What is POC (point of control)?
The point of control is the price level with the most traded volume within a candle or a range, marking where the most business was done.
What does POC (point of control) mean in practice?
Volume is not spread evenly across a range. Some prices attract far more trading than others, and the busiest is the point of control. Because heavy trading means many participants agreed on that price, it often acts as a reference that price revisits.
On a footprint chart the POC of each candle is highlighted, so you can see where the candle's volume actually concentrated even when its body sits elsewhere. It is a description of past activity. Price returning to it is common but never guaranteed.
A worked example
Illustrative only: a candle ranges from 100 to 104, but 31% of its volume traded at 101. The POC is 101, even though the close was at 103.
How to read or test it
Mark the POC of recent candles or sessions and observe how price behaves around them over a meaningful sample, counting both the times it returned and the times it did not. Compare the POC with the candle's close: a close far from the POC means most business was done away from where price finished. The point of control describes where agreement happened, and it is a reference point, not a prediction. Do this on more than one instrument before deciding whether the level means anything to you.
How AKQX handles POC (point of control)
AKQX marks the POC on each footprint candle as part of its order-flow view for ten crypto pairs.
See Footprint order flow chart for the feature page.
A common mistake
Assuming price must return to the POC. It frequently does and sometimes does not.
Educational only. This entry explains a term. It is not investment advice and does not recommend any trade, setting or strategy, and example numbers are illustrative, not results.
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