335 per ounce of gold or $336, then those two price points are where resistance occurs.