What is Volume Profile?
A volume profile shows volume by price rather than by time. Altrady Charts takes the last 200 bars, splits their price range into 24 rows and adds each bar's volume to the rows it traded through. The rows are drawn as horizontal bars growing leftwards from the newest bar, split into volume from bars that closed up and bars that closed down. The busiest row, the Point of Control (POC), is highlighted, and lines mark the POC and the top and bottom of the value area, the band around it holding 70% of the volume.
The profile shows where trading was concentrated over a span of bars. It does not know where inside each candle the volume really traded, it does not cover a range you drag on the chart, and it does not say which way price will go.
How to use Volume Profile
- Point of Control. The price row where the most volume was done. Price returning to it often slows down, because that is where the most business was agreed.
- Value area. The rows around the POC holding 70% of the volume, marked by the VAH and VAL lines. Price inside the value area is trading at levels the market has accepted; price outside it is exploring.
- Thin rows. Rows with little volume are prices the market passed through quickly. Price tends to move through them quickly again.
- Up and down halves. Each row is split into volume from bars that closed up and bars that closed down, showing which side did more of the business at that price.
These are ways to read the profile, not entry signals on their own.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 200 | How many of the most recent bars the profile covers. Longer covers more history and a wider price range. Minimum 2. |
| Rows | 24 | How many price rows the range is split into. More rows give finer detail but fewer bars in each. 2 to 200. |
| Value Area (%) | 70 | The share of total volume the value area must hold. Higher widens the value area. 1 to 100. |
| Width (% of range) | 30 | How far left the busiest row reaches, as a share of the range's width in time. Only changes how the profile is drawn. 1 to 100. |
Adjust the span, row count, value area and width in the indicator settings.
Calculation
The range runs from the lowest low to the highest high of the last 200 bars and is split into equal rows. Each bar's volume is shared evenly between every row its high-to-low range touched:
row height = (highest high - lowest low) / 24
for each bar in the last 200:
rows touched = rows from the bar's low to its high
each row += volume / number of rows touched
(as up volume if close >= open, else down volume)
POC = row with the most volume
value area = start at the POC, add the busier neighbouring row
above or below, until 70% of total volume is enclosedWhen the rows above and below hold equal volume, the row below is added first. The POC line is drawn at the middle of the POC row, VAH at the top of the highest value-area row and VAL at the bottom of the lowest.
Spreading each bar's volume evenly over the rows it touched is an assumption. A candle does not record where inside its range the volume traded, so a bar that ranged over ten rows has its volume divided equally between them. Keep this in mind before reading a single row too closely.
Nothing is drawn until 200 bars have loaded. The rows are drawn once, for the latest bar, and anchored at its right edge. The POC, VAH and VAL lines are calculated on every bar from that bar's own last 200 bars, so their history shows how those levels moved over time.
Limitations
- The profile redraws. The rows always describe the latest 200 bars, so they are redrawn on every new bar as old bars drop out and new ones come in.
- Volume inside a candle is estimated. Volume is spread evenly across each bar's range, which is not how it actually traded.
- The range is the last bars, not a range you choose. You set how many bars it covers, but it always ends at the newest bar.
- Row count changes the picture. The POC and value area depend on how many rows the range is split into. A different row count can move them noticeably.
- It is not a strategy. On its own it carries no risk management, sizing or exit.
Frequently asked questions
A volume profile shows how much volume traded at each price level over a span of bars, drawn as horizontal rows. The Fixed Range version in Altrady Charts covers the most recent bars, 200 by default.
The Point of Control (POC) is the price row with the most volume. The value area is the band of rows around it holding 70% of the volume by default; VAH is its top and VAL its bottom. All three are drawn as lines on the chart.
Yes. The indicator declares four inputs: Length, default 200 with a minimum of 2; Rows, default 24, from 2 to 200; Value Area (%), default 70, from 1 to 100; and Width (% of range), default 30, from 1 to 100.
Yes, the profile itself does. Its rows always describe the latest 200 bars, so they are redrawn on every new bar and change while the live candle trades. The POC, VAH and VAL lines are different: each bar's values come from the 200 bars up to that bar and are not revised once it closes.
The default is 24. More rows show finer detail, but each holds fewer bars and the POC can jump between neighbouring rows. Fewer rows give a coarser, steadier picture. Match the row count to how wide a price range the profile covers.
Use the Add to chart button at the top of this page. It opens BTC/USDT on Binance in the Altrady Charts terminal with the built-in Volume Profile Fixed Range already applied. On any other market, open the indicator picker on the chart and choose Volume Profile Fixed Range from the Volume group.