Direct Answer
The Value Area Low (VAL) is the bottom price of the value area, the range around the point of control that contains a conventional 70 percent of the profile's volume. It is the lower edge of where most trading occurred. Prices below the VAL are outside the area where most trading was accepted.
Value Area Low: Formula, Meaning, Signals, Examples and How to Use It
How Is Value Area Low Calculated?
The Value Area Low (VAL) is the bottom price of the value area, the range around the point of control that contains a conventional 70 percent of the profile's volume. It is the lower edge of where most trading occurred.
Formula: VAL = lowest price bin in the smallest area built outward from the POC that holds about 70% of total volume
Inputs:
- Volume profile over a chosen range
- Price bin size
- Value area share of volume (70% is the common default)
Worked example. If the rows from the VAL up to the VAH hold 1,450,000 of 2,000,000 shares, the value area contains 72.5% of the profile's volume. The inputs are illustrative numbers, not market data.
Reading it. Prices below the VAL are outside the area where most trading was accepted. A return into the value area from below is commonly watched as the market moving back toward accepted prices.
Limits. The 70 percent share is a common default rather than a rule, and the exact boundary depends on how the area is expanded from the POC. Like all profile levels, it changes with the chosen range, bin size and session definition.
What is Value Area Low?
The Value Area Low (VAL) is the bottom price of the value area, the range around the point of control that contains a conventional 70 percent of the profile's volume. It is the lower edge of where most trading occurred.
How to use Value Area Low
Prices below the VAL are outside the area where most trading was accepted. A return into the value area from below is commonly watched as the market moving back toward accepted prices. A reading alone is never a buy or sell signal; it needs context from price structure, volume, volatility and the broader market regime.
Strengths
- Because the area is built outward from the POC, the low edge describes the other end of the same contiguous region as the high.
- Together with the high it states a price range holding a stated share of volume, which is a compact summary of the profile.
- Reproducible when the formula and data convention are fixed.
Weaknesses and limitations
- A thin tail of low-volume rows below the main body is excluded, so the low can sit well above the lowest price traded.
- In a profile with a very large POC row the area can be narrow, so the low edge may be only a row or two from the POC.
- Correlated indicators can create false confidence by repeating the same underlying information.
Editorial and risk note
This page is educational content, not individualized investment advice. It should not imply guaranteed prediction, accuracy or outperformance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Value Area Low a buy or sell signal?
No. Prices below the VAL are outside the area where most trading was accepted. The 70 percent share is a common default rather than a rule, and the exact boundary depends on how the area is expanded from the POC. A trade built on it still needs a trigger, an invalidation rule, a position size and realistic execution assumptions.
What is the best setting for Value Area Low?
Value Area Low is computed from volume profile over a chosen range; price bin size; value area share of volume (70% is the common default), so the choices that matter are the data convention and the window it is read over. Test those across instruments, regimes and out-of-sample periods instead of fitting one historical winner.
Can Value Area Low be used by itself?
The 70 percent share is a common default rather than a rule, and the exact boundary depends on how the area is expanded from the POC. Like all profile levels, it changes with the chosen range, bin size and session definition. For that reason it is read next to measures of direction, participation, valuation, liquidity and risk, not alone.
Does Value Area Low work on every timeframe?
The calculation (VAL = lowest price bin in the smallest area built outward from the POC that holds about 70% of total volume) can be run on any bar size, but behavior is not portable: a reading on a five-minute chart describes a very different market window from the same reading on a daily chart. Validate the exact timeframe before relying on it.
Why does Value Area Low give false signals?
A thin tail of low-volume rows below the main body is excluded, so the low can sit well above the lowest price traded. In a profile with a very large POC row the area can be narrow, so the low edge may be only a row or two from the POC. Lag, noise and regime changes add to this, because market participants react to new information after the reading is calculated.
How should Value Area Low be backtested?
Rebuild Value Area Low from volume profile over a chosen range using point-in-time data, write the rules before testing, include delisted securities where relevant, model realistic fills and costs, reserve a validation sample and compare with a simpler baseline.