In ancient times, there was no access to charts or news as there is today, so traders had to fend for themselves to know when the market hit a support or resistance, or was in a bearish or bullish trend.
If you have ever delved into it, you have surely heard of the speculator Jesse Livermore. He has a couple of published books about how trading was done in the market back in the nineteen hundreds.
Imagine that you have a well-diversified portfolio and the total amount of money you have in your account reaches, for example, 16,000 in FIAT currency (it doesn't matter which currency you are using: euro, dollar, etc.).
So, as you probably (if you do like I do) check your positions at least once a day, you notice that for a couple of weeks the quotes go up and down in such a way that your total capital fluctuates between 15,750 and 16,000, with bearish dips down to 15,575 and up to 16,050.
Well, without having to observe any chart, you will know that the market is hitting against a resistance at that level (16,000), your level.
And I say your level because other traders will have different capital amounts, although the process will be the same, whether you have 16,000, 800,000 or 3,000.
And the same goes for supports, and even more for bullish or bearish trends.
If the market clearly goes above that level of 16,000 and rises quickly (16,200, 17,000, 16,750, 18,150, 18,800, 19,500....) we are certainly in a bullish trend.
The same goes for bearish trends but in reverse.
