Use Market Profiles to Display Distinct Views of Order Flow
Tracking order flow has become a key component of modern technical analysis. One of the most powerful tools used is Volume Profile which plots historical volume-at-price activity directly behind the price bars. By viewing this cross-section of order flow trading, users can scan for significant price levels such as support and resistance.
NinjaTrader’s versatile Order Flow + Volume Profile Indicator provides a bird’s-eye view of volume distribution within the price range of a trading session. Besides a profile of historical volume, there are two additional profiles available: price and tick.
Profile Modes in the Volume Profile Indicator
Volume Profile is the default profile mode. A volume profile displays historical volume data and plots a profile based on the distribution of volume at specific price levels where trades occurred. This volume-at-price information helps traders track significant levels of inflection and potential support & resistance areas.
Price Profile displays either letters or blocks of the same color to represent underlying trades within a specific time window of 30 minutes. A letter or block of the same color is plotted each time a single tick occurs within a 30-minute time frame. Seeing both the volume distribution in combination with the times at which the trades occurred helps traders not only detect important price levels, but also times of increased liquidity.
Tick Profile displays the sum of ticks, or individual trades which occur at particular price levels. This produces a profile which reveals “pure” trading activity with no regard to volume. This profile of trades distributed over a price range can help traders detect notable levels where the highest frequency of trades occurred.
Overlaying Profiles
In addition to using the 3 profile options individually, these can also be used in combination. In the chart below, both a volume (blue) and tick (pink) profile are plotted in the same panel. With this display, a user can see not only the distribution of volume throughout the session, but also where the highest number of trades occurred.
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