DC Volume Profile $149 · DC Market Profile $449 · lifetime · both run without Order Flow+
Market Profile and volume profile for NinjaTrader 8
In short: two indicators, sold separately, documented here together because both draw POC, VAH and VAL. DC Volume Profile draws a volume histogram per session or week with POC, VAH and VAL. DC Market Profile goes further: it measures how much volume traded at every price and how much time the market spent at every price, and can draw both on the same row grid — a histogram plus a real lettered TPO profile with initial balance, single prints, tails, poor extremes and a day type in its statistics panel — over seven period types.
Requires NinjaTrader 8 on Windows. Both run without Order Flow+ — on DC Market Profile the add-on buys the bid/ask split and nothing else; DC Volume Profile estimates without it. DC Market Profile needs no Tick Replay; DC Volume Profile’s volumetric read needs Order Flow+ and Tick Replay.
8- One letter per half hour Each 30-minute bracket prints its letter on every 5-point row between its high and low: A for 09:30 to 10:00, B for the next half hour, and so on to N. Stacked, the letters show where the session spent its time.
- POC and value area The POC is the row with the most letters, 30785.00 on 1 Oct. The value area grows from it two rows at a time, towards the heavier pair, until it takes in seven in ten of the session's letters: 30625.00 to 30855.00.
- Initial balance The gold lines mark the first hour's range, brackets A and B: 30560.75 to 30856.00 on 1 Oct. Price left it on both sides that day.
- Up to the prior day's value On 1 Oct the I bracket rallied to 30883.50, 1.50 points under 30 Sep's value area high of 30885.00. The next half hour traded back down to 30705.00.
- Tails and single prints Rows only one letter reached are marked with a cyan tick: tails at the session's extremes, single prints inside. 1 Oct's top tail, 30860.00 to 30885.00, is letter I alone.
- No Order Flow+ needed Letters and structure come from one-minute bars and exact volume from a one-tick series; the line at the top names that data path. Order Flow+ adds only the bid/ask split.
On recorded sessions
DC Market Profile on recorded NQ sessions
Moments from recorded NQ 12-26 trades, drawn by DC Market Profile's own rules in a NinjaTrader 8 chart window. Click a picture to see it full size.
Re-drawn from recorded NQ 12-26 trades on selected sessions — illustrations, not trading results.
On recorded sessions
DC Volume Profile on recorded NQ sessions
Moments from recorded NQ 12-26 trades, drawn by DC Volume Profile's own rules in a NinjaTrader 8 chart window. Click a picture to see it full size.
Re-drawn from recorded NQ 12-26 trades on selected sessions — illustrations, not trading results.
Two indicators, and which is which
They are separate products at separate prices, and this page covers both so you can choose the one that fits how you read value.
| DC Volume Profile | DC Market Profile | |
|---|---|---|
| What it draws | A volume histogram at each price, with POC, VAH and VAL carried across the period and the price printed at the end of each line. Optional period high and low. | The same histogram, plus a real lettered TPO profile on the same row grid: brackets, initial balance and extension, single prints, tails and excess, poor highs and lows, split days, day types. Untested levels, volume nodes and developing lines on top. |
| Period types | Two — session or week (day by session definition), with a configurable number displayed. | Seven from one setting — session, week, composite days, rolling bars, fixed range, visible range, anchored. |
| Order Flow+ | Not required. Without it, each 1-minute bar’s volume is spread across its range rather than read from ticks. | Not required. Exact volume at price comes from a plain 1-tick series; the add-on buys the bid/ask split only. |
| Settings | 30, in three sections | 108, in eleven sections |
| Price | $149 lifetime | $449 lifetime |
NinjaTrader names: DCVolumeProfile and DCMarketProfile. Both are one-time lifetime licences covering three machines. DC Market Profile is in the Map Pack; DC Volume Profile is sold on its own.
The morning this replaces
You are on a funded account, it is 09:05, and you want three things before the open: yesterday’s value area, the shape that produced it, and which POCs above and below have never been traded back to.
A volume profile gives you the histogram. Letters — brackets, initial balance, single prints, a day type — come from somewhere else, if you have them at all. The two bin prices differently, so the two magenta lines on your chart sit a row apart and you are left to decide which one you believe.
Most profile tools on NinjaTrader either need Order Flow+ or quietly hand you an estimate spread across a minute bar and call it volume at price. You pay for the add-on to get a histogram, when what the add-on actually sells is the bid/ask split.
Your value area holds a different number of rows than the one on the screen next to you, and neither tool tells you which rule it used, whether it stops on the row that reaches the target or the pair that does, or which way it broke the tie.
The read a profile trader actually pays for is TPO POC against VPOC — time says value is here, money says value is there. That comparison is only honest when both engines accumulate over the same window, on the same row grid, in the same snapshot. Two separate indicators each own their own bin map, and you are asked to eyeball two lines and trust they were binned identically. That is the reason both engines live in one indicator in DC Market Profile, and the panel prints the gap between them as a number: TPO POC to VPOC -14 ticks.
DC Volume Profile — the session volume profile for NinjaTrader 8
The smaller of the two, and still the right answer for a lot of people. A daily volume profile with POC, VAH and VAL, thirty settings, $149.
8- Contracts at every price Each session's contracts at every tick, drawn from its first bar to the right. On 1 Oct the longest row, the POC, traded 1,579 contracts at 30634.25.
- Value area From the POC the value area grows one price at a time towards the side with more volume, until it takes in seven in ten of the session's contracts: the blue rows and the light blue lines.
- Back at the prior day's value On 1 Oct the rally reached 30883.50, 6.00 points over 30 Sep's value area high of 30877.50. The next half hour traded back down to 30705.00.
- Levels with their prices Dashed lines run across each session: magenta POC, light blue value area, orange high and low, each with its price at the session's last bar.
- Measured with Order Flow+ Volume at each price is read from Order Flow+'s volumetric data. Without it, each one-minute bar's volume is spread across its range.
Volume traded at each price for the period, drawn from the start of the period rightward. Width is set as a percentage of the period, so it stays proportionate whether you are looking at one session or twenty.
Dashed lines across the whole period, each with its price printed at the end. The POC is where the most volume traded; VAH and VAL bound the value area, whose size you choose.
Optional, on their own toggle. Useful when you trade the extremes of the prior session rather than its value area.
Pick the period and how many of them to display. A week profile over a daily chart and a session profile over a 5-minute chart are the same indicator with one setting changed.
It works without Order Flow+
Most volume profile indicators simply stop if the volumetric data is not there. This one keeps drawing, from 1-minute bars.
| Data source | What you get |
|---|---|
| Volumetric (Order Flow+) | Real volume traded at each price. Every level is exact. |
| 1-minute fallback (automatic) | An approximation built from 1-minute bars, so the profile draws on a plain NinjaTrader installation too. |
The switch happens by itself — there is nothing to configure and nothing to notice, beyond the fact that the tool loads on a plain NinjaTrader installation. It is one of six indicators here that do not need Order Flow+, together with DC Big Trade, DC Key Levels, DC Market Profile, DC VWAP and the free DC POC Candle.
Thirty settings, one job
DC OrderFlow Chart has 137 settings, because it does eight jobs. This one has thirty, because it does one: the profile (period, how many to show, width, ticks per level, value area, volumetric data on or off), the display (histogram, lines, period high and low, labels, line widths and style) and nine colours.
A tool with a single job should be configurable in under a minute.
| Platform | NinjaTrader 8, Windows |
|---|---|
| Order Flow+ required | No — uses it if present, 1-minute bars otherwise |
| Tick Replay | Needed for the volumetric read, with Order Flow+ |
| Periods | Session or week, with a configurable number displayed |
| Levels drawn | POC, VAH, VAL, period high and low |
| Settings | 30, in three sections |
| Price | $149 one-time, lifetime updates, 3 machines |
DC Market Profile — how it works
Four mechanisms, and none of them require an add-on to be licensed.
A bracket is defined by its high and its low. Both come out of a 1-minute series the indicator always adds, so the whole Market Profile side — brackets, letters, TPO POC, TPO value area, initial balance, single prints, tails, poor extremes, split days, day types, composites — is arithmetic over data every NinjaTrader licence already has.
A plain 1-tick series gives every trade at its exact price with its exact size. That is not an approximation of volume at price; it is volume at price. The indicator adds one when the volumetric series is not available, and prints on the chart which of the two it is using.
Prices become integer ticks, ticks become rows by a floor, and the same three functions are used in accumulation, in level computation and in rendering. Mixing floor and round between them is what puts letters half a row off the price axis — and it looks like a rendering bug when it is a binning bug.
Session, week, composite days, rolling bars, fixed range, visible range and anchored are all summed out of the same 1-minute slices, so the value-area rule, the POC tie-break and the row grid cannot drift between profile types. A composite is the element-wise sum of its sessions, and its POC comes from the summed rows — never from averaging daily POCs, which produces a price that corresponds to nothing.
What the add-on actually buys
Order Flow+ buys exactly one thing: the bid/ask split — delta at price, the split profile and the delta POC. Falling back from the volumetric series to the 1-tick series costs you the split and nothing else. The POC, the value area, the nodes and the untested levels are the same numbers.
The chart says which path it is on, in the indicator’s own words: volume: exact (volumetric) · bid/ask: live, or volume: exact (tick) · bid/ask: unavailable (Order Flow+ not licensed), or, when it has been pushed onto the estimate, volume: ESTIMATED from 1-minute bars (weighted to close) — not volume at price. An estimate is never allowed to pass for a measurement: the profile is tagged, and the second POC is suppressed outright.
The value area is the classic pair rule, done exactly
This is the paragraph to check us on. It takes ten seconds against the platform you already trust.
The value area is built by comparing the sum of the next two rows on each side and taking both from the winner — the classic pair rule. It stops when the accumulated volume reaches the target, never when it merely passes it, so the winning pair is always taken whole.
Which is why a value area set to 70 can hold slightly more than 70 per cent: that is the classic rule at work. Prefer it to stop halfway through the winning pair? Switch on Stop mid-pair.
The rest of the rule is decided rather than left to chance. A tie between the two sides expands upward, fixed, never left to whichever branch is hit first. A one-row remainder is clamped and taken as one row, not overrun. Under three rows it returns VAH = VAL = POC, never a VAH beneath a VAL. The single-row rule is available as an option too, so a trader moving a DC Volume Profile template across lands close to the levels he knows.
The POC tie-break is the same quality of thinking. “First maximum wins” is never used, because it makes the POC depend on iteration order and jump between reloads. The default is the classic rule — the qualifying row nearest the midpoint of the window’s actual range, and on a second tie the lower price — with an epsilon so float noise cannot pick a different row. It is a setting, and the alternatives are named rather than hidden.
Put it beside the profile you already run, at one tick per row, and the levels should land on the same prices. That is the test we would run in your position, and it is the one this was built to survive.
What DC Market Profile draws on the chart
Everything below is drawn by the one indicator, switched by settings rather than by installing something else.
| Element | What it is | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Volume histogram | Volume traded at each price for the period, one row per Ticks per row, drawn as a histogram, an outline or both. | On |
| TPO letters | One letter per bracket per row, A to Z then a to z, collapsed left or split into time columns. Blocks where letters would be meaningless. | TPO modes |
| POC | Magenta line on the row that traded most, or held most brackets. Named TPO POC when both profiles are drawn. | On |
| VPOC beside the TPO POC | The volume POC computed on the same rows by the identical algorithm, in a deliberately different colour. Suppressed on estimated volume. | TPO + volume |
| VAH and VAL | Value area bounds with the price printed at the end of each line, plus an optional shaded band. | On |
| Initial balance | IB high, IB low and optional extension levels, with the letter that first traded outside it. | On, TPO modes |
| Single prints | Rows a single bracket touched, marked in cyan, with a minimum run length you set. | On, TPO modes |
| Tails and excess | Marked at the extremes, on a strict or a loose definition, and classified against the outermost rows that actually carry a TPO. | On, TPO modes |
| Poor high / low | An extreme flat enough that the outermost row carries the number of TPOs you set. Red. | On, TPO modes |
| Day type | One word in the statistics panel, once the next session has started: NORMAL, NORMAL VARIATION, TREND, NON-TREND, NEUTRAL CENTRE, NEUTRAL EXTREME. Until then it is withheld unless you ask for the running read, which is prefixed prov. | Panel, off |
| Untested levels | nPOC, nVAH, nVAL carried forward until price trades into them, with a tolerance in ticks and a rule for gaps. | Off |
| HVN / LVN and developing lines | High and low volume nodes, and where the POC and value area stood bar by bar. | Off |
| Statistics panel | POC 5842.25 VAH 5851.00 VAL 5833.75 width 69 ticks, the IB figures, the structure count, the day type, and TPO POC to VPOC in ticks. | Off |
| The data-source line | Top left. Names the mode, the letter state, the volume path, the bid/ask state and whether a setting is waiting on a reload. | On |
108 settings in eleven sections, reached from one toolbar button labelled Profile. In plain volume mode the two Market Profile sections are not emitted at all, which removes 27 rows from the dialogue. Profile mode, Profile type, TPO period, Session source and Volume source apply when the indicator reloads, and the data-source line shows when one is waiting.
DC Market Profile requirements
Read this table before you buy, not after.
| Platform | NinjaTrader 8, Windows |
|---|---|
| Order Flow+ required | No. The TPO side is arithmetic over a 1-minute series, and exact volume at price comes from a plain 1-tick series. Order Flow+ adds the bid/ask split only — delta at price, the split profile and the delta POC. |
| Tick Replay | Not required and not enforced. Its state is read once and reported on the chart line: Tick Replay OFF — historical volume differs from what was recorded live. Nothing is refused and nothing is left blank. |
| Chart and bar types | Any, Renko included. The 1-minute series is added unconditionally, so the profile is byte-identical on a 1-minute, a 5-minute or a Renko chart. A chart that is already Order Flow Volumetric is read directly instead of adding a second series. |
| Instruments | Any futures instrument NinjaTrader charts. Ticks per row is what you tune per instrument — 1 shows every single print and is correct on ES, 2 to 4 keeps NQ and CL readable. It is not cosmetic: it changes the counts, the POC and the value area boundaries. |
| Periods | Session, week, composite days, rolling bars, fixed range, visible range, anchored — one setting. Fixed range and Anchored draw from the anchor you set. |
| Settings | 108, in eleven sections, from one toolbar button |
| Price | $449 one-time, lifetime updates, 3 machines |
Which one do you need
Both draw POC, VAH and VAL. Here is how to choose.
If all you ever want is a volume histogram with POC, VAH and VAL over a session or a week, DC Volume Profile at $149 does that, measured with Order Flow+, estimated without it. Everything else on this page — the TPO side, the five other period types, the configurable value-area and POC rules, untested levels, nodes, developing lines — is the reason to spend $449 instead.
You want yesterday’s POC and value area on the chart, you tune it once and never open the dialogue again, and thirty settings is a feature rather than a limitation. $149.
You want TPO letters and the day type, composites and rolling windows, ranges or anchors, untested levels carried forward, volume nodes, or the TPO POC against the VPOC as a number. $449.
Each draws its own POC, VAH and VAL, so give each its own chart.
Buying the smaller one first is not a wasted step: move up to a pack later and what you already paid comes off the pack price. The pricing page sets out the packs and the upgrade credit.
If you already own something here
How these two work with the rest of the suite.
| If you own | Then |
|---|---|
| DC Volume Profile ($149) | DC Market Profile adds the TPO side, five more period types, untested levels, nodes and composites, and exact volume at price from a 1-tick series without Order Flow+. Give each its own chart. |
| DC Key Levels ($799 with DC Market Agent) | Key Levels draws POC, VAH and VAL for recent sessions as a clean line map, tracks the untested ones on the same test rule, and is light on any chart. DC Market Profile draws the distribution those lines came out of, and carries untested levels from composites, ranges and anchors as well. |
| DC POC Candle (free) | POC Candle answers where volume concentrated in this bar. These two answer where it concentrated over the session, week, composite, window, range or anchor. Put both on and the per-bar mark reads against the period’s POC and value area. |
| DC OrderFlow Chart ($499) | A footprint inside every bar, which needs volumetric data. A profile aggregates across bars and needs no add-on for its core. The microscope and the map; neither replaces the other. |
| DC VWAP ($299) | The other answer to “where is value” — one volume-weighted number per bar with deviation bands. A profile is a distribution with a mode. When the two sit at the same price that is one thing, and when they do not it is another. |
Two products, sold separately
DC Volume Profile — $149 and DC Market Profile — $449 are separate licences; this page describes both, so you can tell which one you need before you pay. Either is one payment, licensed for life, updates included — three machines, per person. Delivered the moment you pay: a portal account and a licence key. Stripe is the seller of record and the price shown is the total. Fourteen days to change your mind, no reason needed — you are not asked to waive that right.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Order Flow+ for a volume profile in NinjaTrader?
Not for either of these. DC Volume Profile reads real volume traded at each price from the volumetric data when it is there, and builds an approximation from 1-minute bars automatically when it is not. DC Market Profile goes further still: exact volume at price comes from a plain 1-tick series, so the add-on is not required at all.
What is the difference between POC and VPOC?
They are the same thing under two names — the price at which the most volume traded during a period. “VPOC” makes the volume basis explicit, which matters when the alternative is a TPO profile. DC Volume Profile is volume-based throughout. DC Market Profile draws both a TPO POC and a VPOC, which is exactly why it names them separately.
Can a session volume profile show several sessions at once?
Yes. You set how many periods to display and each gets its own histogram with its own POC, VAH and VAL. Overlapping POCs across consecutive sessions are one of the more useful patterns this reveals.
Does it work on a daily chart?
Yes. Set the period to week on a daily chart and you get weekly profiles. The period and the chart interval are independent settings.
What does Order Flow+ add to DC Market Profile, then?
Exactly one thing: the bid/ask split — delta at price, the bid/ask split profile and the delta POC. Falling back to the 1-tick series costs you the split and nothing else. The POC, the value area, the nodes and the untested levels are the same numbers.
Do I need Tick Replay?
Not for DC Market Profile: it is never required and never enforced. Its state is read once and reported on the chart line, so you know whether historical volume differs from what was recorded live. Nothing is refused and nothing is left blank. DC Volume Profile’s volumetric read needs Order Flow+ and Tick Replay.
Does it work on Renko and other non-time bars?
Yes, on any bar type. The 1-minute series is added unconditionally, so the profile is byte-identical on a 1-minute, a 5-minute or a Renko chart. A chart that is already Order Flow Volumetric is read directly instead of adding a second series.
Why does my value area hold more than the 70 I set?
Because the value area follows the classic pair rule: it compares the sum of the next two rows on each side and takes both from the winner, stopping when the target is reached rather than when it is passed. It can therefore overshoot inside the winning pair. If you want it to stop halfway through the winning pair, turn on Stop mid-pair.
Why are my letters showing as blocks?
One of three reasons, and the chart says which. Either Profile style is set to Blocks; or the profile type is not Session, because bracket A of Monday and bracket A of Tuesday are unrelated; or the session produced more than 52 brackets and the alphabet ran out. In the last case it prints the TPO period that would fix it rather than wrapping back to A.
I already own DC Volume Profile. Do I need DC Market Profile?
Add it when you want TPO letters, composites, rolling windows, ranges or anchors, a configurable value-area and POC rule, untested levels carried forward, volume nodes or developing lines. Give each its own chart, since both draw POC, VAH and VAL.
Why is a volume profile not part of Key Levels?
Because one draws volume and the other draws levels, and combining them would mean everyone pays the render cost of both. Splitting them also means you can buy the $149 tool if that is the one you need.
Can I buy today?
Yes. Checkout is open and delivery is immediate — a portal account and a licence key the moment you pay, good for three machines. Stripe is the seller of record, the price shown includes any VAT due, and you have 14 days to change your mind, no reason needed.
Before the open
The work that decides the day is done before the bell.
A session volume profile with POC, VAH and VAL, or TPO letters and the histogram on the same row grid over seven period types. You arrive at the session with the map already drawn — value, the point of control, the untested levels — and you spend the session trading rather than measuring.
Lock the founder price
Every indicator, the copier and the Telegram agent, lifetime: $922.50 for the first thirteen founders, then $1,845 up to fifty. Your licence and portal account are created with the email address you pay with.