What it is
Most charts show volume by day, as bars under the price. A volume profile turns that on its side: it adds up the shares traded at each price level over a stretch of time and draws them as bars from the edge of the chart. The longest bar is the price where the most shares changed hands, often called the point of control.
How it is built
Split the range between the lowest low and the highest high into equal steps. For each session, spread its volume over the steps its high-to-low range covers, in proportion to how much of the range falls in each. Breakaway uses 24 steps. The figures on this page cover the last six months of closed sessions.
How traders read it
A price where many shares traded is a price many holders paid. Traders watch whether a stock holds above its busiest level or stalls below it. Thin stretches of the profile, where few shares traded, are prices the stock moved through quickly. Like support and resistance, the profile describes where trading happened, not where it will.
The volume profile on Breakaway
Members can turn on a volume profile on any stock's chart, over whatever stretch is in view. It does not count toward the Quality Score.