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Volume Profile turns the chart on its side: instead of volume per bar, it shows volume per price — a histogram anchored to the right edge, one row per price band, over whatever lookback you set. Where the rows are long, the market spent size; where they are short, it passed through. Those thin patches are the levels price tends to travel back across quickly. Two levels are marked on it. The Point of Control is the single busiest price in the window. The Value Area is the band around it holding the chosen share of the window’s volume — 68% by default — with its upper and lower bounds badged on the price axis as VAH and VAL.

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Adding the indicator

Open the chart settings panel and use the Add button in the Indicators section. The profile draws behind the candles so it never hides price action.

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Settings

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Reading notes

  • Buy and Sell profiles are real, not estimated. Because the tape carries true trade sides, profiling one side alone shows where that side actually transacted — something a profile built from bar direction cannot offer.
  • A bar’s volume is spread across the rows its range covers, in proportion to how much of the bar sits in each. A bar that closes in one row lands wholly in that row.
  • Ties resolve downward for the Point of Control and upward when the Value Area expands, matching the reference implementation traders will have used elsewhere.
  • A sparse profile’s Value Area can stop short of the target percentage. When the rows on both sides of the area hold no volume at all, it stops there rather than reaching across a gap to manufacture the number.
  • Replay is supported: the profile fills in level by level as the day unfolds.