Rejection
Price reaching a level and being pushed straight back, usually leaving a long wick behind.
Full explanation
A rejection happens when price trades into an area and cannot stay there. The market moves in, meets enough opposing interest, and returns — often within a single candle, leaving a long wick and a close back on the original side of the level.
Rejections are the clearest evidence that a level is being defended. One rejection is a hint; repeated rejections from the same area make it a level worth planning around.
The opposite outcome is acceptance: price trades beyond the level and closes there, showing the market is comfortable at the new price.
Why traders watch it
Rejection tells you whether the level you marked is genuinely active today. It is also one of the few signals that arrives with a natural invalidation point — beyond the rejection extreme.
The Trading Plan refers to rejection when describing how a level behaves, so you can check the outcome yourself rather than relying on an opinion about direction.
Trading considerations
- A rejection is only meaningful at a level you identified beforehand.
- Repeated rejections from the same area strengthen the case for that level.
- Rejection on a news spike is often noise, not intent.
Educational guidance only — never a trading signal or recommendation.
Related indicators
ATR (Average True Range)
ATR, or Average True Range, measures the average distance a market travels over a chosen number of periods, including gaps. It is a pure volatility reading with no directional bias. Traders use ATR to set stop distances that respect normal noise, to size positions consistently, and to judge whether current conditions are unusually quiet or unusually fast.
Bearish candle
A candle that closes below its open — sellers finished the period in control.
Bollinger Bands
Bollinger Bands are a volatility indicator made up of a moving average with upper and lower bands that expand and contract as market volatility changes. They help traders judge whether price is becoming stretched, identify volatility changes, and support both trend-following and mean reversion analysis.
Breakout
A breakout occurs when price moves decisively beyond a defined level such as a range high, trendline or consolidation boundary. It signals that the balance between buyers and sellers has shifted and can start a sustained move. Breakouts also fail often, so traders look for confirmation through follow-through, expanding range and a successful retest of the broken level.
Bullish candle
A candle that closes above its open — buyers finished the period in control.
Candle
A single bar on a candlestick chart showing the open, high, low and close for one period.