TPO letters and periods explained

TPO letters and periods are what a market profile chart counts, one letter for each period. A TPO, or time price opportunity, is one letter printed at a price the market traded during one period. A period is a fixed slice of the session, most often 30 minutes. This note builds a profile from five invented ES periods, then reads it on the TPO chart in Liquivue and on other platforms. The note on volume profile versus TPO market profile covers how the two profiles differ.

How the letters are assigned

The platform gives each period a letter. On a session that starts at 9:30 New York time with 30 minute periods, A covers 9:30 to 10:00, B covers 10:00 to 10:30, and so on. During each period, the platform prints that period's letter once at every price row the market traded, however many contracts traded there. A row that traded in three periods holds three letters.

Platforms choose their own letters for the overnight session and for sessions longer than 26 periods. Check your platform's setting before you compare two charts.

Five periods of ES

All numbers below are invented. The market is the E-mini S&P 500 future, ES. To keep the table short, each row covers 1.00 point, which is 4 ticks. These are the ranges of the first five periods.

The profile the letters build

Put each letter on every row its period traded, then read across.

The profile holds 21 letters. That matches the Rows traded column, which adds up to 21.

The TPO point of control is 5,052, the only row with five letters. Every period traded there, so the market spent more 30 minute periods at 5,052 than at any other price. With the two row method from the note on value area calculation step by step, the value area runs from 5,050 to 5,054 and holds 17 of the 21 letters.

What the letters tell you that a bar chart does not

The order of the letters records when each price traded. The 5,056 row holds only B, so the session high printed between 10:00 and 10:30 and no later period went back. The 5,049 row holds only D, so the session low printed between 11:00 and 11:30.

The initial balance is the range of the first two periods, A and B. Here it runs from 5,050 to 5,056, a range of 6 points. Period D traded at 5,049, one point below that range. Traders call a move outside the initial balance a range extension, and the letter tells you which period made it.

What changing the period length does

Shorter periods split the same session into more letters. With 15 minute periods, the 2.5 hours in this example become ten periods instead of five, and the profile holds more letters. The point of control can move when two rows hold close counts. Here 5,052 leads 5,053 by one letter, so a different period length could change which row has the most. Write the period length on any profile you save.

Reading the profile in Liquivue

Liquivue puts TPO on its docked HTF chart, which sits beside the heatmap as a linked candle chart. The HTF chart follows the heatmap's instrument and crosshair. It also has daily, composite and custom volume profiles, so you can set the TPO profile next to a volume profile for the same session.

To read this example in Liquivue, open ES on the HTF chart with TPO turned on and move the crosshair to the 5,052 row. The heatmap beside it shows the resting bids and offers near that price at the same moment. Its trade bubbles and the heatmap's volume profile show how many contracts traded at 5,052. That number can point to a different row than the letters do. This site has not verified the Liquivue period length choices or how it labels overnight periods, so check both during the 7-day trial. Liquivue costs €20 a month after the trial, and futures data comes from your own Rithmic or NinjaTrader connection.

TPO on other platforms

ATAS lists Market Profile and TPO on all of its plans. Sierra Chart lists TPO beside its Numbers Bars. Quantower includes TPO in its All-in-One licence, and its Multi-Asset licence leaves it out. Exocharts has TPO profiles, and its web version covers crypto only. Each platform sets period length and letters in its own way, so match the settings before you compare profiles. The glossary defines the profile terms used here.

A check you can run

Open yesterday's ES session on your TPO chart with 30 minute periods. Write down the TPO point of control, the initial balance and the letter of any range extension. Switch to 15 minute periods and write the same three values again. Note which values moved.