What they are
Support is a price below the current one where a falling stock has stopped and turned before. Resistance is a price above it where a rising stock has stopped and turned before. They are areas more than exact prices, and they come from the stock's own history.
How Breakaway finds them
A swing low is a session whose low is the lowest of the five sessions on each side of it, and a swing high is the same with highs. Support is the nearest swing low under the price in the last year, and resistance is the nearest swing high over it. When the price is above every swing high of the past year, the 52-week high stands in for resistance.
A swing is only known five sessions after it happens, because it needs those five sessions to the right of it. The newest one can take a week to appear.
How traders read them
A level the price has turned at several times is watched more closely than one it touched once. After a price breaks through resistance, traders often watch whether the old resistance acts as support on a pullback, and the reverse after support breaks. A level is a reference point drawn from the past. It holds until it does not.
Support and resistance on Breakaway
Every public stock page shows the nearest support and resistance, with the date each was set and how far it is from the price. Members can draw support and resistance on the chart, with trendlines and the shape they make. None of it counts toward the Quality Score.