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2010issue C0648-53

Constructing daily volume-profile breakout levels

A daily volume-profile level is built from that day's open, high, low, and close. Volume profile can locate support and resistance that may not be obvious on a candlestick chart, and those daily levels are useful when a stock is breaking out of a 52-week high or low.

  • A daily volume-profile level is constructed from that day's open, high, low, and close, not from an hourly or 15-minute interval inside the day.
  • Volume profile can locate support and resistance that may not be obvious on a typical candlestick chart, including when a stock is breaking out of a 52-week high or low.
  • The same construction is especially useful for daytraders assembling executable levels.
  • Support, resistance, and trendlines are basic structure tools. Indicator turning points prompt that structure rather than acting as a direct buy or sell.
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Build the daily volume-profile map first

A daily volume-profile level is constructed from that day's open, high, low, and close rather than from an hourly or 15-minute interval inside the day.

Volume profile is a volume-at-price construction that locates where trading concentrated so those prices can be used as executable support, resistance, and breakout levels.

The same volume-profile construction is especially useful for daytraders assembling executable levels.

Test the map against support and resistance

Volume profile is presented as a way to locate key support and resistance that may not be obvious on a typical candlestick chart.

Support and resistance are horizontal or dynamic price levels used as the structure against which a volume-profile map is tested.

Support, resistance, and trendlines are treated as basic structure tools, with indicator turning points used as a prompt to draw that structure rather than as a direct buy or sell.

Read a 52-week breakout against constructed levels

Those daily volume-profile levels are described as useful when a stock is breaking out of a 52-week high or low.

A breakout is a move through a prior range extreme, such as a 52-week high or low, that is read against already constructed volume-profile levels.

Draw structure from moving averages

A 20-day simple moving average is used to help draw short-term trendlines, while 50- and 200-day simple moving averages are used as dynamic support and resistance.

A long setup is treated as more favorable only after price breaks a downtrend line, because nearby resistance can leave an unattractive risk-to-reward ratio.

Educational research material, not investment advice. Historical source context does not establish present-day performance.
3 of 8 in the Volume profile track
201044-46 pp.Next on Volume profileBuilding volume profile maps for support and resistanceFinding daytrading support and resistance by scanning many intraday charts of the same stock is time-consuming, and some packages hide candle history beyond six months.
All readings on this track · 8 readings
  1. 2005Decaying volume bands as leftover auction inventory
  2. 2008Constructing equal-volume and open-interest auction zones
  3. 2010Constructing daily volume-profile breakout levels
  4. 2010Building volume profile maps for support and resistance
  5. 2015SPY volume profile as a support and breakout map
  6. 2016A three-layer sector map around a policy-meeting week
  7. 2017A three-part liquidity screen before a futures idea is executable
  8. 2020A two-gate liquidity filter before futures order selection
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