Think or Swim implemented both Volume Profile and TPO Profiles as built-in studies in the latest release. I was working on a hacked version for volume by price that was clogging up my processor, so this is a welcome addition. Here’s what the settings do:
Price Per Row Mode: Choose how it calculates how wide the volume “bin” is. You can choose “Automatic”, where it figures out a spacing on its own, or you can choose “Ticksize”, where each bin is one tick wide, or “Custom” where you can specify a width. If you choose “Custom” then the input “Custom Row Height” is used, but otherwise it is ignored.
Time Per Profile: The amount of time that each profile will include. “Chart” gives you only one profile covering the entire chart. “Hour” gives you one profile for each hour in the chart, and so forth.
Profiles: How many profiles you want displayed superimposed over the price action. If you ask for more than there are matching periods on the chart, the extras are ignored.
On Expansion: Do you want the plot over in the right hand side beyond the price action, or on top of price? “Yes” puts it over on the right hand side, with the added constraint that you only get one profile no matter how many you asked for. “No” plots each profile on top of the corresponding period’s starting bar.
On my screenshot above, I have added two “Volume Profile” studies. One is set to “Chart” and “On Expansion=yes”, so it is an overall summary of all the volume on the chart. I also added one set to “Two Days” and “On Expansion=no”. This results in multiple two-day volume distributions plotted on top of price.
Tags: TPO, volume profile
March 1, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hey man, great update and quick tutorial. You’re always so jimmy on the spot with ToS stuff.
March 6, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Hey Pro,
Nice job on the explanation and the tutorial.
Keep up the great work.
Peace-
March 9, 2010 at 9:22 pm
[...] Continue to Volume Profile Goes Native to Think or Swim! [...]
March 23, 2010 at 1:19 am
Goog blog!!
Good analysis!!
Thank you.
Please hold out in the future.
I has put your link on my blog:
forex chart analysis and a cat
…(I’d be pleased if you exchange reciprocal link with me.)
March 24, 2010 at 3:58 pm
The addprofile() function is cool, but what else can it be used for?
This makes me wonder why TOS included it as a function rather just than write a proprietary Java Based Study for TPO and VolumeProfile.
Do you see any possibilities for other uses?
March 24, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Not yet. Maybe they will make some in future. The only thing I can think of is that as a function you can overlay a profile from a different symbol than the current chart, but that’s not a useful feature that I can see.
July 13, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Anyway we can overlay value areas and vpoc? Or modify the indicator to figure automatically? Thanks
October 3, 2010 at 9:08 pm
So, what is the difference between Volume Profile and TPO Profile in TOS?
October 3, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Volume profile shows the number of shares traded at each designated level. It’s really a “volume by price” indicator. TPO profile stands for “Time-Price Opportunity” profile. This is not volume weighted. It’s a count of how many different 30 minute periods in the day that a certain price level was reached at least once in the 30 minute window. For more info on that, google “Market Profile” and “TPO”.
I think that volume at price levels is more useful for pointing to potential support/resistance levels than TPO’s. Just my experience in watching the futures.
September 27, 2011 at 6:34 am
forex strategis…
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