Market profile day types sort trading sessions by how price behaves after the first hour. Whether the market stays inside that opening range, breaks out of one side, breaks out of both or barely moves tells you who is in control, and whether fading the edges or trading with the move makes more sense.
Quick answer: what are the market profile day types?
The classic day types are normal, normal variation, trend, double distribution, neutral and non-trend. Each is defined by the initial balance, the first hour’s range, and by range extension beyond it: none, one side, both sides, or a strong one-way move. The label is a developing read, confirmed only at the close.
Where the day types come from
Market Profile grew out of J. Peter Steidlmayer’s work as a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. The day-type classification most traders use today is set out in Mind Over Markets by James Dalton, Eric Jones and Robert Dalton, first published in 1993, which gives each type its own section.
Some traders act only within the day, while longer-term participants, the other timeframe, step in when price moves away from value. The day types describe how much of the session those larger players controlled.
If TPOs, the initial balance and the value area are new to you, start with our guide to market profile trading for beginners.
The initial balance and range extension
Every day type is judged against the initial balance (IB): the range of the first hour, usually the A and B periods on a 30-minute profile. A narrow IB leaves more room for one side to take over than a wide one.
Range extension is any trade beyond the IB high or low. It is the clearest sign that participants outside the day timeframe have become active.
- No extension: points to a normal or non-trend day.
- Extension on one side: points to a normal variation or trend day.
- Extension on both sides: points to a neutral day.
The six classic day types
Normal day
A wide initial balance holds most or all of the session’s range, and price rotates two ways inside it. The profile looks like a bell, with the point of control as the session’s centre of value.
Normal variation day
The IB is narrower, and later in the session one side extends the range, often by roughly the width of the IB again. Sources differ on the exact amount. The value area usually shifts towards the extension.
Trend day
Price opens near one extreme and keeps moving one way, with little trade back into earlier prices. The profile is long and thin, and the close is near the high or the low. Fading this type of day is the costliest mistake in profile trading.
Double distribution trend day
A small IB, a period of balance, then a sharp move to a new area where a second balance forms. The two distributions are usually separated by single prints, the thin prices the market rushed through.
Neutral day
Price extends beyond both the IB high and the IB low, so both sides were active and neither won outright. If the session closes near the middle, it is a neutral centre day. If it closes near one extreme, it is a neutral extreme day, which shows one side won late.
Non-trend day
A narrow range, no meaningful extension and little participation, often before a major release or on holiday-thin days. Its levels carry little weight.
| Day type | Range extension | Close | How we approach it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | None or minimal | Inside the IB | Rotation between the edges |
| Normal variation | One side, about one IB | Towards the extension | Respect the new direction |
| Trend | One side, persistent | Near the extreme | Never fade; trade pullbacks |
| Double distribution | One side, in a jump | In the second area | Watch the single prints |
| Neutral | Both sides | Centre or extreme | Read the close carefully |
| Non-trend | None, narrow range | Mid-range | Usually stand aside |
How to read the day type as the session develops
You only know the day type for certain after the close. During the session it is a hypothesis that you update as price either extends or fails to. This is the order we work through:
- Measure the IB once the first hour closes, and compare its width with recent sessions.
- Note where the session opened relative to the previous day’s value area.
- Watch the first attempt to extend beyond the IB: does price hold out there, or fall straight back in?
- If one side extends and holds, treat the day as normal variation or trend and stop fading that side.
- If the other side then extends too, switch to a neutral read and focus on where price settles into the close.
- If nothing extends by midday, expect rotation or a quiet non-trend day.
The previous day’s value area matters here; our guide to the value area high and low covers opening inside or outside value. Remember that a profile on an index CFD shows your provider’s prices, and on currency pairs there is no central exchange at all, as we explain in the difference between market profile and volume profile.
Worked example: a developing trend day
Hypothetical example: on a £5,000 account you risk 1% per trade, so £50. An index builds a narrow IB between 7,480 and 7,520. Shortly after the first hour, price extends to 7,545, and the next two periods hold above the IB high without trading back inside it.
That is a developing trend day, so selling the new high is off the table. Instead you wait for a pullback and buy at 7,530, with the stop at 7,512, back inside the IB: 18 points. £50 divided by 18 is about £2.78, so you round down to £2.70 per point, a planned loss of about £48.60.
If price instead falls back through 7,520 and then breaks below 7,480, the day has turned neutral and the trade idea is gone. Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged, and ESMA’s retail CFD measures cap major indices at 20:1, so a fast move can still cost more than planned. Our guide to calculating position size for spread bets and CFDs shows the arithmetic.
Common mistakes
- Labelling the day too early. In the first hour you have an IB, not a day type.
- Fading trend days. Selling every new high on a one-way session fights the larger players.
- Treating one extension as a trend. A quick poke beyond the IB that falls back is often rotation; see how to avoid false breakouts.
- Trading non-trend days hard. Narrow, quiet sessions before major news are often a good time to stay flat.
Frequently asked questions
Which market profile day type is most common?
Many practitioners say balanced sessions, normal and normal variation days, are more common than trend days, but published frequency figures rarely cite their data. Track it in your own journal.
What is the difference between a normal and a normal variation day?
On a normal day the wide initial balance contains almost all of the session. On a normal variation day the IB is narrower and one side extends it, often by about one IB width, moving value in that direction.
Can you identify the day type before the session ends?
You can form a working view after the first hour and update it as the session unfolds. The final label is only certain at the close, which is why we treat it as a developing read.
Do day types work on forex and CFDs?
The ideas transfer, but the levels are approximate. Spot forex has no central exchange, and an index CFD shows your provider’s feed, so treat IB highs and lows as zones rather than exact prices.
Next steps
Revisit our beginner’s guide to market profile charts, then read our point of control trading strategy to see how the POC behaves on each type of day.
If you want to build the price action skills that make these reads tradeable, the basics section of our price action trading course is free to start.
This article is for education only and is not financial advice. Trading leveraged products such as CFDs and spread bets carries a high risk of losing money.
