Point of control (POC) and naked POCs

What it is

The point of control (POC) is the single price row with the most activity in a profile: the most volume in a volume profile, or the most time (TPOs) in a Market Profile. It's the price the market treated as fairest over that period.

A naked (or virgin) POC is a previous session's POC that price hasn't traded back to since. Traders watch them because price often returns to them. Watch the abbreviation: 'VPOC' means volume POC on some platforms and virgin POC on others.

The developing POC is the POC as it stands at each moment during the session. It can move several times before the close, and only the developing value was knowable in real time.

How to spot it

• The longest bar in the profile is the POC.
• If two rows tie, most platforms pick the one nearest the middle of the range.
• A naked POC is a prior POC with no trading through it since.

How to use it

• Use naked POCs from recent sessions as targets.
• Expect price to slow down and rotate around the POC; it's a poor place to enter a breakout.
• When backtesting, use the developing POC at the time of the trade, not the final one, or the test is using information from the future.

Common mistakes

• Treating the POC as support or resistance no matter what the trend is doing.
• Drawing a profile over a random range, so its POC means little.

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