Indicators: developing profile levels and initial balance

The Profiles & levels group draws session-anchored reference prices on the chart: rolling VPOC, developing session POC, developing VAH/VAL, Initial Balance, session open, prior session high/low/close and overnight high/low.

Senzoukria · Documentation · Updated September 2026

Where to find it

Where
Chart → Indicators button → group Profiles & levels (all are chart overlays)
Studies
rolling-vpoc, developing-poc-session, developing-vah-val, initial-balance, session-open-level, prev-session-hlc, overnight-high-low
Session opening
17:00 America/Chicago for the CME convention (DST handled by Intl), 00:00 UTC for the crypto convention
Initial Balance default
60 minutes after the session opening

How sessions are anchored

Every session reset in the library goes through one helper (series/session.ts). For the CME convention the session containing a timestamp opens at the most recent 17:00 Chicago time; any instant before 17:00 local belongs to the session opened the day before. Both the CDT and CST offsets are tested and the one that lands exactly on 17:00 of that calendar day is kept, so no seasonal offset is hard-coded. Sources with the UTC convention (crypto) open at 00:00 UTC. Sessions never start at midnight Chicago or at the first loaded bar.

Profiles are built from usable levels keyed by tick index. The POC is the level with the highest total volume, and on a tie the lower price wins. The value area starts at the POC and expands two ticks per step on the side with more volume, going up first on a tie, capped at the real range.

Settings

Parameters declared in desktop/src/lib/footprint/series/catalog/profiles.ts
StudySettingDefaultWhat it changes
Rolling VPOCWindow (bars)10 (1 to 200)Bars aggregated into the profile whose POC is drawn; defined from the first bar
Rolling VPOCColoryellowLine color
Session POC (developing)Color, Smoothingorange, 1Line color; Smoothing 1 to 200 bars
Session VAH/VAL (developing)Value Area %70 (50 to 95)Share of cumulative session volume inside VAH/VAL
Session VAH/VAL (developing)VAH color / VAL colorgreen / redColors of the two lines
Initial BalanceIB duration (min)60 (5 to 240 by 5)Minutes after the session opening whose bars define IB high and low
Initial BalanceColorcyanLevel color
Session OpenColorgrayOpen price of the first bar of each session
Prior Session H/L/CColorpurpleHigh, low and last close of the previous session projected on the next
Overnight High/LowRTH open (min after 17:00 CT)930 (60 to 1200 by 15)Boundary between overnight and RTH; 930 minutes is 08:30 Chicago
Overnight High/LowColorblueLevel color

How each level is drawn

  • Rolling VPOC aggregates the last N bars into one profile before taking the POC, because two bars can trade the same price and a per-bar maximum would under-weight it.
  • Session POC (developing) recomputes the POC of the cumulative session profile at every bar, tracing the migration of the point of control; it resets at each opening.
  • Session VAH/VAL (developing) applies the value area walk to the cumulative session profile and needs the tick size; without it the lines have gaps.
  • Initial Balance takes the high and low of the bars starting within the IB window and projects them to the end of the session (right edge for the current session). Its guide card explains that the latest range is projected back to the first loaded bar, so it changes while the window develops. A session with no bar inside the window draws nothing.
  • Prior Session H/L/C and Overnight High/Low never invent a reference: the first loaded session has no previous one, and the overnight study emits only when a session has bars on both sides of the RTH boundary.

Limits

  • A session loaded from the middle gives a partial profile; the developing POC and value area then describe loaded bars only.
  • The RTH boundary is a fixed offset from the session opening, correct across DST because the switch happens on Sunday at 02:00, outside the session.
  • Overnight High/Low is a CME convention: on a source that uses the UTC session convention (crypto) the study outputs nothing, because there is no regular session to separate from the overnight.
  • These levels are references drawn from history; nothing here evaluates a position or sends an order.

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Frequently asked questions

Why is the Initial Balance different from the Opening Range?
Initial Balance defaults to 60 minutes, the Market Profile convention. Opening Range, in the Structure & sessions group, offers 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes with 15 as default. Both use the same window rule and both draw nothing when no bar of the window is loaded.
Does the session start at midnight for futures?
No. With the CME convention the session opens at 17:00 Chicago and any bar before that belongs to the previous session. Crypto sources use 00:00 UTC.

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