Market Profile® Overview video 

 Market Profile® Preferences video

Market Profile® Playback - very nice for learning and practicing  profile development and patterns.

Read more in depth Market Profile information from our Help Manual (page 95+)

PROFILES TAB 

Show 'X' Days Ending Now - Use this setting to set how many individual profiles you want displayed at once on the screen. Typically this will display 'Now' which means the chart will show current information going back 'X' days. The "Show 'X' Profiles Ending Y Days Back" option allows you to create a Market Profile® chart that looks at 'X' number of sessions 'Y' days back. You may just want to see last weeks profile. This is one example. Tick data must be available for each session in order to create the Market Profile® Chart for that session. 

Special Duration: Days - When this option is selected, the duration of each profile will be the number of days you choose. For instance, if you choose 5, then each profile will be constructed with 5 days of data. Notice when you check the Special Duration check box the setting "Show X Days Ending" changes to "Show X Profiles Ending". This means if you have "Show 3 Profiles Ending", MarketDelta will construct three 5-day profiles. 

Special Duration: Minutes - When this option is selected, the duration of each profile will be the number of minutes you choose. For instance, if you choose 30, then each profile will be constructed of 30 minutes of data. This is a way to create mini-profiles and creates an alternative to using SPLITS. 

Special Duration: Dynamic - When this option is selected, the duration of each profiles is then dynamic based on price action. The user supplies two first period represents the minimum number of letters that each profile in order to be complete. If the second period is considered X, price must of the last X bar in order to form a new profile. For instance, if the periods and 12, then once the 21st letter begins forming, price is monitored for the range formed by the previous 12 letters. If price breaks out of that the 21st letter, then the 21st letter breaks away from the profile and begins profile, which again will build for at least 20 letters before looking for breakouts. 

Special Duration: Variable - This option gets selected when you have merged, split, and single profiles together on one chart. A popular use it to have a multi-day profile along with just the current session as a single Session Override - If this is checked you have the ability to show a selected of time on the chart instead of the default symbol session for the instrument viewing. For instance, if you have the ES on the chart and the ES is setup 24 hour data in the Instrument Setup (ALT+A), you may only want to view (regular trading hours) session. By selecting the correct session override displayed on the chart will only be the data for the RTH time frame. 

Volume Bars / Trade Bars - Volume bars displays a vertical volume histogram is comprised of the actual volume at each price. It can be seen above histogram. Trade bars are vertical histograms like seen above except constructed on the actual trades and NOT volume. It shows where more trades occurred. This overlayed or displayed off to one side as seen above. Background Color - Changes the background color of the selected chart Chart Name - Use this area to name your Market Profile® charts.

 

Background Color - Changes the background color of the selected chart.

 Chart Name - Use this area to name your Market Profile® charts.

 
LETTERS TAB

Price Range of Each TPO/Letter - This essentially specifies the how you want the price scale to look. You can adjust the symbol display format by clicking ALT+A or set the chart manually by choosing a custom price scale range.

Time per Letter - When viewing a multi-day profile you may want to define each letter to be more than 30 minutes.

Start with Letter - This option allows you to specify which letter begins each profile. To control the time period being viewed on the chart, set the session override to reflect the session you are interested in viewing.

First Letter Time - This option allows you to specify the length of time the first letter will consume. This is used by many bond traders to set the starting letter to 10 minutes because the US Treasury bonds begin trading at 7:20 Chicago time. The remaining 30 minute bars will start/end at the top and bottom of the hour after the first letter.

Letter Height - Specifies how tall each letter will be in pixels.

Letter Space - Specifies number of pixels between letters.

Letter Color - Specifies letter color. See our Market Profile Letter Color article for more information.

Letter Font - Specifies the font used.

Draw Blocks - This option replaces the letters with square blocks, although you can specify the dimensions and size accordingly. Use this option if viewing longer term profiles and overlays. A short cut to quickly convert letters to blocks is to hold the SHIFT key down on the keyboard and use the scroll wheel on the mouse or UP/DOWN arrows on the keyboard. The profile will quickly rescale back and forth. 

x 3 - This option basically creates each letter 3 times. How this is used most often it to change the letter time to represent 10 minutes and then check this option. This particular setup would create 3 letters A's, 3 letter B's and so forth. One potential benefit of this is breaking down the profile into smaller units. 

YZABC - This specifies that the profile continue using capital letters upon cycling through the entire alphabet.



PRICE LEVELS TAB

POC - Point of Control - This represents the price/row in which the most letters reside. It is the widest row. This price was achieved in more 30-minute segments of the day than any other price.

POC (volume) - Point of Control with respect to actual traded volume - This represents the price that traded the most volume.

VA (x%) - This is the value area and traditionally represents 1 standard deviation or 70%. Other percentages can be specified if you so choose.

VA (volume) - This is the value area with respect to volume. This technically provides a more accurate value area because each trade is taken into affect.

Singles - This will draw a line where a run of singles starts. A single is just a portion of a profile that has only a single letter and usually represents and area of fast market activity. Price is NOT in balance in these areas and they are often referenced as points to look at for potential support or resistance. The Singles line will be draw on the letter where the singles area was first started. Single prints can often lead to trend days and are important to be aware of. These single print lines will continue to extend across the chart until they are touched by future price.

Extend Naked POC Lines - A naked POC is a point of control from a previous session's profile that has not yet traded in subsequent profiles. When this checked, a line will extend our from each days POC until it is traded. The can be used as useful reference points to trade around or look for support/resistance.

IB - Initial Balance - The initial balance is typically defined as the first two brackets (letters). In this graphic the IB is the dark blue bar.

IBx - Initial Balance x % specified - This allows you to specify various percentages greater than 100% that will extend the IB above and below to see further potential support/resistance.

OR - Opening Range - This is defined typically as the first 5 or 10 minutes, but  we give you the option to specify it. It is represented as the yellow bar and will always be contained within the range of the IB.

Value Area Calc. Method:

Method A - First, we count the number of TPOs in the profile, and take 70% of that number (70% is configurable by the user). This is the number of TPOs we're looking for in our Value Area. Next, the Point of Control (POC) is determined by finding the price which contains the most TPOs. If there is a tie (two or more prices with same number of TPOs), the price closest to the center of the profile is used as the POC. The number of TPOs in the POC are counted and this number is used as our initial TPO count. At this point the Value Area only comprises the POC and the number of TPOs in the POC. We now inspect the two prices above and below the POC. If the two prices below the POC have more TPOs, those prices are added to the VA. Otherwise, the two prices above the POC are added. We increment our TPO count by the number of TPOs in the prices we just added to the VA. We continue repeating this process, adding two prices at a time, until we have met or exceeded our 70% TPO Count, and completed our VA. The upper price of this Value Area is considered the Value Area High (VAH). The lower price of the VA is considered the Value Area Low (VAL). eSignal Market Profile® charts calculate Value Area in a similar fashion.

Method B - First, we count the number of TPOs in the profile, and take 70% of that number (70% is configurable by the user). This is the number of TPOs we're looking for in our Value Area. Next, the Point of Control (POC) is determined by finding the price which contains the most TPOs. If there is a tie (two or more prices with same number of TPOs), the price closest to the center of the profile is used as the POC. The number of TPOs in the POC are counted and this number is used as our initial TPO count. At this point the Value Area only comprises the POC and the number of TPOs in the POC. We now inspect the two prices above and below the POC. If the two prices above the POC have more TPOs, those prices are added to the VA. If the two prices below the POC have more TPOs, those prices are added to the VA. If there is a tie, we add both the two prices above and the two prices below. We increment our TPO count by the number of TPOs in the prices we just added to the VA. We continue repeating this process until we come to the point where adding two prices would exceed our 70% TPO count, at which point we begin adding one price at a time using the same method. Once our 70% TPO count threshold is met or exceeded, our Value Area is complete. The upper price of this Value Area is considered the Value Area High (VAH). The lower price of the VA is considered the Value Area Low (VAL). CQG Market Profile® charts calculate Value Area in a similar fashion.

Highlight Scale w/ VA & POC - This option when selected will shade the current days developing value area on the right price scale. If the "Draw Scale On" option is checked under the Options tab and "Right & Left" is selected, then on the left price scale the previous days value area will be highlighted and on the right price scale the developing value area will be shaded. Within the shaded portion is a price that will be shaded darker. This is the POC (point of control). Hide Labels - This hides the labels that are attached to lines that are extended.

Thick Vertical Lines Only - This option takes the IB and VA lines and makes them thick and vertical only. It doesn't extend these important reference points to the right horizontally.



REFERENCE LINES TAB

Reference Lines - This allows you to place various lines or reference points on the chart. By checking one of the boxes and placing a label and value, one can easily place reference lines on the Market Profile® chart. Another way to quickly add reference lines is to double left click the price on the price scale. For instance, if you wanted to mark the pivot you could by simply typing Pivot for label and inserting the value for the line. Another more advanced option it so place one of the V# variables in the space for the value and label it accordingly. This will allow for a dynamic reference line added to the chart.

OPTIONS TAB

Split Letters For - This allows for splitting profiles by each letter to more clearly see the range and prices traded of each letter (bracket). The options exist to split the last profile or all profiles. An easier way to control the splits is to right click the profile you want to split and choose it from the popup menu. The same is true to remove splits. Another way is to us the SP button on the toolbar situated on the left of the chart. If you don't see it, hit the TAB button to toggle it on an off. You have the ability to split just the current profile, all profiles, or specify any individual profiles to split.

Highlight Developing VA & POC - This will highlight the developing value area and POC. On a traditional profile this may be difficult to see, so it is recommended if you want to utilize this functionality that you change the profile to blue or black letter color and check "Letter Space" under the Letters Tab and set it to 5 pixels.

Draw Gridlines - Toggles on or off gridlines.

Playback - This feature allows for playing back each days profile to see how it developed. This is a great learning tool for beginning and experienced traders alike. In order to start playback on a specific day it is required that it be the first day of all the profiles showing. This means if you have your chart displaying 5 days of profiles but you want to just replay yesterday, double click the chart and set it to Show 2 days. This will display today and yesterdays data and when you click the play button it will start playing from yesterday's open. The buttons for controlling playback are located on the bottom of the toolbar. If you don't see the toolbar hit the TAB key. There is a second, much more robust
playback feature under File | Playback.

InfoBox - Toggles on or off the information box that displays on the left of the profile window. This can also be toggled by right clicking the chart and selecting "Toggle
Infobox".

Timeline Height - Timeline height adjusts the height of the row at the very bottom of the window.

Current Price Highlighter - Toggles on or off the current price highlighter that extends across the entire window.

Lock Chart - Locks chart so it won't be affected by multi-linking.

 

Cumulative Profile Left - This draws a cumulative profile on the left side of the chart and is based on TPO's or Volume for the last x number of profiles, current month, etc. "X" can be specified.

Cumulative Profile Right - This draws a cumulative profile on the right side of the chart and is based on TPO's or Volume for the last x number of profiles, current month, etc. "X" can be specified.