Arxon Edge

Indicators · Read the auction

Black Tide Volume

A volume profile built on a TPO profile's grid.

A TPO profile shows where the market spent its time. A volume profile shows where it spent its money, and the two do not always agree. Black Tide Volume builds its volume profile on the same grid a TPO uses, so its value area and POC sit where a TPO reader expects them.

The chart link and the manual are in your account once this indicator is part of your plan.

At a glance

Platform
TradingView
Type
Chart overlay
Best for
Intraday charts
Alerts
Yes

What’s on the chart

Each part, what it shows and why it is there.

POCVAHVAL
01

Volume at each price

The histogram shows how much traded at each price. It marks the value area, the range where most of the volume traded, from VAH at the top to VAL at the bottom, and the POC, the busiest single price. Its rows line up across sessions the way a TPO's do, so levels read the same way in both tools.

1m15m
02

Sized in time, not bars

Width and position are measured in time rather than bars, so a day looks the same on any chart timeframe. The profile is built from its own candles rather than the chart's, so switching the chart timeframe does not change it.

AsiaLondonNY
03

Sessions and anchors

Draw one profile per session, day, week, month or year. Or run Asia, London and New York profiles side by side, each starting at its own session open, or show only the sessions open right now. Days follow the market's own trading day, not calendar midnight, so each profile covers one real session.

POC
04

Past sessions and untested levels

Closed sessions keep their shape, or just their levels, so yesterday's value sits next to today's. Untested levels stay labelled until price trades back through them: previous-period levels from the last session, naked levels from older ones, plus weekly and monthly value areas. Only the nearest are drawn, so a level from months back reappears as price comes near it.

  • A level tested today turns grey
LVNHVN
05

Low- and high-volume nodes

Low-volume nodes (LVN) are thin prices the market passed through quickly; price tends to travel through them. High-volume nodes (HVN) are shelves where real size traded; price is likely to slow there. Untouched HVN bands from past sessions can run forward until price trades into them, and overlapping bands from several sessions merge into one.

  • A label like HVN ×N means several sessions' nodes overlap at that price
06

Alerts

One TradingView alert covers every event: price tagging a previous-period, naked or higher-period level, entering or leaving the value area, or trading into an untouched HVN band. Each message names the level and its price, and where the close sits against today's developing value area and POC.

How to read it

  1. Start with the previous period. Yesterday's VAH, POC and VAL are its accepted range; opening inside it is a different day from opening outside it.
  2. Watch the arrows on the developing levels. All three climbing reads as a trending auction. Value moving while the POC holds is a one-sided move not yet accepted.
  3. Check what sits above and below that has never been traded back to. A level near price may be months old.
  4. HVN bands are where size was done and price is likely to slow; LVN bands are where it was not and price tends to travel. A shelf says where, never when.
  5. A naked level inside an HVN band gives one price two separate reasons to matter.

Alerts

  • Price trades through the last period's VAH, POC or VAL for the first time.
  • Price trades through an older untested naked level.
  • Price trades through an untested weekly, monthly or yearly level.
  • Price enters or leaves the value area, or crosses all of it in one bar.
  • Price trades into an untouched HVN band from an earlier session.

Good to know

  • Made for intraday charts. On higher timeframes a session's profile shrinks to a handful of bars.
  • On most FX and CFD feeds, gold included, volume is a tick count. The profile then shows activity, not money.
  • Nothing repaints by default. Value-area alerts always wait for the bar close.
  • It shows where the market traded, not when to enter. It is not advice.

Questions

How is it different from a TPO profile?

A TPO counts time at each price; this counts traded volume. The two do not always agree, and because both sit on the same grid you can compare them row for row.

Does it work on forex and gold?

It draws on them, but most FX and CFD feeds, gold included, report tick count rather than traded volume. The profile then shows activity, not money.

Will levels from long ago still show?

Yes. Untested levels are remembered and drawn again as price comes near them, even months later.

Black Tide Volume is an analysis tool, not investment advice. Charts and examples are illustrations.