Profile footprint modes
Profile footprint modes are footprint chart displays that draw each price level of a bar as a horizontal bar proportional to its value, volume, delta, trade count or the bid/ask split, instead of printing digits. They turn every candle into a miniature volume profile so that the shape of the bar's activity is visible at chart scale, when the numbers would be too small to read.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
The idea
A Numbers mode asks you to read digits level by level. A Profile mode encodes the same per-level value as the width of a horizontal bar, so the bar's point of control stands out as the longest bar and thin levels as short stubs. The measure underneath does not change; only the encoding does. This is why profile modes stay readable when you zoom out to a hundred bars, where digits would overlap or be hidden.
The modes in the Profiles family
| Volume Profile | Total contracts per level | Longest bar is the bar POC |
|---|---|---|
| Delta Profile | Ask minus bid volume per level | Direction of the bar shows the sign, length shows the size |
| Trades Profile | Number of executions per level | Fragmentation of the flow |
| Bid/Ask Profile | Bid and ask volumes as two opposed bars | The split kept visible, the way Bid × Ask digits keep it |
| Bid/Ask Ladder | Bid and ask volumes stacked per level | A ladder view of the same pair |
| Pos/Neg Delta Profile | Positive and negative deltas drawn separately | Levels where the two sides both traded heavily stand out |
In Senzoukria
On the footprint screen, the Footprint type chip is organised in three families: Numbers, Profiles and Heatmap. The Profiles family lists Delta Profile, Volume Profile, Trades Profile, Bid/Ask Profile, Bid/Ask Ladder and Pos/Neg Delta Profile. Switching family keeps the bars, the levels and the indicators; only the cell rendering changes.
Profile modes work at the bar level and are distinct from the session Volume Profile drawn beside the price axis, which the Volume Profile settings and the POC session line control. The footprint layer setting decides whether the per-bar profiles sit in front of or behind those session profiles.
When to prefer a profile mode
- Reviewing a whole session for bars with a clear single node versus bars with flat distributions.
- Spotting POC migration bar to bar without reading digits: the longest bar moves up or down the range.
- Working on a small screen or a secondary monitor where digit cells become unreadable below a certain bar width.
- Presenting a chart to someone who does not read footprint numbers yet; the shapes carry the same information.
Limits
- Bar widths are relative, not absolute: a long bar in a quiet candle can represent fewer contracts than a short bar in a busy one. Check the digits when the absolute count matters.
- Diagonal imbalance reading, which compares the ask at one level with the bid one level below, is easier on Bid × Ask digits than on any profile.
- A profile mode does not add data. If the source did not deliver per-level trades, the candle has no profile to draw.
Related
- How to read a footprint chart
- Footprint trading guide
- Volume profile explained
- Footprint screen
- Heatmap footprint mode
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Frequently asked questions
- Is the Volume Profile footprint mode the same as the session volume profile?
- No. The footprint mode draws the volume distribution of one bar inside that bar. The session volume profile aggregates every bar of the session, or of a chosen window, into one histogram beside the price axis with its own POC, VAH and VAL. Both can be displayed at the same time and both are built from the same per-level data.
- Do profile modes change the bar POC or the indicators?
- They do not. The POC per bar, the delta, the trade count and every pane indicator are computed from the level data, not from the rendering. Changing from Numbers to Profiles changes how a cell is drawn and nothing else.