What it shows
A TPO (Market Profile style) chart measures time at price rather than volume at price: each fixed sub-period of the session, for example 30 minutes, is assigned a letter, and that letter is printed at every price the market touched during it. Stacked across the session, the letters build a distribution whose widest line is the TPO point of control and whose central band is the value area. Single prints, poor highs/lows and the initial balance reveal how the auction developed.
How it's built
The session is divided into equal time brackets; for each bracket, one block or letter is placed in every price row (of a configurable block size) traded during that bracket, and blocks accumulate horizontally per row across the session. The profile is organized by session and price, with time contributing counts rather than horizontal distance.
Switch to it
Open the chart-type menu in the header (next to the interval buttons) and pick Time price opportunity — or pin it as a favourite for one-click switching.
When to use it
- Auction analysis: distinguishing balanced (bell-shaped) sessions from trending, elongated ones
- Trading around value area high/low, TPO POC and single-print gaps left by fast moves
- Using the initial balance (first brackets) to anticipate range extension or rotation
- Framing longer-term inventory and acceptance across multiple sessions
Settings reference
Open Chart Settings (gear, or double-click the chart background) with this type active. Every setting, its possible values and what it changes:
| Setting | Control | Possible values | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Line] Price source | select | Close, Open, High, Low, (H + L)/2, (H + L + C)/3, (O + H + L + C)/4 | Close | Which price the overlaid price line tracks across the TPO profiles. |
| [Line] Line | color+line-style | any color; Solid/Dashed/Dotted | #2962FF, Solid | Color and dash style of the price line drawn over the profiles, keeping the actual price path visible behind the letter blocks. |
| [Time price opportunity] Period | number+select | count 1 to 30; unit Day/Week/Month | 1 Day | How much time each TPO profile aggregates (profile length = count x unit). Larger periods build composite profiles spanning multiple days, weeks or months. |
| [Time price opportunity] Session | select | All, Each, Pre-market only, Market only, Post-market only, Custom (shown only when Period unit is Day) | All | Which part of the trading day each daily profile covers: All combines pre/market/post into one profile, Each builds separate profiles per session part, the -only modes profile just that part, Custom uses your own windows. |
| [Time price opportunity] Custom sessions | text | comma-separated HH:MM-HH:MM windows, up to five (shown only when Session = Custom) | empty | Your own session windows in the chart timezone; a profile is built for each window per day. |
| [Time price opportunity] Block size | select | 5m, 10m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 4h | 30m | Duration of one TPO letter/block. Each block of time gets its own letter, so smaller blocks produce more letters and finer time granularity within the profile. |
| [Time price opportunity] Row size | select | Auto, Manual | Auto | Auto lets the chart pick a sensible ticks-per-row for the symbol and zoom (the computed value is shown greyed out below); Manual unlocks the Ticks per row field for your own value. |
| [Time price opportunity] Ticks per row | number | 1 to 100000, step 1 (editable only when Row size = Manual; in Auto it shows the computed value read-only) | 10 | Height of each profile row in price ticks. Smaller values give finer price resolution with more rows; larger values merge prices into fewer, thicker rows. |
| [Time price opportunity] Value area | number | 10 to 100 %, step 1 | 70 % | Percent of the profile's TPO count the value area must contain. Larger values widen the value area band around the POC. |
| [Time price opportunity] Gradient colors | colors (4 swatches) | any four colors | #E91E63, #66BB6A, #4DD0E1, #651FFF | Four gradient stops that color the letters/blocks by time of day (A through the last upper-case block, then a through z), so you can see when in the session each price traded. |
| [Time price opportunity] Blocks | checkbox | on/off | on | Draws the filled block behind each TPO cell. Off leaves letters (if enabled) on a transparent background. |
| [Time price opportunity] Letters | checkbox | on/off | on | Prints the period letter (A, B, C, ...) in each cell. Off shows colored blocks only. |
| [Time price opportunity] Opacity outside VA | slider | 0 to 100 | 65 | Opacity of rows outside the value area. Lower values fade the profile's extremes so the value area stands out. |
| [Time price opportunity] Expand blocks | checkbox+select | on/off; All, Last | off; All | Expanded blocks sit at their actual time position along the axis instead of collapsing left-to-right into a compact profile. The select chooses whether every profile expands or only the last (developing) one. |
| [Time price opportunity] Summary info | checkbox+multi-select | on/off; any of: VAH, VAL, POC, HL range, VA range, Total volume, Total TPO, TPO above POC, TPO below POC, Rotation factor, IB high, IB low, IB range | off; VAH, VAL, POC, Total volume, Total TPO, Rotation factor, IB range | Shows a per-profile summary box listing the chosen statistics beneath each profile. |
| [Lines & labels] POC | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | on; Don't extend; theme text color | Marks the Point of Control — the row with the most TPO blocks — with a line and label. Extend right carries the level across later profiles as a reference. |
| [Lines & labels] Poor high | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | off; Don't extend; #B39DDB | Flags profile highs formed by more than one TPO (an unfinished auction at the top that often gets revisited); optionally extends the level rightward. |
| [Lines & labels] Poor low | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | off; Don't extend; #B39DDB | Flags poor (unfinished) profile lows the same way, marking potential revisit targets below. |
| [Lines & labels] Single prints | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | off; Don't extend; #B39DDB | Highlights rows visited during only one time block — fast, one-sided moves that often act as support/resistance when retested. |
| [Lines & labels] VAH | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | on; Don't extend; theme text color | Marks the Value Area High of each profile with a line and label; Extend right keeps old VAHs on screen. |
| [Lines & labels] VAL | checkbox+extend+color | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color | on; Don't extend; theme text color | Marks the Value Area Low of each profile; Extend right keeps old VALs on screen. |
| [Lines & labels] TPO Midpoint | checkbox | on/off | off | Marks the midpoint of each profile's high-low range. |
| [Lines & labels] Open | checkbox | on/off | off | Marks the period's opening price on the profile. |
| [Lines & labels] Close | checkbox | on/off | off | Marks the period's closing price on the profile. |
| [Lines & labels] Initial balance range | checkbox+number | on/off; 1 or more blocks | on; 2 | Highlights the Initial Balance — the range built during the first N time blocks of the session (2 x 30m = first hour by default). Changing the count redefines how much of the open constitutes the IB. |
| [Volume profile] Show volume profile | checkbox | on/off | on | Shows a volume-by-price histogram alongside each TPO profile, letting you compare time-based and volume-based acceptance at each price. |
| [Volume profile] Values | checkbox+color | on/off; any color | on; theme text color | Prints the traded volume number on each histogram row of the side volume profile. |
| [Volume profile] VAH | checkbox+extend+color+line-style | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color; Solid/Dashed/Dotted | off; Don't extend; #808080; Dashed | Draws the volume profile's Value Area High as a line, optionally extended right across later profiles. |
| [Volume profile] VAL | checkbox+extend+color+line-style | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color; Solid/Dashed/Dotted | off; Don't extend; #808080; Dashed | Draws the volume profile's Value Area Low as a line, optionally extended right. |
| [Volume profile] POC | checkbox+extend+color+line-style | on/off; Don't extend/Extend right; any color; Solid/Dashed/Dotted | off; Don't extend; #808080; Solid | Draws the volume profile's Point of Control — the highest-volume price row — as a line, optionally extended right. |
| [Volume profile] Volume | color | any color | #a9dde0 | Color of volume-profile rows outside the value area. |
| [Volume profile] Value area | color | any color | #7fcfd6 | Color of volume-profile rows inside the value area, making the accepted price band stand out. |
| [Volume profile] Placement | select | Left, Right | Left | Which side of each TPO profile the volume histogram is drawn on. |
| [Precision] Precision | select | Default, 0 (1), 1 (1.1), 2 (1.01), 3 (1.001), 4 (1.0001), 5 (1.00001), 6 (1.000001), 7 (1.0000001), 8 (1.00000001) | Default | Number of decimal places used for prices on the scale and labels. Default follows the symbol's own tick precision. |
Watch out for
- TPO counts time, not volume, so a level touched briefly on huge volume can look less important than a slow drift; correct session and bracket configuration is essential