What is volume profile? Volume by price vs volume by time

The volume bars under a normal chart measure volume by time: one bar per candle. A volume profile measures volume by price. It adds up everything traded at each price over a period you choose and draws the totals as horizontal bars beside the chart, as in the drawing at the top of this page.

Long bars mark prices where buyers and sellers did a lot of business, so price often slows down when it returns. Short bars mark prices the market crossed quickly, so price often crosses them fast again. That contrast is the whole tool.

The idea grew out of Market Profile, developed by J. Peter Steidlmayer, a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and launched by the exchange in 1985. Market Profile counts time at each price, printing a letter for every period in which a price traded. Volume profile keeps the same bell-shaped reading but counts traded volume instead. The trading glossary covers the basic terms.

Point of control, value area, VAH and VAL explained

The point of control (POC) is the price row with the most volume. The value area is the range around it that holds a set share of the period's volume, conventionally 70%, with the value area high (VAH) as its top edge and the value area low (VAL) as its bottom edge.

Why 70%? Market Profile borrowed the shape of a normal distribution, where about 68% of observations fall within one standard deviation of the middle, and called the central 70% of activity the value area. It is a convention, not a law: TradingView describes 70% as typical and lets you change it.

TradingView builds the value area outward from the POC, adding the busier neighboring row at each step until the chosen share is inside, so after a trend day it can sit lopsided around the POC.

Point of control (POC)
The price row with the most traded volume in the period: a reference that is often revisited and often broken.
Value area (VA)
The range around the POC that holds a chosen share of the volume, usually 70%.
Value area high (VAH)
The top edge of the value area.
Value area low (VAL)
The bottom edge of the value area.
High-volume node (HVN)
A peak in the profile: a price zone with heavy volume, where price tends to slow down and move sideways.
Low-volume node (LVN)
A valley in the profile: a price zone with little volume, which price tends to cross quickly.

How does price behave at the POC, HVNs and LVNs?

TradingView's help center describes high-volume nodes as consolidation zones where price tends to move sideways, and low-volume nodes as prices that price tends to cross quickly. The POC is the largest high-volume node.

Hypothetical that works: yesterday's POC is $101.20, with an HVN at $99.40–$99.60 and an LVN between $100.00 and $100.60. Today price drops through the thin zone in fast 5-minute candles, then slows at $99.60 in small overlapping candles. A candle closes back up at $99.90: buy, with the stop at $99.30 under the node ($0.60 of risk) and the target at $101.15, just under the POC ($1.25 of reward, about 1:2).

Hypothetical that fails: two candles after the entry, price closes at $99.20, below the node. The stop fills for a loss of about $0.60 a share, more in a fast market, and the next thin zone below becomes the path. A node is a place to look, never a reason to stay in a trade.

  • At an HVN or the POC, expect price to slow and rotate: a fair place to look for a reaction, a poor place to expect a clean breakout.
  • Through an LVN, expect speed: a break into a thin zone often runs to the next HVN, which makes a natural target.
  • Treat every node as a zone, a band of price rows, never a single tick.

How to use the prior day's value area intraday

The most common day-trading use is to mark yesterday's POC, VAH and VAL before the open, usually from the regular session (9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET), then see where today opens. The three cases are listed below.

In the drawing, read the support zone as yesterday's VAL and the resistance zone as its VAH. Hypothetical that works: VAL $48.20, POC $49.30, VAH $49.80. Today opens at $48.70. Price dips to $48.10, then a 15-minute candle closes at $48.45, back above VAL. Buy at $48.45, stop at $48.00 under the dip and the zone ($0.45 of risk), target $49.25 just under the POC ($0.80 of reward, about 1:1.8).

Hypothetical that fails: the candle that dips under VAL closes at $48.05, and the next one closes lower still. No reclaim, no long; if you bought the dip before any close, the $48.00 stop caps the loss. Price that keeps closing below VAL is accepting lower prices, the subject of the next section.

  • Open inside yesterday's value area: rotation between VAL and VAH is the base case, so a confirmed reaction at an edge beats a breakout bet in the middle.
  • Open above VAH: holding above can turn the old VAH into support; falling back inside and staying there is a rejection that brings the POC into view.
  • Open below VAL: the mirror image, with VAL as possible resistance and the POC as the target of a return inside.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn chart with a resistance zone above and a support zone below: price dips into support, rejects it and prints a buy signal.

Accepted vs rejected moves: breakouts from the value area

When price leaves the value area, the question is whether the market accepts the new prices. Acceptance means price keeps closing beyond the edge and builds volume there. Rejection means a quick probe that finds little business and snaps back inside.

Define it before the session. One simple rule: two closed candles on your timeframe beyond the edge, with no close back inside, count as acceptance; a wick beyond the edge and a close back inside count as rejection. Neither is proof, but a fixed rule beats deciding in the moment.

Hypothetical that works: yesterday's VAH is $102.00 and price has spent the morning in a tight range just under it, like the box in the drawing. A 5-minute candle closes at $102.35 on volume well above the morning's, and the next candle holds above $102.00. Buy at $102.35, stop at $101.85 under the box ($0.50 of risk), target $103.35, just under the next HVN at $103.40–$103.60 ($1.00 of reward, 1:2).

Hypothetical that fails: the next candle closes at $101.90, back inside value, the failed breakout the breakout trading strategy guide warns about. Exit on that close or at the stop and take the small loss; a rejected move above VAH can rotate back toward the POC. The same test applies to an opening range breakout.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn chart where price coils inside a tight range box, then a candle closes above the box on a volume spike and a buy signal prints.

Volume profile vs VWAP

Both come from volume, but they answer different questions. VWAP is one line: the session's average price weighted by volume. A volume profile is a distribution: it shows where the volume sits, not just its average. On a quiet, two-sided day they tend to sit close together; on a trend day VWAP follows price while the POC can stay behind at the morning's busiest price.

Use them together. VWAP says which side is in control on average today; the profile says where the next busy and thin prices are, which is where stops and targets go. A VWAP reclaim like the one in the drawing has a better location when yesterday's VAH or an HVN sits just under it. The VWAP trading strategy guide covers the reclaim in detail.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn chart where price trends above a dashed VWAP line, pulls back to it and closes back above it, labeled reclaim.

A volume profile trading plan, step by step

The profile supplies location. Confirmation, the stop and the size still come from your plan, in the order listed below.

Sizing, hypothetical: a $25,000 account risking 0.5% accepts a $125 loss. With the VAL long's stop $0.45 away, $125 ÷ $0.45 = 277.8, rounded down to 277 shares. A stop-out costs about $125 plus costs, more if price gaps through the stop; the position size calculator does this math.

UpTickFlow, our invite-only TradingView indicator, does not draw volume profiles or read the POC. It follows the same discipline: it waits for a candle to close at a level, draws an entry, a stop and a target before the trade, scores the setup from 0 to 100 and stays quiet in chop. Treat it as a second check on your levels, not a scanner. See how it works.

  1. Before the open, mark yesterday's POC, VAH, VAL and the clear nodes, and note where they line up with support and resistance or supply and demand zones.
  2. Check the higher-timeframe trend with multi-timeframe analysis.
  3. Wait for price to reach a level and for a candle to close showing a reaction or acceptance. No closed candle, no trade.
  4. Put the stop beyond the level and the extreme of the reaction, not inside the node.
  5. Put the target just before the next HVN, the POC or the far edge of value, and skip the trade if the risk/reward ratio misses your minimum.
  6. Size from the stop, so a full loss costs your fixed risk per trade.

Turn your phone sideways to read the drawing. Tap to close.

A hand-drawn trade plan on a candle chart: an entry, a dotted stop line below it labeled stop, and a dashed line rising to the target labeled target.

Limits of volume profile: data, timeframe and range

A profile is only as good as its data and the window you choose.

  • Data source. On TradingView, stocks use traded volume, while indices, forex and crypto CFDs use tick volume, a count of price updates. On those symbols the profile shows activity, not true size.
  • Bars, not trades. TradingView builds profiles from lower-timeframe bars, such as 1-minute bars, and counts volume as up or down by whether each bar closed above or below its open. Up/down volume is not true buying versus selling.
  • The window. A Visible Range profile recalculates when you scroll or zoom, so its POC moves, and a daily, a weekly and an event-anchored profile can show three different POCs. Choose the window before the session.
  • Extended hours and row size. Including pre-market and after-hours trading changes the profile, and very small rows create false nodes. Keep the same settings every day.
  • It fails often. Nodes break, and the POC gets sliced through on news. The profile describes where volume traded; it does not predict where price goes next.

Volume profile on TradingView: tools and plans

TradingView's help center lists six volume profile indicators, on their own tab in the Built-ins section of the Indicators menu. In their settings, Value Area Volume sets the value-area share, Row Size sets the detail, and Volume switches between Total, Up/Down and Delta.

TradingView's pricing page, checked in October 2026, lists the Volume Profile indicators on the paid Essential, Plus, Premium and Ultimate plans, not on the free Basic plan. Plans change, so check the page before you subscribe. Our best TradingView indicators guide covers what else is worth adding.

  • Session Volume Profile: one profile per trading day or part of the day, the usual tool for yesterday's levels; it can extend the POC, VAH and VAL to the right.
  • Session Volume Profile HD: a session profile whose detail adjusts automatically as you zoom.
  • Visible Range Volume Profile: one profile for whatever is on screen.
  • Fixed Range Volume Profile: you set the start and end bars.
  • Periodic Volume Profile: one profile per period, such as a day, a week or a month.
  • Auto Anchored Volume Profile: anchors itself, for example to a lookback's highest high, the session or an earnings date.