An indicator that shows with horizontal bars which price levels saw the most trading, to find “the prices where many people bought and sold”.
- Weapon tier
- Elite
- Slots used
- Volume profile 1/1
Concept
A normal chart draws volume as a vertical bar for each candle, but a volume profile adds up volume “for each price level” and draws it as horizontal bars. The longer the bar, the more trading happened at that price level.
The longest bar is called the POC (Point of Control) and is shaded darker. Since many people bought and sold near that price, it is commonly read as a level where the price is likely to stall or turn back when it returns.
This site and the game draw the volume profile as “one picture based on the last candle”. The bars are built from the last 60 candles up to the last visible candle, and in the game they are redrawn from the new candle each time one appears.
- Volume Profile
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
80 candles with volume and the volume profile bars. The price falls to the price level of the dark bar (POC), and after touching it, candle 75 (yellow vertical line) closes above it, followed by a big rise. The volume profile is a single picture drawn from the last candle. Keyboard: ←/→ to move, +/− to zoom, 0 to see the whole chart.
The dark bar is the POC. Because the volume profile is one picture based on the last candle, it may differ slightly from the bars you would have seen at the time of the candle marked with a yellow vertical line. Drag the chart sideways with a finger or the mouse to move it, and pinch with two fingers to zoom in. With a keyboard, click the chart, then use ←/→ to move and +/− to zoom.
How it is calculated
Split the range from the lowest low to the highest high of the last 60 candles into 20 equal levels.
For each candle, add its whole volume to the level that contains (high + low) ÷ 2.
The level with the most volume is the POC. If several levels tie, the lowest price level counts as the POC.
Parameters
| What it sets | Name in the game | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candles used to build the bars | period | 60 | 5 – 300 |
| Number of price levels | bucketCount | 20 | 2 – 100 |
Trading ideas
The price is commonly read as likely to stall or turn back near the POC or near levels with thick bars. The chart on this page shows the price falling to the POC, holding there and rising.
Levels with thin bars saw little trading, so the price is thought to pass through them quickly.
Some also guess whether the people who bought during that period are mostly in profit or at a loss, depending on whether the price is above or below the POC.
Common traps
- Change the period (60 candles) and the whole shape of the bars changes. Even on the same chart, the POC can differ from one period to another.
- It is an approximation that puts a candle’s entire volume into one level. A long candle with a big gap between its high and low actually traded across many price levels, but it is added to just one.
- Heavy trading in the past does not guarantee that the price will hold at that level in the future. It is not a sure signal.
In the game
- “Volume Profile” is an “Elite” weapon and uses 1 of the “Volume profile” slots (limit 1). It does not use any “On chart” line slots.
- On the match chart it is drawn as faint gray bars growing sideways from the edge, and only the POC bar is dark. The candles show through even where the bars cover them.
- The price axis is not widened to fit the volume profile. This keeps the candles from getting squashed, so bars for price levels off the screen may be cut off and not visible.
Related indicators and lessons
- OBV — An indicator that keeps a running total, adding the volume of up days and subtracting the volume of down days, to show whether trading leaned toward buyers or sellers.
- MFI — An indicator that multiplies price moves by volume to show, from 0 to 100, whether more money has recently flowed in on the buying side or the selling side.
- Volume Oscillator — An indicator that shows how many % the short-term average volume is above (or below) the long-term average, telling you whether trading is heating up or cooling down.
- Volume Ratio — An indicator that shows the volume of recent up days as a % of the volume of down days, telling you whether trading leaned toward buyers or sellers.
- AD Line — An indicator that keeps a running total of each candle’s volume, weighted by where the close ended between the day’s high and low, to show buying pressure (accumulation) and selling pressure (distribution).
- EOM — An indicator of “how easily the price moves”, showing whether the price rises (or falls) easily even on light volume.
- PVT — An indicator that keeps a running total of “% move × volume” for each candle, showing whether volume pushed more on the rising side or the falling side.
- CMF — An indicator that weighs, by volume, whether closes over the last 20 candles mostly ended near the top or the bottom of each day, shown between −1 and +1.
- VWAP — An average-price line that gives more weight to prices from high-volume candles, showing roughly what people paid on average recently.
- Force Index — An indicator that multiplies how far the price moved by volume, showing whether the “force” was behind the rising side or the falling side.
- 4. Volume and volume MA