The highest price a stock has traded at over the past 52 weeks — the most widely watched resistance level and a key milestone in a stock's momentum trajectory.
Deeper Explanation
The 52-week high is psychologically loaded: investors who bought at or near the high are eager to sell at breakeven. When a stock trades near its 52-week high, it must absorb this selling pressure from holders who want to exit at cost. Once the stock breaks above the 52-week high on strong volume, this overhead supply is exhausted — and the stock is trading in new territory with no natural resistance. O'Neil found that the market's best performers typically broke to new 52-week (and often all-time) highs before their biggest advances. The counterintuitive insight: buying at all-time highs is momentum investing at its purest, because there are no overhead sellers left.
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