The full day
The letters, point of control, value area and the tag with day type and Initial Balance.
Market Profile · NinjaTrader 8
Screenshot of the tool running.
The profile that measures time, not volume.
Every letter is half an hour price spent at that level. This is the classic CBOT Market Profile, and it answers a different question from a volume profile: not how much traded, but how long it stayed.
Letters, half an hour each
The day builds letter by letter. The shape they draw tells you whether the market is searching for price or accepting it.
Day type, spelled out
Normal, normal variation, neutral, trend or double distribution. Written over the profile, no interpretation required.
Per session too
One profile per window of the day, each with its own Initial Balance and value area, instead of a single one for the whole session.
One profile per window
Asia, London and New York each with their own day type, and virgin levels running to the edge.
With delta behind
The same letters with each level's imbalance layered underneath.
With volume behind
And with the volume profile, to compare where time was spent against where it traded.
What each term means
The names the indicator uses, and what each one means.
- TPO. Time Price Opportunity: each letter is half an hour of price at that level.
- Initial Balance. The first hour's range, which frames the rest of the day.
- Single print. A level with only one letter: price went through and never came back.
- POC. The price where most time was spent.
- Value area. The levels holding 70 % of the time.
- Virgin level. A POC or value edge price has not returned to.
- Normal day. A wide Initial Balance that holds for the rest of the session.
- Trend day. Price leaves and does not come back; the profile stretches out.
- Double distribution. Two areas of acceptance split by a gap.