Point of Control, Value Area High and Value Area Low Explained

The point of control and the two value area edges are three prices drawn from one distribution. What each one measures, how software computes them, and the settings that quietly move them.

Published 11 October 2026 · Updated 3 November 2026 · 7 min read

Key takeaways

The point of control (POC) is the single price with the most traded volume in a profile; the value area is the unbroken block of prices around it that holds a chosen share of that volume.
Value area high (VAH) and value area low (VAL) are the top and bottom rows of that block, so they inherit every setting used to build it.
The share is a convention, not a constant: the CQG Market Profile study uses 70% of TPOs, while NinjaTrader documents a 68 percent default for its volume profile.
Developing levels change during the session. Judging past decisions against final levels that did not exist yet creates look-ahead bias.
These prices describe where business was done. They are references for reading behaviour, not prices where the market has to turn.

Point of control and value area: the short definitions

The point of control and value area are summary statistics of a volume profile. The point of control (POC) is the price at which the most contracts traded during the period the profile covers. The value area is the continuous range of prices around the POC that contains a chosen share of the period’s total volume. Value area high (VAH) is the highest price inside that range, and value area low (VAL) the lowest.

Together they compress a whole distribution into three prices: where trade was heaviest, and the band where most of the business took place. The general idea of a profile, its shapes and its session or composite variants are covered in the volume profile guide. This article goes one level deeper: how the three prices are produced, what each one says about the auction, and why two charts of the same session can disagree about them.

A Market Profile built from time instead of volume uses the same three labels, but its POC is the price with the most time price opportunities (TPOs) rather than the most contracts. The two versions often sit close together and sometimes do not; the comparison of volume profile vs Market Profile explains when and why they part ways.

How the point of control is picked, and why it can jump

Finding the POC sounds trivial: take the row with the largest volume. Four practical details make it less simple than it looks.

Row size. Many platforms group several ticks into one row. Grouping adds the volume of neighbouring prices together, so a broad shelf of moderately active prices can outweigh a single very active price. Change the grouping and the POC can move by more than the grouping itself.
Ties and near-ties. When two separate prices hold almost the same volume, a handful of late trades decides which one is the POC. Software also needs a tie rule, such as taking the price closest to the middle of the range, and that rule differs between tools.
Several peaks. A profile with two distinct areas of heavy trade still has only one POC. The second peak can matter almost as much, which is why traders map high and low volume nodes instead of relying on the POC alone.
Period boundaries. A POC belongs to a period. Starting the session at the electronic open instead of the regular-hours open adds overnight trade to the distribution and can move the POC to a different area entirely.

How value area high and value area low are built

Most tools build the value area by expansion. They start at the POC, look at the prices just above and just below the area found so far, add the side with more volume, and repeat until the area holds the target share of total volume. The last rows added on each side become the VAH and the VAL.

Three settings decide where those edges land. The first is the target share. The CQG Market Profile value area study expands from the POC until the area represents 70% of the TPOs, while NinjaTrader’s Order Flow Volume Profile uses a default of 68 percent of volume, which its Help Guide describes as a one standard deviation range from the point of control. The second is the step: some tools compare one price on each side at a time, others compare pairs of prices and add both rows of the winning side. The third is the row size discussed above.

One consequence surprises many traders: the value area is a single unbroken block, not a list of the busiest prices. A heavy row that sits just beyond a quiet row can be left outside value, because the expansion has to pass through the quiet row first. A thin pocket inside the block still counts as value.

Hypothetical example — Illustrative figures, not market data. Invented profile of 1,000 contracts on a fictional contract that moves in steps of 0.25: the same data under two expansion methods.
Price	Volume	One row at a time	Two rows at a time
101.50	20	Outside	Outside
101.25	110	Outside	Outside
101.00	60	Outside	VAH
100.75	150	VAH	Inside
100.50	220	POC	POC
100.25	130	Inside	Inside
100.00	120	Inside	Inside
99.75	90	VAL	Inside
99.50	60	Outside	VAL
99.25	40	Outside	Outside

The worked example below walks through both methods step by step and shows how far apart the edges can land on identical data.

Hypothetical example · One row versus two rows on the same profile

Using the table above, the profile holds 1,000 contracts, so a 70% target is 700. One row at a time: from the POC at 100.50 (220), add 100.75 above (150 beats 130) to reach 370; then 100.25 below (130 beats 60) for 500; then 100.00 (120 beats 60) for 620; then 99.75 (90 beats 60) for 710, which passes 700. VAH is 100.75 and VAL is 99.75. Two rows at a time: compare 100.75 + 101.00 (210) with 100.25 + 100.00 (250) and add the lower pair for 470; then the upper pair (210 beats 99.75 + 99.50 = 150) for 680; then the lower pair (150 beats 101.25 + 101.50 = 130) for 830. VAH becomes 101.00 and VAL 99.50, and the area holds 83% of the volume because rows are added in pairs. Note that 101.25, with 110 contracts, stays outside value under the first method although it is busier than 99.75: the expansion would have to cross the quiet 101.00 row first. All figures are invented.

Illustrative figures, not market data.

What the POC, VAH and VAL say about the auction

The POC marks the price where buyers and sellers found it easiest to do business over the period. In auction terms it is the most accepted price, sometimes called the fairest price, because both sides were willing to trade there again and again. It is the centre of gravity of the period that produced it, not a forecast of where the next period will trade.

VAH and VAL mark the limits of accepted value. Inside them the market spent most of its volume; beyond them it traded less, either because price was pushed there briefly and rejected, or because it only arrived late in the period. That is why traders watch what happens when price returns to a prior edge: volume building beyond it suggests value is moving, while a quick return inside suggests the edge is still respected.

Prior-period levels are the most widely used references because they are fixed and known before the next session starts. A prior POC that later sessions have not traded back to is often called a naked or virgin POC. Some traders treat it as a magnet; it is more accurately an untested reference, which price may or may not revisit.

Developing levels versus final levels

During a session, the POC and the value area are developing values. Each new trade updates the distribution, so the developing POC can drift or jump from one area to another, and VAH and VAL move as volume accumulates. The final levels are known only when the period ends.

This matters most when you study past charts. A chart that displays the final value area of a session invites you to judge early trades against edges that did not exist yet: a morning reaction at what later became the VAH was, at the time, a reaction at an ordinary price. To review decisions honestly, use the developing levels as they stood at the moment of each decision, or the prior session’s final levels, which really were known.

The path of the developing POC is information in itself. A POC that keeps stepping in one direction shows value being built at new prices; a POC that stays put while price swings around it shows a market that is still balancing. Neither state tells you how long it will last.

Session POC versus the POC of each footprint bar

A footprint chart has a POC too, at a much smaller scale: the price with the most volume inside one bar. TEVO Footprint, the free NinjaTrader 8 indicator on this site, boxes that bar POC in every candle, next to the bid × ask volume traded at each price.

The two scales answer different questions. The session POC tells you where the whole period found agreement. A bar POC tells you where the business of a few minutes concentrated: near the high of a rising bar, a lot of trade happened at the top of the move; near the low, most of the volume traded before price lifted away. When bars forming at a prior VAH or VAL keep printing their POC right at the edge, the market is doing business there rather than rejecting the price.

TEVO Footprint works bar by bar and does not draw a session volume profile, so the session levels have to come from another tool. Use the session POC, VAH and VAL for location, and the footprint for behaviour at that location.

Mistakes and limits

Comparing levels across platforms without checking the settings. Session times, row size, target share and expansion step all differ, so a VAH that sits a tick or two away from another chart is normal.
Treating the POC as support or resistance by definition. It is the busiest price of a period; price can trade straight through it.
Judging past trades with final levels. Review decisions with the developing levels of the time, or with prior-period levels.
Ignoring thin data. A profile built on a quiet holiday session or a short overnight period holds little volume, and a few trades can decide its POC.
Forgetting which period a level belongs to. A weekly POC and a session POC describe different auctions; label them on the chart.
Letting levels replace risk management. Define where the idea is wrong and size the position from that distance before acting.

Put it into practice

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between the POC and the value area?

The POC is one price, the one with the most volume. The value area is a range of prices around it that holds a set share of the volume, bounded by the VAH above and the VAL below.

Why is my VAH different from another platform’s?

Because the levels depend on settings: session start and end, row size, the target share (70% of TPOs in the CQG Market Profile study, a 68 percent default in NinjaTrader’s Order Flow Volume Profile) and whether the expansion adds one or two rows at a time.

What is a naked POC?

A point of control from an earlier period that price has not traded back to since. It is an untested reference that some traders keep on their charts; nothing ensures that price will come back to it.

Should I watch the developing POC or the prior session’s POC?

They serve different purposes. The prior session’s POC is fixed and known in advance, which makes it a clean reference. The developing POC shows where value is being built right now, but it can still move before the session ends.

Sources

Market Profile Value Areas Study and Excel — CQG
NinjaTrader 8 Help Guide: Order Flow Volume Profile — NinjaTrader
Market profile — Wikipedia