User guide
Understand session profiles, read the reference levels and configure the current script.
About Session Volume Flow
Session Volume Flow groups price and activity observations into period profiles. Soft green and red bars show an estimated directional distribution, purple marks VAH/VAL, and muted yellow identifies POC. Daily is the default; Weekly and other periods are available in the downloadable script.
Volume distribution
The default Body / wick method gives the body unit density and each wick double density, then normalizes allocation to preserve the sample’s activity total. Body activity follows candle direction; wick activity splits equally into green and red. Uniform range is an optional alternative.
The histogram is an estimate of activity across price rows. Its green/red colors do not measure actual bid/ask delta or aggressive buying and selling. Default width is 28% of the period span, with small gaps between rows.
POC and value area
POC is the center of the most active row; ties choose the upper row. The default 70% value area starts at POC and expands symmetrically, adding the upper then lower row at each distance until coverage is reached. VAH and VAL mark the included upper and lower boundaries. Strongest neighbor is an alternative expansion method.
As the profile gains observations, its range, bin spacing and reference levels can move. These are developing analytical references, not guaranteed support, resistance or trading instructions.
Sessions and periods
The Pine script supports minute/hour buckets, days, weeks, months, quarters, years and named Tokyo/London/New York sessions. Named sessions use geographic time zones with daylight-saving handling. Calendar multiples count available period transitions from loaded history.
The web preview uses UTC calendar boundaries with the default Daily profile at 15 minutes. Pine uses the chart exchange’s period boundaries, so a broker’s daily session can differ. A partially loaded first period is incomplete. Unfinished chart candles are excluded by default in Pine.
Volume sources
Native volume is the default; its units and quality depend on the feed. Optional intrabar sampling distributes finer observations. External futures volume can rescale activity while prices remain those of the chart symbol; unavailable external bars fall back to native volume with a warning.
Open-interest mode allocates absolute changes of completed OI bars when new source periods arrive. It is not traded volume. The web preview uses native supplied volume only. Gold/forex data can represent broker activity rather than exchange-wide volume.
HVN and LVN
Optional closed-profile nodes group contiguous rows above or below thresholds relative to average row activity. HVN defaults to 1.5× the average and LVN to 0.4×. Node size, count, fill and line presentation are configurable in Pine. These are threshold zones, not independently verified orders or ranked local peaks.
All settings
Input labels and defaults below come from the current downloadable script. Changing Pine inputs does not alter the website preview.
| Group / control | Default | Options / limits |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions Profile period | Daily | Minutes, Hours, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Tokyo, London, New York |
| Sessions Period multiple | 1 | 1 – 60 |
| Sessions Tokyo hours | 0900-1800 | session |
| Sessions London hours | 0800-1700 | session |
| Sessions New York hours | 0800-1700 | session |
| Sessions Forex session backgrounds | false | bool |
| Profile Price rows | 30 | 5 – 80 |
| Profile Value area % | 70 | 1 – 100 |
| Profile Volume distribution | Body / wick | Body / wick, Uniform range |
| Profile Value area expansion | Symmetric | Symmetric, Strongest neighbor |
| Profile Include unfinished chart candle | false | bool |
| Profile Histogram layout | Stacked | Stacked, Opposed, Total |
| Profile Data type | Volume | Volume, Open interest change |
| Profile Smooth volume (EMA 5) | false | bool |
| Profile Use intrabar samples | false | bool |
| Profile Intrabar timeframe | 1 | timeframe |
| Profile Maximum samples per profile | 12000 | 100 – 50000 |
| Profile Closed profiles retained | 5 | 1 – 8 |
| Display Volume histogram | true | bool |
| Display POC | true | bool |
| Display VAH / VAL | true | bool |
| Display Value area fill | false | bool |
| Display Live profile | true | bool |
| Display Session and level labels | true | bool |
| Display Session range frame | true | bool |
| Display Extend reference levels | false | bool |
| Display Extension bars | 50 | 1 – 500 |
| Display Histogram width % | 28 | 5 – 80 |
| Volume source External futures volume | false | bool |
| Volume source Automatic common-symbol mapping | true | bool |
| Volume source Manual / fallback symbol | CME:6E1! | symbol |
| Volume source Source in dashboard | true | bool |
| Volume nodes High volume nodes | false | bool |
| Volume nodes Low volume nodes | false | bool |
| Volume nodes HVN / average | 1.5 | 1 – 5 |
| Volume nodes LVN / average | 0.4 | 0.05 – 1 |
| Volume nodes Minimum contiguous rows | 1 | 1 – 10 |
| Volume nodes Maximum nodes per type | 3 | 1 – 5 |
| Volume nodes Node presentation | Box | Box, Line |
| Volume nodes Node labels | true | bool |
| Colors Up-volume proxy | #68BDA0 | color |
| Colors Down-volume proxy | #D99098 | color |
| Colors Histogram transparency | 50 | 0 – 100 |
| Colors VAH / VAL | #AD8AD6 | color |
| Colors POC | #DCC36E | color |
| Colors Value area transparency | 90 | 0 – 100 |
| Colors HVN | #A18ACB | color |
| Colors LVN | #DBB985 | color |
| Colors Node transparency | 85 | 0 – 100 |
| Colors Frame | #8A8198 | color |
| Colors Level width | 1 | 1 – 4 |
| Colors Session frame style | Dashed | Solid, Dashed, Dotted |
| Colors Session text | #AEB4C0 | color |
| Colors Label size | Small | Tiny, Small, Normal, Large |
| Colors POC / VA line style | Solid | Solid, Dashed, Dotted |
| Colors Level label background | #20212B | color |
| Dashboard Dashboard | true | bool |
| Dashboard Text size | Normal | Tiny, Small, Normal, Large |
| Dashboard Background | #13151C | color |
| Dashboard Text color | #D0CED8 | color |
| Dashboard Position | Top Right | Top Right, Top Left, Bottom Right, Bottom Left |
Installation
- Open Source code, copy the full script or download the Pine file.
- Paste it into a new TradingView Pine Editor indicator, keeping the version directive on line one.
- Save, add to chart and review Profile period, Price rows, data source and value-area settings.
- Choose Dashboard text size and position. An existing instance can retain earlier saved inputs.
Daily is the current default. Higher sample caps preserve more history but require more computation. The 12,000-sample default can still be exceeded with fine intrabar data; the panel reports truncation. The full script has not been compiled in TradingView here.
Preview and limitations
Vela renders native-volume profiles with the default 30 rows, body/wick weighting, symmetric 70% coverage and six displayed periods. It is a native renderer rather than a Pine runtime. Optional futures, OI, intrabars, nodes and the full Pine dashboard run in the downloadable script.
Feed, exchange session boundaries, loaded history and parameter differences can change levels. The supplied card image is separate from the calculated web preview. Historical levels are not performance results. The current source contains a Forex Cipher MIT notice; exclusive ownership and MIT-only licensing have not been legally verified against the supplied reference.
