The point of control, or POC, is the single price level with the highest traded volume in a profile — the longest bar on the histogram. It marks the price at which buyers and sellers were most in agreement, the fairest price over the range you selected.
Because so much business was done there, the POC often behaves like a magnet: price that drifts away can be drawn back to it, and price that reaches it can pause, because it is a level everyone recognises as fair value.
How to use the POC
Traders use the POC as a reference level, much like a support or resistance line. In a range, price rejecting the POC from below can offer a short back toward the value edges; accepting above it can favour longs. The key is which side price is trading relative to that level.
For entries, a common approach is to act as price tests the POC and place a stop just beyond it, since a decisive move through the fairest price means your read on control was wrong. A prior day's POC that price revisits is a particularly watched level.
- POC = the price with the most volume in the profile.
- It acts as a magnet and a fair-value reference, not a guaranteed turn.
- Watch whether price accepts above or rejects below it.
- Place stops beyond the POC when you trade a reaction at it.
The point of control is the market's fairest price over your range — a magnet and reference level, but never a certainty on its own.