Footprint chart vs volume profile: what each one shows

Explainer · November 6, 2026 · 3 min read

Footprint charts and volume profiles both show how much traded at each price. They answer different questions, and confusing them is one of the most common beginner mistakes.

The short version

• A footprint chart looks inside each candle: at each price, how much traded at the bid and at the ask.
• A volume profile adds up volume at each price over a whole period and draws it on the side of the chart.

The footprint tells you how a move happened. The profile tells you where the market spent its time and volume.

Footprint charts

A footprint chart replaces each candle with a column of numbers, one row per price. Common views are:

• Bid × ask: the volume sold at the bid next to the volume bought at the ask, at each price.
• Delta: the difference between the two, at each price or for the whole candle.
• Volume: the total at each price, often coloured by intensity.

Many platforms also highlight imbalances, where one side is much larger than the other at nearby prices.

The question it answers: inside this candle, where were buyers or sellers aggressive, and did price move because of it?

Where it misleads:

• It is dense. On a fast market or a short timeframe, the numbers change faster than you can read them.
• Bid and ask can be estimated, depending on the feed, so two platforms can show different numbers.
• A strong-looking candle says nothing certain about the next one.

Volume profiles

A volume profile is a horizontal histogram: the longer the bar at a price, the more traded there during the chosen period. Common types are:

• Session profile: one profile per trading day.
• Composite profile: several days or weeks merged into one.
• Fixed range or visible range: the part of the chart you select, or the part on screen.

Traders read a few landmarks from it: the point of control, the value area, high-volume areas where price spent time, and thin areas it moved through quickly.

The question it answers: over this period, which prices did the market accept, and which did it reject?

Where it misleads:

• It depends entirely on the period you choose. Change the range and the landmarks move.
• It ignores order: volume from Monday morning and Friday afternoon counts the same.
• A standard profile shows how much traded, not who was aggressive. Some platforms offer a delta profile for that.

Side by side

• Unit of time: the footprint works candle by candle. The profile works over a period you choose.
• Main question: the footprint shows how price moved. The profile shows where volume built up.
• Aggression: the footprint shows bid and ask by default. The profile usually does not.
• Best use: the footprint for reading a moment in detail, the profile for context and levels.
• Learning curve: the footprint is harder to read at first. The profile is easier to start with.

Why many traders use both

The two fit together naturally. A trader might use the profile to mark the prices that mattered over recent sessions, then watch the footprint when price comes back to one of them, to see whether trading there looks one-sided or balanced.

That is a way of organising what you look at, not a signal. The same picture can resolve in either direction, and charts always look clearer after the fact than they did live.

What to check in a platform

• Footprint: the display modes you want, imbalance settings, and whether it stays readable on your markets and timeframes.
• Profile: session, composite and fixed range profiles, and whether you can add one by selecting part of the chart.
• Speed: both are heavy with tick data. Try them on a busy session before you pay for a long plan.

For the full list of checks, read how to choose an orderflow platform. For the basics, start with what orderflow trading is.