GlossaryTPO / Market Profile
TPO / Market Profile
The Market Profile counts time, not volume: for each time segment of a day, every price level the price touched in that segment gets a letter, a TPO (Time Price Opportunity). Where many letters stack up, the market traded for a long time and found value; where there is only one, it ran through quickly.
How to read it
- Balance: A wide, round profile with the POC in the middle shows a market that has found value. The edges of the Value Area often act as boundaries.
- Trend: A long, thin profile with Single Prints shows a directional move. Single Prints are often revisited and filled later.
- Initial Balance: If the price later breaks clearly out of the first hour's range, that is a sign of a trend day; if it stays inside, more of a rotation day.
- Position relative to the previous day: If the day opens outside the previous day's Value Area, traders often look to see whether the price finds its way back into it.
Limitations
- TPO calculates only from the candles' highs and lows. It does not know how long the price stayed at a level within a period; every touched level counts equally. In exchange, it runs on any symbol, including stocks.
- The level height follows the zoom. When you zoom, it recounts, and the POC and Value Area can shift by a few levels.
- Days begin in your local time, not in UTC or a market's exchange time.
- For intervals above 1 hour, the chart shows “TPO / Market Profile needs an interval of up to 1h”.