Show a captured-session volume profile

Identify which profile source you are using

The OHLC Volume Profile supports a captured futures source and an explicitly labeled loaded-OHLC estimate. The captured source uses executed price cells for the exact displayed dated contract's full Globex session. The estimate allocates known candle volume to closing-price buckets, which cannot prove the actual execution-price distribution or aggressor direction. Indices provide no executed volume and do not receive a profile. Before reading the bars, inspect the source choice so a convenient estimate is not described as a complete native session profile.

Enable and fit the intended distribution

Open the chart's indicator or profile settings and inspect both the source and the display controls. Automatic fitting and profile visibility are separate preferences.

1. Enable the volume profile for the exact supported instrument.
2. Choose the available profile source and review its coverage explanation.
3. Set the supported row grouping, maximum width, gap, opacity and colors.
4. Leave Fit session enabled when you want automatic price scaling to include the captured profile's actual row edges.
5. Use the chart's AUTO control if a saved manual range is preventing those session prices from appearing.

Read the profile's time scope correctly

The captured futures profile covers the configured Globex session independently of candle interval and visible lookback. Looking at the last fifteen minutes does not reduce that distribution to fifteen minutes. Changing to five-minute candles does not recalculate the session as five-minute-only volume. This is useful when recent price is near one edge of an earlier distribution, but it can make the profile appear much wider in price than the latest candles. Fit session exists to preserve that broader context when automatic price scaling is active.

Understand grouping, POC and value area

Rows group admitted execution quantities at supported native tick boundaries. Coarser rows combine evidence rather than inventing its finer breakdown. POC identifies the maximum-volume row under the selected source and grouping. Value-area controls describe a contiguous region around the admitted distribution according to their percentage and grouping rules. A change in row size can move a grouped POC without implying that a source execution changed. When two rows tie, deterministic handling keeps the display stable. Compare profiles only after matching source, contract, session and grouping.

Use display controls without changing the evidence

The profile sits at the chart's right edge and provides saved width, gap, flip, opacity and color choices. POC and value-area lines and labels can be configured independently, including showing levels without the profile bars. These are presentation controls. Flipping the bars changes their direction on screen, while the underlying prices and quantities remain the same. Identical independently enabled levels can be deduplicated, but choosing a different source or grouping does not silently replace another indicator's values. Inspect the settings whenever two visible levels seem to disagree.

Interpret recovery and partial capture

A current profile can remain partial while recovery or previously unobserved execution intervals are unresolved. Valid already accepted rows may remain visible through a temporary recovery instead of disappearing. New authoritative corrections can still change the admitted distribution. The profile updates with matching native observations once its seed is accepted, but a running stream does not establish that earlier session executions were captured. A source request error can appear in profile details while the base candles continue to update; those layers have different input requirements and recovery paths.

Troubleshoot missing rows or a cropped distribution

If older prices seem missing, check whether they are outside a manual Y range before changing the source. Turn AUTO on and leave Fit session enabled to test the full captured extent. Verify the exact dated contract and tick size, then inspect row grouping and profile source. If there are no bars on an index, remember that index volume remains unavailable. For a loaded-OHLC estimate, compare the loaded candles and their known volume rather than expecting native aggression. Report the source choice, contract, session, row size and visible error when support needs to reproduce a profile issue.