A point of control trading strategy treats the POC, the busiest price of a session, as a reference level rather than a signal. You mark the POCs that matter, watch how price behaves around them, and use them for context, reaction points and targets. None of them is a level price has to respect.
Quick answer: how do you trade the point of control?
Mark the previous session’s POC and any naked POCs, the earlier ones price has not traded back to. Use them in three ways: 1) as a target when price leaves balance, 2) as a level to watch for acceptance or rejection, and 3) as a read on direction when the POC migrates. Always pair the level with a stop and a plan.
The POC in brief, and what this guide adds
On a Market Profile or volume profile, the point of control is the price with the most activity in the period: the widest row. If the chart itself is new to you, start with our guide to market profile trading for beginners.
How the POC and the value area around it are calculated is covered in value area high and low explained, so we will not repeat it. Platforms also differ: a time-based POC and a volume POC can sit at different prices, as our comparison of Market Profile and volume profile shows. This article is about what to do with the POC once it is on the chart.
Which POCs to mark
We keep to a short list and remove levels once they have been traded through.
The previous session’s POC
This is the price where yesterday’s buyers and sellers did the most business. Where today opens relative to it tells you whether the market is still trading around yesterday’s idea of fair value or has moved away from it.
The developing POC
During the session the POC moves as activity builds and is only fixed at the close. It helps you read the day, but it is not a level to place orders against.
Weekly and composite POCs
A weekly POC, or one from a composite profile spanning several sessions, shows where value sat over a longer stretch. These higher-timeframe POCs tend to matter more than a single quiet session’s POC.
Naked (virgin) POCs: why traders watch them
A naked POC, also called a virgin or untested POC, is an earlier session’s POC that price has not traded back to since that session closed. Many traders keep them on the chart as possible destinations once price leaves its current range.
A naked POC marks a price where a lot of business was once done, so participants may react if the market comes back. That is a reason to watch it, nothing more.
The honest caveat
You will read that naked POCs act as magnets or “always get filled”. Some are revisited and some are not, and traders tend to remember the ones that were. The researchers behind the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences showed that prices are extremely hard to predict over days or weeks, and no level changes that.
We use a naked POC as a candidate target and a place to be alert, never as a reason to enter on its own.
POC migration: reading where value is moving
Comparing the POC from one session to the next shows whether value is moving. A series of rising POCs means the busiest trading is happening at higher prices; falling POCs mean the opposite. A POC that stays put across sessions suggests balance.
| POC behaviour | What it suggests | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Rising session to session | Value moving higher | Buy on every dip |
| Falling session to session | Value moving lower | The fall must continue |
| Flat for several sessions | Balance, a range | A breakout is due |
| Price far from a naked POC | A possible later target | Price will return |
| Price stalls at the POC | Agreement on fair value | A reversal signal |
Three ways to use the POC in a plan
- As a target. When price leaves balance, the previous POC or a naked POC in the direction of travel is a logical first objective. It must still sit far enough away to justify the risk.
- As a level to watch. In a balanced session, price often rotates around the POC. A quick rejection away from it or slow acceptance through it tells you more than the line itself.
- As a filter. Migrating POCs in the direction of your trade are supporting context; POCs moving against you are a reason for caution. Combined with supply and demand zones drawn on the same chart, the POC helps you judge which side has the upper hand.
If price breaks out of a range and the POC follows it to the new area over the next session, value has accepted the move. If the POC stays behind, treat the break with suspicion; our guide on how to avoid false breakouts covers other filters.
Worked example: a naked POC as the target
Example: on a hypothetical £5,000 account we risk 1% per trade, which is £50. A hypothetical index left a naked POC at 7,480 three sessions ago. Yesterday’s value area ran from 7,500 to 7,540, with the POC at 7,525.
Today price rallies to 7,555, above yesterday’s value, fails to hold and closes a 30-minute bar back inside value at 7,535. We read that as rejection of higher prices.
- Entry: short at 7,535.
- Stop: 7,560, above the rejection high plus a buffer, so 25 points.
- Size: £50 ÷ 25 = £2 per point on a spread bet.
- Target: the naked POC at 7,480, 55 points away, a little over twice the risk.
Price must pass yesterday’s POC at 7,525 first. If it stalls there and builds time, the market is accepting fair value, so we would consider exiting rather than holding for the naked POC. If the naked POC were only 30 points away, we would skip the trade, and our guide on how to calculate position size for spread bets and CFDs shows the sizing step.
Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged, so a fast move or gap through 7,560 could lose more than the planned £50. For stop buffers, see where to place a stop loss with price action.
Common mistakes with the point of control
- Treating a naked POC as a promise. It is a candidate target, not a level price owes you.
- Fading the POC in a trend. On a trend day the POC gets left behind and stops being relevant.
- Keeping every old POC. Remove levels once traded through, or the chart becomes noise.
- Ignoring data settings. Session hours, time versus volume, and thin forex or back-month futures data all move the POC.
- Trading it into news. A major release can reset value in minutes, one of the reasons we list in when not to trade and stay flat.
Frequently asked questions
What is a naked POC?
It is the point of control of an earlier session that price has not traded back to since that session ended. Traders mark it as a possible future target or reaction level, but there is no rule that price must return to it.
Is the point of control support or resistance?
Not in the usual sense. It marks the price where most business was done, so in a balanced market price often rotates around it, while in a trend price can pass through it easily.
Which POC matters most: daily or weekly?
Higher-timeframe POCs, such as weekly or composite ones, usually carry more weight because they reflect more trading. Day traders still watch the previous session’s POC for where the day opens.
Next steps
Mark the previous session’s POC and any naked POCs on one market you follow, and note for a few weeks how price behaves when it reaches them. Our older desk post reading the US500 with Market Profile shows profile levels used on an index.
Assessing price position before you take a trade is part of our price action trading course, and the basics section 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.
