Market Profile Glossary

Auction :

The bid-ask process of the market is described as an auction. The purpose of an auction is to facilitate trade. The auction results in the formation of the value area which the buyers and the sellers agree as the fairest price for the day. As the auction moves away from the value area, buyers and sellers change their definition of value. If higher prices are agreed in the auction, value is supposed to move higher and consequently the market moves up. The market will auction as high as it needs to in order to find sellers or as low as it needs to in order to motivate buyers to see it as “relatively cheap”.

Buyers :

Individuals of any timeframe who feel that the present market is underpriced and therefore less in value. These individuals will move price up.

Buying Tail :

The failure of the auction at lower levels to attract new sellers results in the buyers swiftly moving in forming what is called a buying tail.

Close :

The final auction of the day

Delta- Buyer/ seller Delta:

Delta describes the quantity of contracts bought at the offer minus sold at the bid. It simply measures the “aggressiveness” of buyers versus sellers. We use the term motivated or aggressive buyers or sellers who input market orders as opposed to limit and are in a hurry to move the market their way.

Excess :

Excess marks the end of one auction and the beginning of a new auction. It is visible within the two-way auction process via buying and selling tails. Excess occurs in all timeframes; it completes an auction

Gap :

Is another form of excess. Price moves rapidly away from a prior trading level or reference; a gap signifies a total reordering in market thinking. NOTE: In profile, we measure a gap from the previous day’s high or low—not from the settlement price/ close. A gap signifies a market that is out of balance and presents a large opportunity.

HVN- High Volume Nodes

This describes a range of prices where there is a particularly high amount of volume or bulge in the profile.The market likes to sat here and will spend considerable time. It is noted to be the best place to re-look at your trading str ategy,

Initial balance :

The first 60 Minutes of a trading day are called the initial balance. As the name suggests, the IB tries to set up the day's balance or define value for the day. The IB is important for the type of open to be monitored. See section on Opens below.

Initiative activity :

Control by the buyer or seller in the first few minutes of the trading day is called initiative activity.As the name suggests, the action determines conviction on the part of the players to move the market.The strength of the initiative activity is useful to determine which party will have a role to play in the day

Long Liquidation :

It is a process in which "old business" reverses earlier positions.Long liquidation is a process that adjusts inventory that has gotten too long. It occurs within every timeframe; day timeframe long liquidation may be over quickly while longer timeframe long liquidation may last for much longer periods of time.

LVN- Low Volume Nodes

This describes a range of prices where there is a particularly low amount of volume or dip in the profile.


Open :

The first auction of the day.There are various types of open:

OAOR- Open auction out of Range

OAIR- Open Auction In Range

OD- Open Drive

ORR- Open Rejection reverse

OTD- Open test drive




One time framing :

A trending sitauation where in value is built successively higher in an uptrend or lower in a downtrend. One timeframing is applicable to all timeframes, from a monthly chart to the shortest timeframe Recognizing a one-timeframing mode can keep a trader from fading a market at inopportune times while also enabling a trader to employ the most appropriate strategic and tactical plan for the current market conditions.

Poor Highs/ Lows :

Auctions, within the market’s natural two-way auction process, end in one of two ways: 1) Most commonly the auction ends through a more aggressive counter auction that creates a buying or selling tail; or 2) The auction ends through simple exhaustion.We refer to the exhaustion as poor high/ low.the poor high/ low is a temporary halt in the ongoing auction. What is noticeable is the lack of opposite auction in such cases and hence the original auction has a higher possibility of restarting.

Reference levels :

These are points in time which hold information.That information may simply be available for very short periods of time or for extremely extended periods. Larger reference levels are of great importance to the long term player.Successful trading is about managing change and taking advantage of it.

Pullback low/Rally high :

Applicable to trend days and is a late afternoon price migration against the prevailing trend. During a trend day there is usually one afternoon inventory adjustment; the pullback high or low is the extreme of this inventory adjustment. On the following day the pullback high or low is used to determine if there has been any meaningful change relative to the previous day; if the pullback high or low is not violated, there has been no meaningful change in the opposite direction of the prior day’s trend.


Timeframes :

The market profile recognizes five distinct types of individuals who operate in the markets. These are a) Scalper, b) Day trader, c) Short term player, d) Intermediate term player, e) Long term player. Each of these individuals have a perception which they bring to the market and this perception helps move the markets. The scalper and the day trader are responsible for maintaining the liquidity of the markets.

OTF ( Other Time Frame ):

This describes all participants with a time frame that is greater than the one you are in. Major trending or vertical moves are completed by larger participants who are using a greater time frame than the one you are looking at. When the OTF participates, it generally takes many prices and a lot of volume transacted to complete an order. Funds, swing investors, governments and financial institutions in general are operating at the OTF level. They are recognized when we move from “horizontal development” to “vertical development”. They are also recognized using the opening swing, initial balance and other indications.

Responsive activity :

This is a response to Initiative activity, the strength of which can determine changes to the trend of the timeframe.


Range extension :

The movement away from the initial balance is called the range extension.Success or failure of the range extension gives us an indication of the type of day unfolding.

Value :

The perception which all of the above mentioned players bring to the markets after the bid-ask process helps build what we call "value". Value is different for each of the mentioned players and they will move price up or down depending on this perception. For example if the intermediate term seller thinks that the market is overpriced he will jump in to move price down.On a daily timeframe, the period where 70 % of the volume action takes place is defined as the value area.Similarly we have a weekly and a monthly value area.

Point of Control Volume ( POCv) :

The Point of Control in Market Profile terms stands for the most commonly traded price closest to the center of the range. This is the price where the most activity occurred during the day ; it is therefore the price considered to be the fairest during any trading day.The migration of the fairest price at which business is being conducted is of great importance in monitoring longer timeframe activity (greater than day timeframe) in any single day.


Sellers :

Same role as expained above for Buyers except they think that the market is overpriced and will move price down.


Selling tail :

The failure of the auction at higher levels to attract new buyers results in the sellers swiftly moving in forming what is called a selling tail. The selling tail is a failed upwards auction.The greater number of single TPOs that form the selling tail the more aggressive the sellers’ reaction.

TPO's :

The basic building blocks of the Market Profile® are called Time Price Opportunities, or TPOs. Each half hour of the trading day is designated by a letter. When a certain price is traded during a given half hour period, the corresponding letter or TPO is recorded next to the price.


Short Covering :

Opposite activity of the Long Liquidation. What's important to understand here is that it is again "old Business" which is covering.These become violent and misleading if you don’t understand the difference between old and new business.