Intrabar Volume Profile [Order Flow]

A volume profile answers one question: at which prices did the volume actually trade? The answer depends entirely on how you distribute each bar's volume across price. Intrabar Volume Profile does it by reading the lower-timeframe intrabars inside every chart bar and placing each intrabar's volume across its own high-low range — so a peak forms at the prices where the volume actually traded, and the Point of Control lands where trading concentrated. It also estimates the buy/sell split from intrabar direction, tells you on the chart that it is an estimate, and hides it when the resolution is too low to mean anything. It is an observation tool, not a signal service.

HOW IT WORKS

A chart bar only gives you one volume number for a whole price range. To place that volume at prices, you have to know where inside the bar it traded — and that is what the lower timeframe provides. The tool requests the intrabars of each chart bar and works from them.

Intrabar distribution — each intrabar's volume is spread across its own high-low range, proportionally to how much of each profile row that range covers. A 5-minute bar that only moved between 108 and 110 puts its volume at 108-110, not across the whole bar range. Rows are tick-aligned: the row height is a number of the symbol's minimum price ticks, and the row count follows the price range.
Buy/sell estimate — the intrabars this tool reads carry price and volume, but no bid/ask, so a true buy/sell split cannot be built from them. What can be done is an estimate: an intrabar that closes above its open counts to the buy side, below its open to the sell side. An intrabar that closes exactly at its open is neutral and is never forced onto a side.
Resolution gate — the estimate only carries information if there are enough intrabars per bar. Below roughly four intrabars per bar the split collapses toward simply restating the candle's direction, so the tool stops colouring by side, falls back to total volume, and says so on the chart.
Point of Control and Value Area — the POC is the row with the most total volume. The Value Area expands outward from the POC until it covers your chosen share of the range's volume (default 70%), giving VAH and VAL. Both are computed on total volume, so they stay valid whether or not the split is shown.
Display modes — Buy/Sell colours each row by its dominant side (length stays total volume). Total draws plain volume by price with no buy/sell claim at all. Delta draws the net buy-minus-sell imbalance. Optional shading makes strongly one-sided rows more saturated.

The profile is drawn in the right margin, to the right of the last bar and growing left, so it does not sit on top of the candles.

When the tool hits a limit, it says so instead of quietly degrading. A single factual line appears when — and only when — something applies: the split is unavailable at this resolution, the volume is tick volume, the range was capped by the lower-timeframe budget (with how many bars are actually covered), the row size was raised to fit a wide range, or there is no usable volume data. When nothing applies, there is no note on your chart.

The intrabars of each chart bar in the range are requested from a lower timeframe
Every intrabar's volume is distributed across the rows its own high-low range covers; direction (close vs open) assigns it to the buy or sell side, with doji intrabars left neutral
Rows, POC and Value Area are drawn from the accumulated totals; anything the tool cannot do at this resolution or data quality is stated on the chart rather than approximated silently

HOW TO READ

Long rows are prices that absorbed a lot of volume; short rows are prices the market passed through. The Point of Control is the single price row that traded the most.
The Value Area marks where the bulk of the volume changed hands — a common reference for the range the market accepted versus the edges it rejected.
Colour in Buy/Sell mode shows which side the estimate leans at that price, and the shading shows how one-sided it is. It describes what the intrabars did — it is not a forecast and not a buy or sell instruction.
Delta mode shows only the net imbalance per row, so balanced prices shrink toward nothing and one-sided prices stand out.
If you want no estimate at all in the picture, use Total mode: it is plain volume by price and makes no claim about who was buying.
The profile describes the data in the range you are looking at. In Visible Range mode it recomputes as you scroll or zoom; use Fixed Lookback if you want it pinned to the last N bars regardless of the view.

INPUTS

Range mode / Lookback bars — Visible Range follows what you are viewing; Fixed Lookback holds the last N bars.
Lower timeframe (Auto / Manual) — Auto picks a lower timeframe from the chart timeframe; Manual lets you set it. More intrabars per bar means a finer distribution and a more meaningful split.
Ticks per row — the row height, in the symbol's minimum price ticks. The row count follows the range; if the range is too wide for the chosen row size, the size is raised to fit and the chart says so.
Bar mode — Buy/Sell, Total, or Delta.
Value Area % / Show POC / Show VAH-VAL — the Value Area share and which levels to draw.
Profile width (% of chart) / Gap from price — the size of the profile and its distance from the last candle; reduce the width if it runs off the right edge.
Colours / Shade by imbalance strength — buy, sell, neutral, POC and Value Area colours; shading scales saturation with how one-sided a row is.

NOTES & LIMITS

This is an observation tool, not a forecast. The buy/sell split is an estimate derived from intrabar direction, not exchange bid/ask: the lower-timeframe intrabars this tool reads carry price and volume, not bid/ask, so a true split cannot be built from them; the tool says this on the chart when the split is shown, drops it when the resolution is too low to be meaningful, and leaves doji intrabars neutral rather than guessing a side. Everything rests on the volume feed underneath it: on instruments with genuine traded volume (futures, crypto) it is at its most reliable, while on forex and CFDs the volume is tick volume (the number of price updates, not contracts traded), so the readings there are looser — the chart tells you when that is the case. On a symbol with no usable volume, nothing is drawn and the reason is stated. The range depends on how far the lower-timeframe data reaches: if the requested range cannot be covered, it is not quietly shortened — the chart reports how many bars are actually included. POC, Value Area and row colour are a factual summary of what traded, not buy or sell instructions, and none of them says whether price will turn or continue. The profile describes the range you are viewing: in Visible Range mode it recomputes when you scroll or zoom, which is how a visible-range tool works; Fixed Lookback keeps it on the last N bars. Contributions from closed bars do not change once the range is set, the profile is drawn at the latest bar, and the lower-timeframe request reads completed intrabars and does not leak the future. No profit, win-rate, or guarantee claim. Open-source under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — non-commercial use, attribution to ElisTools required for reuse or derivatives. TradingView (Pine v6) only.

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Nello spirito di TradingView, l'autore di questo script lo ha reso open source, in modo che i trader possano esaminarne e verificarne la funzionalità. Complimenti all'autore! Sebbene sia possibile utilizzarlo gratuitamente, ricordiamo che la ripubblicazione del codice è soggetta al nostro Regolamento.

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Script open-source

ElisTools

"No-hype tools for serious chart traders — no profit promises, just clean tools that show their work."