Most people treat Market Profile like a roadmap to the future. They think if they stare at it long enough, it will tell them exactly where the high or low of the day will be.
It won’t.
The profile isn’t a crystal ball — it’s a thermometer. A thermometer doesn’t tell you if it will rain next Tuesday. It tells you what the environment looks like right now.
If you use Market Profile to predict, you’ll get chopped. If you use it to measure the present — where value is building and where it’s being rejected — it becomes one of the most useful tools on your desk.
Think of a classroom grade curve. Most kids get C’s (the fat middle). A few get A’s, and a few get F’s (the thin tails).
The market works the same way. The “fat” part of the profile is where buyers and sellers agree and trade the most. The thin tails are where they disagree, reject, and move away fast.
To make this usable in real time, we strip away the messy charts and show a simple set of markers in the Terminal. You don’t need to memorize a textbook — you just need to recognize these four anchors:
1) Initial Balance (Gold Lines) — The high and low of the first 60 minutes (the opening range). A break only matters if the market accepts outside (builds value there). A quick wick out and back in is often noise.
2) VPOC (Golden Horse ♞) — The level with the most volume (most business done). On balanced days it often pulls Mike back. On trend days it can be left behind as value migrates.
3) POC (Golden Rook ♜) — The level where the market spent the most time.
4) Tail (Feather 🪶) — A rejection marker: the market pushed to an extreme, found little two-sided trade, and snapped back. It matters most when it leads to a return into value.
You don’t need 50 charts. You need a workflow that keeps you out of noise and puts you at the decision points. We split the job into two scanners:
Found at /scanners/profile-watcher.
This is your perimeter alarm. It watches your list during market hours and pings you (and Discord) when something meaningful changes — like the opening range breaking or value shifting up/down. Keep it open in the background.
Found at /scanners/market-profile.
When an alarm goes off, you come here. This shows the full shape of the day so you can answer the only question that matters:
Are we accepting outside value… or rotating in the middle?
It also prints our Entry 1 signals live on the tape.
Before you take a trade, ask one question:
Where are we in the curve?
Market Profile isn’t directions. It’s a dashboard. It won’t tell you where to drive — but it keeps you from trading blind.
Now that you have the overview, start with the pieces:
A way to measure where the market is doing business (value) and where it’s rejecting levels (tails) so you know if you’re trading in traffic or at a decision point.
POC = where the market spent the most time. VPOC = where the market traded the most volume.
Because most chop happens there. If you treat the middle like a breakout zone, you’ll get fakeouts. The edges are where decisions happen.
Use the profile to judge location first (middle vs edge), then use your entry signals to decide execution. Signals taken in “traffic” need more confirmation; signals at the edges tend to have cleaner outcomes.