Table of Contents

Market Profile

Market Profile will display real time as well as historical trades for a particular market. Market Profile is a unique style of chart that organizes trade data by time, price, and volume. Customize letter sequences and the session start letter. Navigate Market Profile with smooth scrolling and zooming. Letter shading based on time or volume. Profile information boxes show common values and computations. Configurable time interval per letter. Customize the look and feel by adjusting fonts and colors.

To open select Market Profile from the main window’s New Item Menu.

Selecting Market Profile

To select a new Market Profile window you can select chart from the New Item Menu.

Click the + to the left of the exchanges to see a list of available contracts. Or you can type either the name or symbol of the product to find it faster.

Double click a desired contract or select it and click Ok.

Scrolling and Zooming

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You can scroll the Market Profile window easily by clicking and dragging anywhere within the chart. Additionally, clicking in the price or time axes will allow you to scroll just those axes.

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Zoom the Market Profile in and out by right-clicking in either the price or time axes and dragging.

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Click the reset button on the bottom right-hand side of the chart, or press the keyboard hot-key ‘Home’ to jump back to the current active profile and center on the last trade price.

Letter Colors and Style

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The Market Profile window opens with rainbow colors and blocked-letter view turned on by default. Adjust the rainbow coloring, TPO styling, and TPO coloring from the Market Profile properties window.

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Toggle blocked-letter view.

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Change the rainbow coloring of the letters using the properties window. Other TPO styling is also available.

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Properties → Display (Tab) → TPO Symbol Color → select desired color.

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Single Profile View

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In single profile view the time scale is no longer scrollable and the profile is anchored to the left side of the window. The price scale can still be scrolled by clicking and dragging, and the chart can still be zoomed by right-clicking and dragging on either the price or time axes.

Enable single profile view from the Market Profile properties window.

Image Toggle single profile view.

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Keystroke toggle single profile view.

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Properties → General (Tab) → Single Profile View → checkbox

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Price Volume

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A histogram chart of relative volume traded at each price is displayed to the right of the profile.

Volume can also be displayed behind the TPO symbols to free up some horizontal space on the chart. This option usually looks better if blocked-letters are deactivated.

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Toggle price volume.

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Keystroke toggle price volume.

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Properties → Display (Tab) → Show Price Volume → checkbox

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Symbol Time Range

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Each letter in the Market Profile represents 30 minutes of time, by default. This can be customized from the Market Profile properties window.

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Properties → Profile (Tab) → Symbol Time Range → enter desired value

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Symbol Price Range

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The price scale includes a row for every price tick. For some markets, this makes the profile too large to see one a single screen (without zooming out so far the letters are barely legible.)

A Symbol Price Range of 1 is the default and shows one row per price tick. A value of 2 shows one row for every two price ticks, etc.

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Adjust the symbol price range using the tool bar buttons.

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Properties → Profile (Tab) → Symbol Price Range → enter desired value

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Custom Session Times

A single profile displays every trade occurring on a given trading day. To restrict the profiles to a specific trading session time range, adjust the Session Time Range.

The letter sequence always begins at the start time of the session time range (midnight for the 24 hour – trading day – session.)

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Properties → Profile (Tab) → Session Time Range → enter desired start and end times.

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Custom Letter Sequence and Start Letter

The default letter sequence is “ABC…abc…” All 26 letters of the alphabet are used. The start letter “A” is assigned to the first 30 minutes starting at the session time range start time.

A custom letter sequence can be entered in Custom Letter Sequence below the option above. Any character on the keyboard can be used.

To customize the start letter of the sequence (the letter assigned to the first interval beginning at the session start time), enter a value for the Start Letter option right below the Custom Letter Sequence option.

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Properties → Profile (Tab) → Use Custom Letter Seq. → checkbox

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Summary Information Boxes

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There are four summary information boxes arranged around each profile. These can be toggled on and off using the toolbar button, the properties window:, or using the keyboard hot-key ‘I’.

Additionally, the “Summaries” tab on the properties window allows for hiding/showing each of the four summary panes individually and customizing what values are displayed in each.

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Toggle summary information boxes

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Keystroke toggle summary information boxes

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Properties → General (Tab) → Show Profile Summaries → checkbox

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Profile Summary

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The profile summary shows values and calculations for the entire profile. These values are updated automatically as new trades occur in real-time.

Properties → Summaries (Tab) → Profile Summary → select desired Profile Summary to display.

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The number of TPO symbols currently on the entire profile. If enabled numbers in parenthesis are the number of TPOs above/below the POC.

TFF

Trade Facilitation Factor. The number of TPO symbols in the profile divided by the price range of the profile. Higher values indicate lower trend. High TFF values are common on a Normal day.

POC

Point of Control. The price row with the largest number of TPO symbols.

POCvo

Volume Point of Control. The price row with the highest volume.

RF

Rotation Factor. Each letter is given a +1 if it's high is above the high of the previous letter, and a -1, if it's high, is below high of the previous letter. In addition, a +1 or -1 is added based on whether the low was above or below the previous low. Each letters RF (anywhere from -2 to +2) is summed to provide the RF of the profile.

VLT

Volatility. The average price range for the letters in the profile.

H

The high price of the profile.

L

The low price of the profile.

VAH

The high price of the value area.

VAL

The low price of the value area.

RNG

Price Range. The price range of the profile.

VOL

The total volume traded for the profile.

D

Delta. The difference between the volume of trades at the best bid and the volume of trades as the best offer.

B/A

Displays the volume traded at the best bid and offer.

Price Summary

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The price summary shows values and calculations for the current price row. The current price row is the last trade price. However if the crosshairs are enabled on the chart (toggle crosshairs with the keyboard hot-key ‘X’), the price/calculations displayed will track with the mouse cursor as it is moved over the chart window.

Properties → Summaries (Tab) → Price Summary → select desired Price Summary to display.

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The current price.

VOL

The volume traded at the current price.

D

Delta. The difference between the volume traded when this price was the best offer (aggressive buyers) and when this price was the best bid (aggressive sellers). For example, if 3 contracts trade while this price was the best offer and 7 contracts trade while this price was the best bid, the value will be -4.

B/A

Displays the volume traded at the best bid and offer at the current price.

nTPO

The number of TPO symbols in this price row.

Letter Summary

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The letter summary shows values and calculations for the current letter. The current letter is whichever last traded. However if the crosshairs are enabled on the chart, the current letter tracks whatever letter is under the mouse as it is moved over the profile.

Properties → Summaries (Tab) → Letter Summary → select desired Letter Summary to display.

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SYM

The current letter.

H

The high price for this letter.

L

The low price for this letter.

VOL

The volume for this letter.

D

The difference between the volume traded at the best bid and the volume traded at the best offer aggregated for this letter.

B/A

Displays the volume traded at the best bid and offer aggregated for this letter.

RNG

The price range for this letter.

TPO Summary

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The TPO summary shows values and calculations for the current TPO (letter at a specific price.) The current TPO is whichever letter and price last traded. However if the crosshairs are enabled on the chart, the current TPO tracks whatever TPO is under the mouse as it is moved over the profile.

Properties → Summaries (Tab) → TPO Summary → select desired TPO Summary to display.

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TPO

The current TPO.

VOL

The total volume traded for this TPO.

D

The difference between the volume traded at the best bid and the volume traded at the best offer aggregated for this TPO.

BA

Displays the volume traded at the best bid and offer.

Split Views

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Split view displays each letter in its own column. This can be activated for a specific profile on the chart, or for all profiles.

To split a specific profile into the columnar display, right-click over the profile you wish to toggle and select Split Profile. To toggle back to the normal view, select Un-Split Profile on the menu.

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Toggle split view. Effects all profile intervals on the chart.

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Keystroke toggle split view. Effects all profile intervals on the chart.

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Context menu toggle split view.

Displaying POC and POCvo Prices

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The Point of Control (POC) and volume-based Point of Control (POCvo) can be displayed either as indicators on the chart, or as highlights on the price scale (or both.)

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Toggle the POC or POCvo scale highlights:

Properties → General (Tab) → Highligh POC (or Highlight POCvo) → checkbox

Toggle and customize the POC and POCvo indicators:

Properties → Display (Tab)

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Displaying Value Area Indicators

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Value Area and Volume Based Value Area indicators.

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Value Area indicator

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Volume based Value Area indiator

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Toggle and customize the VA and VAvo indicators.

Properties → Display (Tab)

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Displaying Customizing Initial Balance and Opening Range

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The Initial Balance and Opening Range indicators can be toggled on and off using the IB and OR toolbar buttons, or checkboxes on the Properties → Display (Tab) options page. Additionally, the colors of these indicators can be customized using the Properties Image → Display (Tab).

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Initial Balance shows the price range traded in the first 60 minutes (first two letters when using 30-minute TPO intervals). Opening Range displays the price range traded in the first minute of trading. These time ranges for these indicators can be customized on the Properties → Profile (Tab) options page.

The Initial Balance indicator can be extended by a configurable percentage. The IBx1 extension displays the Initial Balance extended to 150%, the IBx2 extension displays the Initial Balance extended to 200%. These percentages can be customized on the Properties → Profile (Tab) options page. These indicator extensions can be toggled on and off and their colors customized on the Properties → Profile Tab.

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If the Opening Range or Initial Balance indicators do not appear correct to you, you may try tweaking the custom session time range to the open and close times for the market you are viewing (see Custom Session Times above.)

Toggling Price and Time Scales

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Display the price scale on the left, right, both left and right, or hide it:

Properties → General (Tab) → Price Scale Position

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Toggle the time scale:

Properties → General (Tab) → Show Time Scale

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Market Profile Hot Keys