Fixed Range Profile

Fixed Range Profile is a free MT5 indicator. It is for day traders marking a session or swing traders measuring a base, and it draws a volume profile on your main chart for any stretch of bars you mark with two vertical lines. You get a histogram of 10-100 price rows, the Point of Control, the value area and up to 5 high and 5 low volume nodes. The Lab tested version 1.00 on MT5 build 6230 on 2026-10-09: when you drag the lines, every row is deleted and redrawn cleanly.

It helps you when you want to know where most of the trading happened inside one move, session or consolidation. It can also alert you when a bar closes back at that price.

What it draws on your chart

A volume profile shows how much volume traded at each price, stacked sideways instead of under the bars. The busiest row is the Point of Control (POC). The band that holds most of the volume is the value area, with VAH at its top and VAL at its bottom.

• Volume Histogram: one rectangle per row. The rows grow from the side set in HistogramSide (right of the range by default). The longest bar is the POC row, HistogramMaxWidthBars chart bars long. Rows inside the value area use ColorHistogram. Rows outside the value area and low-volume rows are blended toward the chart background.
• Value Area box: ColorValueArea mixed 80% into the background, so your candles stay readable.
• POC and Volume Nodes: the POC line and its price label in gold (ColorPOC). Green lines (ColorHVN) mark secondary high volume nodes outside the value area. Red lines (ColorLVN) mark low volume nodes, leaving out the two edge rows.
• Fixed Range panel: shows the range status and bar count, the start and end time, and POC, VAH and VAL with their distance from price in pips. It also shows where price sits against the value area and the last retest, enter or leave alert.

How the profile is built

The indicator runs the same steps every time it recalculates, from your two lines to the alert check:

What the Lab checked

The Lab loaded version 1.00 in MT5 build 6230, dragged the range lines and turned ExtendToLatestBar on and off to confirm every row is deleted and redrawn.

• Build and file: version 1.00 (118 KB) ran on MT5 build 6230 on 2026-10-09. It draws in the main chart window, not in a subwindow.
• Clean redraws: every histogram row, the value area box and the node lines are deleted and redrawn on each recalculation. A recalculation happens when you drag a range line, or when a new source bar closes while ExtendToLatestBar is on. Removing the indicator deletes the histogram and the value area box. For you, this means dragging the lines around does not leave old rectangles piling up on the chart.
• Scope: 30 inputs and three alert channels (popup, push, sound).

What the record does not include: the Lab published no hit rate for the alerts in version 1.00. Use the POC and value area as reference levels that you judge yourself, not as a tested entry signal.

Who it is for

It suits you if you already trade levels and want to measure one specific move or session: day traders marking a session, or swing traders measuring the base before a breakout. It does not suit you if you want arrows that tell you when to buy or sell.

Set your range in a minute

To install, copy the file into MQL5\Indicators, refresh the Navigator and drag the indicator onto your chart.

Two vertical lines appear LookbackBarsDefault (200) bars apart. Drag either line and the profile redraws. If the range is shorter than MinRangeBars (5 bars), it is not accepted.

Where to put the lines: start at the bar where the thing you want to measure began, such as the swing low before a rally, a session open or the first bar of a consolidation. End where it finished. Keep one story per profile. A range that mixes two unrelated moves gives you a POC in the middle that neither move defended.

Fixed times instead of dragging: set AnchorMode to By time and fill in RangeStartTime and RangeEndTime. If the start is 0, it uses LookbackBarsDefault bars before the end. If the end is 0, it uses the last closed bar.

Developing profile: turn ExtendToLatestBar on and every newly closed bar joins the range, so the profile grows as the day goes on.

Chart colors: with RestoreTheme on (the default), your original chart colors come back when you remove the indicator.

Read the levels

The picture below shows how a finished range sits on the chart and where each alert fires after it.

• POC (gold line): the price where the range traded the most. When price comes back to it after leaving, that is the zone to watch for a reaction.
• VAH / VAL (edges of the box): a close inside means price is back in the range it accepted. A close outside means price is testing new prices.
• Green HVN lines: secondary busy prices outside the value area, which are further support or resistance candidates.
• Red LVN lines: thin rows where little traded. Read them as prices the range never accepted. They are levels to watch, not places to sit and wait.

The alerts and where they appear

• POC retest (EnableRetestAlert): a bar closes within RetestBufferPoints (default 20) of the POC. On a 5-digit forex pair, 20 points is 2 pips. On gold or indices, check what a point is on your symbol before you trust the default.
• Value area enter / leave (EnableVAEnterExitAlert): a bar closes into or out of the value area.
• Delivery: AlertPopup opens an alert window in the terminal, AlertSound plays AlertSoundFile (alert.wav) from the MT5 Sounds folder, and AlertPush sends a notification to MetaTrader mobile (off by default). The last alert also shows on the panel.

All alerts fire on a closed bar. A wick that touches the POC and closes away from it does not trigger one.

Inputs that change the picture most

Decision rules for each alert

These are reading rules from how value areas are commonly traded, not results the Lab tested.

• POC retest: act on it only if price left the value area first and then came back. A retest alert while price is still chopping inside the box is noise, so skip it.
• Enter value area after a leave: treat the POC as the halfway mark and the opposite edge as the next reference. Skip it while ExtendToLatestBar is on, because the edges are still moving.
• Leave value area: do not fade the first close outside. Wait for an enter alert back inside before you trade back toward the POC.

A common misread and how to spot it

With ExtendToLatestBar on, the POC can move on each recalculation (see What the Lab checked). An alert from an hour ago may point to a level that is no longer the POC. Check the current POC on the panel before you act on an old alert. Also remember that only the gold line is the POC. Green lines are secondary nodes, not a second POC.