Volume profile shapes: D, P, b, double distribution and thin profiles

Volume profile shapes explained: what D, P, b, B (double distribution) and thin profiles look like, what traders read from them, and how to chart them.

Volume profile shapes are the outlines a day's volume makes when it is laid out by price. Traders sort them into a few families: the balanced D shape, the P shape with its bulge on top, the b shape with its bulge underneath, the double distribution (sometimes called B), and the thin or elongated profile. The names come from market profile charts, and volume profiles are read in the same way. What a shape suggests is a starting point for study, never a trade signal. This page shows what each one looks like and how to see them with the session profile in SuperCharting.

What makes a shape

A volume profile is a sideways histogram. Each row is a price band, and the length of the row is the volume traded in it. The longest row is the point of control (POC), and the value area is the band around it that holds 70% of the day's volume by default. Three things decide the outline:

where the POC sits inside the day's range (middle, high or low),
how many separate bulges there are,
how wide the bulges are compared with the whole range.

A shape is only as good as its rows. SuperCharting's session profile cuts a day's range into 24 equal rows by default, so small bumps between neighbouring rows are noise. Look for a bulge several rows wide.

The five shapes

D shape: balanced

The POC is near the middle, the bulge is wide and roughly symmetrical, and both tails are thin. Price rotated around one area of agreement all day. This is the typical range day. Traders often watch the edges of the value area for reactions and treat a clean break out of it as a change of mood, but a D shape alone only says the market was balanced.

P shape: bulge on top

The POC and most of the volume sit in the upper part of the range, with a thin tail running down. Price moved up quickly, leaving little volume on the way, then stayed at higher prices. The usual reading is buyers taking over, or sellers who were short covering. Context matters: a P after a long fall is read differently from a P after a long rally.

b shape: bulge underneath

The mirror image. The POC and most of the volume sit in the lower part of the range, with a thin tail running up. Price dropped quickly and then stayed low. The usual reading is new selling, or buyers who were long giving up their positions. Again, the same shape at the end of a decline can show selling exhaustion instead.

Double distribution (B shape)

Two bulges separated by a thin stretch of low volume. The market first agreed on one price area, then moved to another and agreed there too. It often follows an opening drive, or news in the middle of the session. The low-volume stretch between the two bulges is where price moved fast, and traders watch whether later sessions come back to test it.

Thin or elongated profile

A tall, narrow profile with little volume in every row and no real bulge. Price moved through the range without stopping anywhere. This is the footprint of a one-directional trend day, and sometimes of a day with very low volume. A thin profile offers few reference levels inside it, since the market did not accept any of them.

Shape	Outline	POC position	Common reading
D	Wide, symmetrical bulge	Middle	Balance, a range day
P	Bulge high, tail below	Upper	Buying, or short covering
b	Bulge low, tail above	Lower	Selling, or long liquidation
B	Two bulges, thin gap	Either	A move from one value to another
Thin	Tall, narrow, no bulge	Unclear	Strong trend, little acceptance

A worked example

These numbers are made up. Suppose NSE:NIFTY1! trades a 240-point range on 15m. With 24 rows, each row is 10 points. Grouping the rows into six bands of 40 points, from the top down, the share of the day's volume might look like this:

band 1 (top)    ##############  30%
band 2          ##################  38%   <- POC in here
band 3          ########  17%
band 4          ####  8%
band 5          ###  5%
band 6 (bottom) #  2%

The top two bands hold 68% of the volume, which is about the size of the value area. The three bottom bands together hold only 15%, a thin tail. That is a P shape. Price spent the early hours moving up through prices the market did not stop at, then accepted the upper area for the rest of the session. A trader might then mark the POC and the value area low as levels to watch the next morning, without assuming price must react at them.

How to see the shapes in SuperCharting

Open a chart, for example NSE:NIFTY1! on 15m. Use a traded symbol, because profiles need volume and the index NSE:NIFTY may have none.
Click Indicators, open the Profiles chip and click Session volume profile. A profile appears for each day.
Open Settings. Set Sessions to Market only and Market session to 0915-1530.
Set Volume to Total so one colour makes the outline easier to read. Raise Width (% of the box) if the shapes look cramped.
Check that the shape is stable. Change Row size from 24 to 12 and back. A real P or b keeps its outline, while a shape that falls apart at 12 rows was probably noise.
For finer rows, try Session volume profile HD, which picks the row size from the data. Click Ok.

For XAUUSD or BTCUSD, leave Sessions on All, since these markets have no cash session. The chart type menu also has a Session volume profile type that turns the whole chart into daily profiles. Tick Extend POC right to carry yesterday's POC across today. See the volume profile page for every setting, and fixed range vs visible range volume profile if you want a profile over a range you choose rather than a day.

Things that change a shape

Timeframe. The profile is built from intrabars, so a 15m chart and a 1h chart usually give a similar outline, but older bars without intrabar data count as one candle each and look blockier.
Session hours. Sessions set to All or Market only changes which bars make up a day, and so the range and the POC. Fix the session first, then compare days.
Volume type. On forex and CFDs the volume is usually tick volume, so shapes describe activity rather than traded size.
Time versus volume. A market profile (TPO) counts time at each price instead of volume. SuperCharting has both, and the letters on a TPO chart can show a P or b more clearly than a volume histogram does.

Reading the profile with the VWAP of the same session shows whether a P or b day closed near its average. Past shapes do not guarantee what comes next.

Frequently asked questions

Is a P shape bullish and a b shape bearish?

Not by themselves. A P shows volume concentrated high, which many traders link to buying, but the same shape after a long rally may signal a late move. Read it with the trend and the levels around it.

How many days of profiles should I look at?

Most traders compare the last few sessions. A single day is a snapshot. Several in a row show whether value is moving up, down or sideways.

What is the difference between a double distribution and a normal day?

A normal D day has one bulge. A double distribution has two bulges with a thin stretch between them, usually because price moved from one area of agreement to another during the session.

Why does my profile look flat?

The symbol may have no volume, or the range may be so wide that 24 rows are very coarse. Try a symbol with volume, such as NSE:NIFTY1!, and check the row size.