DOM profile (book depth by price)
A DOM profile is a horizontal histogram of the current order book: for each price it draws the resting bid or ask size as a bar, so the shape of the depth around the market is visible at a glance instead of being read as numbers on a ladder. It shows displayed liquidity right now, not what has traded.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
What the bars represent
Each row of the DOM profile is one price level. The bar length is the total displayed size resting at that price, bids below the market and asks above it, usually in two colours. The whole picture is redrawn as the book changes, so it is a live snapshot rather than a history.
- Unit: contracts, lots or notional, depending on the instrument and feed.
- Coverage: only the depth levels the feed delivers; a book with ten levels per side cannot show an eleventh.
- No time axis: unlike the heatmap, the profile shows one instant.
DOM profile versus volume profile
| DOM profile | Volume profile | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Resting limit orders in the book | Executed trades |
| Time | Now | A session or chosen window |
| Changes when | Orders are placed, cancelled or filled | A trade prints |
| Question answered | Where is size waiting? | Where did trading happen? |
Reading it
- A long bar a few ticks away is a wall; whether it holds is only answerable once price gets there and executions are compared with withdrawals.
- A cluster of short bars is a thin zone that price can cross quickly.
- Asymmetry between the bid side and the ask side is a cumulative-depth reading; sum several levels rather than trusting one bar.
In Senzoukria
The heatmap screen carries a DOM profile section in its settings, alongside the Volume profile section. It has its own bid and ask colours and a Minimum size setting whose hint reads: levels smaller than this are not drawn; above zero, the profile stops showing the book and starts showing the walls.
The same depth also feeds the DOM ladder, which draws the book on the chart at the exact height of each price, and the L2 panel on the right, which stays the table you read. The guided tour describes the ladder and the DOM profile as showing the same depth level by level.
Common mistakes
- Confusing the DOM profile with the volume profile because both are horizontal histograms.
- Reading a wall as support before price has interacted with it.
- Forgetting that the profile ends where the feed's depth coverage ends.
Related
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- Why use a DOM profile when the ladder already shows the sizes?
- The ladder gives exact numbers per row; the profile gives shape. When the book updates several times a second, comparing bar lengths is faster than comparing digits, and imbalances between several levels on each side stand out without arithmetic. The two views carry the same data.
- Does the DOM profile show hidden or iceberg orders?
- No. It draws displayed size only. An iceberg exposes part of its quantity and replenishes it after fills, so the profile shows the visible slice at a time. Repeated replenishment at one price is consistent with hidden reserve but does not prove it.
- How does the minimum size filter change the picture?
- With the filter at zero every level with any size is drawn, which shows the full book. Raising it hides small levels, leaving only the larger resting orders, so the profile becomes a map of walls rather than of the whole depth. Neither view is more correct; they answer different questions.