Point of control (POC)
The point of control (POC) is the single price level with the largest traded volume in a volume profile, whether that profile covers one bar, a session or a rolling window of bars. It marks the price where the most business was done in the period and moves as new volume shifts the maximum.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
Definition and tie rule
The POC is found by scanning the profile's levels and taking the one with the maximum volume. When two or more levels share the maximum, a convention decides which is reported. Sierra Chart's convention takes the lowest of the tied prices, and Senzoukria's indicators follow that rule; a platform that resolves ties differently can report a POC one tick apart on the same data.
- Bar POC: maximum within one footprint bar's price levels.
- Session POC: maximum of the profile accumulated since the session open.
- Rolling POC: maximum of the aggregated profile of the last N bars; the aggregation is mandatory because two bars can trade the same price, and taking each bar's maximum separately would underweight it.
Developing POC and migration
- A developing POC is recomputed after every bar from the cumulative session profile, producing a line that steps when the maximum moves to another price.
- Steps upward through a session show that the most active price is rising with the market; a POC that stays fixed while price moves away shows the move has not yet attracted comparable volume.
- The line resets at each session open, so the first bars of a session have a POC drawn from very little data.
In Senzoukria
Session POC (developing) is an overlay indicator in the Profiles & levels group: the POC of the cumulative profile from the 17:00 CT session open to each bar, reset at every session open, tie to the lowest price. Rolling VPOC in the same group takes the POC of the aggregated profile over a window of bars, default ten, defined from the first bar because a maximum, unlike an average, needs no warm-up.
The heatmap's volume profile draws the POC in its own POC colour, and the POC / VA / VWAP levels toggle follows the Profile history setting. The chart's magnet setting offers POC snap, which locks the crosshair to the point of control on hover; the footprint settings distinguish POC session from POC bar.
Common mistakes
- Comparing a POC computed with the lowest-tie rule against one from a platform using a different rule and calling the tick difference a data problem.
- Reading the POC as fair value in an absolute sense; it is the most traded price of the period, nothing more.
- Trusting a session POC in the first minutes after the open, when the profile behind it is a handful of bars.
Related
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Frequently asked questions
- Is the POC the same as the VWAP?
- No. VWAP is the volume-weighted average of traded prices, a mean that can fall on a price where little traded. The POC is the mode, the single price with the most volume. On a balanced session they can be close; on a trending session they separate, and the POC often lags at the old accepted range while VWAP drifts with price.
- Why does the rolling POC aggregate the bars instead of taking each bar's POC?
- Because the maximum of a sum is not the sum of maxima. Two consecutive bars can each trade a moderate amount at the same price; separately neither bar has its POC there, but their combined profile might. Aggregating first and then finding the maximum gives the POC of the window as one profile, which is what the term means.
- What does it mean when price returns to the POC?
- That price has come back to the level where the most volume traded in the period. Whether it stops, passes or attracts more volume there is a matter of what the flow does at that moment. The POC identifies the level; the delta and the depth at the level describe the interaction.