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Hi, I am looking to using market and volume profiles in my strategy to get more confrimation on the trades I am taking. Please can anyone share some info on how they would recommed using these tool? Thanks
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
These are excellent tools to measure the auction process in market, from which you can derive biases in an structured way for your strategy. These then can be combined with more granular tools and methods for timing execution.
I believe to really apply the power of profiling, it requires a bit of work to understand and apply these concepts. Which is not summed up easily in a few sentences.
But there are many resources out for free to learn about market and volume profiles. I find it's more difficult to find good content on market profiling that volume profiling, as it is somewhat lesser common in the retail sector. So I'll try to focus on this part.
I would strongly advise always diligently checking the sources of your information to the best of your abilities. There are various sources available for learning, depending on how deeply you want to delve into the subject.
Regarding these concepts, I highly recommend the following sources based on my own advice:
// Theoretical Foundations
- Book pick: Mind Over Markets from Dalton [Wiley] (yes it's not exactly free)
Why: I see it as the "Market Profiling Handbook". If you are serious in getting proficient, this book delivers a deep enough insight into the theoretical aspects of market profiling and market behavior through the lens of the Auction Theory. James Dalton has been a pioneer in popularization of the Market Profile and is definitely one of the most proficient person on this subject.
Why: Windotrader is a THE Market Profiling software on the market. This platform has been developed with the influence of experts on this subject matter. To be clear, I'm not saying you need this platform, but you definitely want to check out their free glossary page, which is useful for learning the anatomy of Market Profiles.
// Additional Sources
From here you can branch out and seek complementary content to fill the gaps, I.E. not clearly understanding specific elements.
- Online Blogs:
- Forums, Youtube, Search engine...
You have NexusFI, YouTube, and simply the search engine—use these resources to better understand concepts you find challenging after covering the foundational material. However, I would recommend starting with reliable sources, such as a renowned book, as mentioned above, rather than immediately delving into watching a multitude of YouTube videos. Why: In the early learning stage it's harder to distinguish what is "quality content" and what is "lesser quality content". You also don't have to now everything perfectly right away.
// Applying principles
I would recommend finding a community or a trader who incorporates Market and Volume Profile into their trading approach, possesses credible competence, and resonates with your learning/trading style.
This brings in a better idea on how things work in application. Applying the theoretical principal into practice is a whole other ball game.
I find the following sources valuable even without taking any payed subscriptions and starting with the free content first:
Why: Charles is heavily relying on Market Profiling for his trading style. He uses Windotrader mentioned above, which is a good reference to see how your tools may want be setup. Application wise this is a good way to start understanding how you'd approach each session, developing bias for the session and identifying opportunities. As it streams live you can follow everything in action.
Why: They have a lot of good content to study from (i.E. a large set of webinars), and heavily use MP and VP (with orderflow and price action). They focus on teaching principles and providing the necessary tools for individuals to develop their own trading strategies, instead of a one fit's all solution which does not exist in my opinion. Some of it is publicly available on youtube. For many many years the had a daily live stream on youtube on pre-market assessment and session planing, called "Traderbite", but it recently concluded unfortunately. Now a similar publication is made by CT before every market open called "The Opening Swing", which also helps you learn how to read the market and assess market posture for session planning.
Tools
Find yourself a suitable platform to explore with these tools. There are free solutions out there. Many platform meanwhile have these tools even integrated.
I don't know if you already have a platform ready, but based on how you've formulated your question I guess you are set on this matter.
About trading courses
In my opinion one can learn Market and Volume Profiling by himself if he is dedicated, curious and self driven when learning things.
However if you want be more guided and straight forward I found the following course the most valuable, which was not mentioned above:
There are many more sources, but I've tried to pick out the best ones I have experience with and found valuable for the learning process.
I'm not affiliated with any of the mentioned providers above. These are just the sources I've used and which I find most valuable.
Hope this could help for the start...
I have been using Market volume profiles for a number of years.. First of all you should understand" Market Auction Theory" a good book on the subject is Steidlmayer on" Markets
Trading with Market Profile". you need to understand what the point of control is POC The value area high and low VAH and VAL what are high volume areas are and low volume areas are.
Hear is a example on the first 2 min chart the market trends up to the previous Value Area High a trading opportunity develops and confirmed by the mac. The trade is back to the point of control shown on the second 2 min char Price gravitates back to the point of control.
I use three types of profiles a Session Profile on the lower time frames, a Composite on the higher time frames and Intermediate across balance areas, as shown on the 60 min chart.
The volumes profile gives information in real time that trading decisions can be made from .
I hope this helps
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EURUSD (60 Min Heiken-Ashi) 2024_05_22 (11_59_24 AM) EURUSD (2 Min Heiken-Ashi-Acc) 2024_05_22 (12_51_42 PM)