Reading the chart 3 / 6
Reading the chart · Level 1Lesson 3 of 5

Volume and the volume profile: how much traded, and at what price

Price says where the market went. Volume says how many coins changed hands on the way — and a volume profile turns it sideways to show the prices where most of the trading happened.

You will learn
  • What the volume bars under a chart count — and what they leave out
  • How a volume profile is built from candles
  • What the point of control and the value area are

Before you start: The lesson on support and resistance.

Volume: how much changed hands

The volume bar under a candle is the amount traded in that period: on a BTC/USDT chart, BTC. Every trade has a buyer and a seller, so volume is not "buying" or "selling" — it is how much activity there was. (Which side was in a hurry is the Order Flow module's subject.)

Volume has rhythms. Over the year to 27 October 2026, a weekend day on Binance's BTC/USDT averaged 11,245 BTC and a weekday 21,357 — about half. From June to October 2026 the busiest hour of the day was 14:00–15:00 UTC, with 1,247 BTC on average, and the quietest 20:00–21:00, with 427.

Turning volume sideways

A volume profile asks a different question: not when volume traded, but at what price. Candles do not record where inside their range each trade happened, so a profile built from candles spreads each candle's volume evenly from its low to its high, then adds up every candle in the period, price bin by price bin.

Two numbers come out of it:

  • the point of control (POC) — the price bin with the most volume;
  • the value area — the band around it where about 70% of the volume traded, grown from the POC towards whichever neighbouring bin is larger.

The terminal builds its profile the same way from the last 300 candles of the chart, giving recent candles slightly more weight.

Volume profile — BTC's range from 1 July to 17 August 2026, built from 1,152 hourly candles in 60 price bins of about $153. The point of control was around 63,980; about 70% of the volume traded between 62,683 and 65,125, and price closed inside that value area on 39 of the 48 days. Below 61,000 the profile is thin: in those seven weeks price was there on only 2 days. On 19, 20 and 21 August volume was 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 times its 20-day average, and the close went from 64,725 to 78,338 (+21.0%).

What traders read in it

Check yourself · 1 of 3A day's volume bar shows 30,000 BTC. What does it mean?
Show the answer

Volume counts each trade once — a buyer and a seller — on one market. Other exchanges are not in it.

Check yourself · 2 of 3What is the point of control?
Show the answer

The POC is the busiest price; the average price weighted by volume is the VWAP — the next lesson.

Check yourself · 3 of 3Why is a candle's volume spread evenly over its range in the profile?
Show the answer

With trade-by-trade data a profile can be exact; from candles it is an estimate. Shorter candles make it finer.

Takeaways
  1. Volume is how much changed hands; it has no side.
  2. One exchange's volume is a sample: compare it with its own history.
  3. A volume profile shows how much traded at each price; from candles it is an estimate.
  4. Point of control: the busiest price; value area: where about 70% traded.
  5. A profile knows only the candles it is built from — choose the range with care.

Open BTC in the terminal — the volume profile is under the stacked-bars button above the chart

Further reading

Education only, not financial advice · Updated 28 Oct 2026 · Data: Binance · Report a mistake