A distribution, not a high-low range
The high and the low tell you where price visited. They do not tell you where the market was willing to do size. A volume profile stacks volume by price. The fat part of that stack is value. The thin parts are prices the auction moved through quickly, or prices it rejected.
Value area, VAH, and VAL
The value area is the price range that contains the bulk of the volume, commonly taught as about 70 percent of the volume. Value Area High (VAH) is the top of that range. Value Area Low (VAL) is the bottom. Everything outside it is exploration until volume builds there. Do not treat VAH and VAL as automatic buy and sell buttons. They are the edges of where business was done.
Point of control
The point of control (POC) is the single price with the most volume in the profile you are looking at. Traders call it a magnet because, in balance, price often revisits the place the most business was done. A magnet is a description of balance. It is not an order. In a true imbalance, price can leave the POC and build a new one. The old POC then becomes a reference, not a destination you are owed.
Balance and imbalance
Balance is a profile that looks like a bell: most volume in the middle, tails on both sides. The auction is rotating inside value. Imbalance is a profile that looks unfinished: volume piled at one end, a tail, and little trade on the other side. Rotational tactics and break tactics are different problems. This chapter only asks you to say which one you are looking at before you borrow a tactic from the other.
