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Volume Profile: volume by price and settings

Volume Profile aggregates executed volume by price band over a selected interval. The period, session, rows, data source, and Value Area algorithm change the profile.

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Volume Profile groups executed volume into price bands over a selected interval. The result is a horizontal histogram: longer rows contain more of the sample's volume, and shorter rows contain less.

In plain terms — Traditional volume bars show how much traded at each moment. The profile turns the question around: how much traded in each price area?

POC, Value Area, and nodes

The POC is the row with the highest volume in the calculated profile. The Value Area is a contiguous group of rows that aims to cover a selected percentage of volume under the platform's algorithm; 70% is a common convention, not a constant. HVN and LVN identify relative peaks and valleys in the distribution.

These labels describe the sample. They do not prove that a level will attract, repel, or accelerate price in the future.

How to read the figure — The underlying trades and interval are the same; bin width and alignment change. The hotspots show why the POC and Value Area boundaries can move even though no trade has changed.

Volume Profile: bin choices change the map The same one hundred trades are first aggregated in one-tick bins and then in shifted two-tick bins. The Point of Control and illustrative Value Area change. Volume Profile: bin choices change the map The same 100 trades, two price aggregations SAME 100 TRADES 1-tick bins one price per row 2-tick bins shifted edges volume volume 105 5 104 7 103 14 102 18 101 22 100 16 99 11 98 7 105 5 103–104 21 101–102 40 99–100 27 98 7 POC 101 · VA 100–103 POC 101–102 · VA 99–104 VA example: expand contiguously from POC until at least 70% is included POC and Value Area depend on data scope, bins and aggregation rule Cyclepedia diagram · Emiciclo
A profile does not exist without settings: interval, session, and bins define the observed distribution.
Select the highlighted points to explore the detail

Building a consistent comparison

To compare two profiles, keep at least the instrument, venue or feed, session hours, interval, row size, and volume type constant. In fragmented markets the dataset may cover only one venue; for some instruments, software uses tick volume or aggregated data instead of individual trade volume.

Volume Profile is not Market Profile: the former aggregates volume, while the latter traditionally organizes time-price opportunities, or TPOs. It is also not the current order book, which displays visible orders still waiting, or VWAP, which returns a weighted average rather than a full distribution.

Implementation details

With tick-by-tick data, software can assign each trade to its row. With larger records, it may have to distribute or estimate volume within the recorded price range. Value Area algorithms and tie-breaking rules also differ: two platforms can produce different VAH and VAL values from the same data.

POC, Value Area, HVN, and LVN should therefore always be accompanied by the settings that generated them. The Volume Profile setup guide turns this rule into a checking procedure.

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