Retest

Glossary · Technical Analysis

A retest is price returning to a broken level to check whether it holds from the other side — old resistance acting as new support after a breakout, or old support as new resistance after a breakdown. A successful retest confirms the break and offers an entry with a far tighter stop than chasing the breakout candle.

"Let the level prove it flipped — the retest is the patient trader's discount on the same breakout."

The mechanics: a breakout leaves late shorts trapped above old resistance and unfilled bids parked at it, so when price dips back, both groups defend the level — shorts covering, buyers finally getting their fill. A clean retest looks like a shallow pullback on shrinking volume, a tap of the old level, and a decisive rejection candle away from it. Entry on the rejection, stop just beyond the zone — risk the chase candle never offered.

The trade-off is honest: the strongest breakouts never come back, so waiting for retests means occasionally watching a runner leave without you. That's the fee, and it's worth paying — the retest improves your price and your stop on every break that does return. The trap is calling every dip a retest: if price closes back through the level, the flip failed and you're looking at a failed breakout, not a discount. Don't average into it — the level just told you the break was bait.

Watch the retest play out live

Related jargon

Questions

What is Retest in crypto trading?

A retest is price returning to a broken level to check whether it holds from the other side — old resistance acting as new support after a breakout, or old support as new resistance after a breakdown. A successful retest confirms the break and offers an entry with a far tighter stop than chasing the breakout candle.

How would a trader say it?

Let the level prove it flipped — the retest is the patient trader's discount on the same breakout.

Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.

Crypto Jargon

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