Volume Profile groups trading activity by price across a selected range. It is a historical distribution view that helps describe where activity was concentrated.
Key concepts
- POC (Point of Control)
- The price level with the highest volume in the selected profile.
- Value Area
- A price region containing a target share of the profile's volume, according to the selected settings. A 68% setting is one starting point for study.
- VAH and VAL
- Value Area High (VAH) is the upper boundary; Value Area Low (VAL) is the lower boundary.
Learn it step by step
- 1Select a Session Profile and check the session boundaries.
- 2Display the POC and Value Area, then identify the VAH and VAL boundaries.
- 3Compare how distributions differ between sessions without treating any single level as a buy or sell signal.
The POC, Value Area, and its boundaries are calculations from selected data. They do not predict that price will pause or reverse there.