Session Time Price Opportunity (STPO) indicator
Definition
The Session Time Price Opportunity (STPO) indicator creates TPO profiles for each day based on the sessions specified in the settings, allowing traders to analyze price distributions over specific periods within each day.
Using multiple instances of the STPO indicator on a chart also allows traders to divide a trading day into several custom periods and independently inspect each period's TPO profile.
NOTE: This page describes features unique to the STPO indicator. To learn more about the general traits of all Time Price Opportunity indicators, see our Help Center's Time Price Opportunity article.Calculation
The calculation of the Session TPO indicator almost entirely matches the Periodic TPO's calculation, which you can learn more about by reading the article noted above.
The primary difference in STPO's calculation is the definition of periods. It calculates TPO profiles over each trading day within the sessions specified in the indicator's settings. The data each profile will contain depends on the indicator's "Sessions" and "Block Size" settings.
The "Block Size" input determines the timeframe of the data the indicator uses to construct the profiles. If the beginning of a specified session occurs after the start of a bar on the "Block Size" timeframe, the session's profile will not include that bar's data. Conversely, when the end of a session occurs after the start of a "Block Size" bar, the indicator will use all that bar's data when constructing the profile, even if it closes after the session ends.
For example, suppose the indicator uses a custom session from 8:00 to 12:30, and its block size is "4h". If the data on the 4-hour timeframe has a bar that starts at 12:00, the profile will include the entire bar's data, even though the session only covers the first 30 minutes (12:00 to 12:30).
Inputs
Sessions
This input determines the sessions that the STPO considers in its calculation. Enabling "Extended trading hours" in the chart's settings will impact the results for most session options.
- All: The "All" (default) option specifies that the indicator will consider the entire day's period, including pre-market and post-market sessions, as a single session in the calculation.
- Each: The "Each (pre-market, market, post-market)" option specifies that the indicator will construct up to three profiles for each trading day: one for pre-market hours, one for primary market hours, and one for post-market hours. Pre-market and post-market profiles will only show if the symbol has extended hours data and the chart displays that data.
- Pre-market, Market, or Post-market: The dedicated "Pre-market", "Market", and "Post-market" options allow the indicator to construct a single profile for each day over the specified session. The "Pre-market" and "Post-market" options only work for symbols with extended hours data when the chart has "Extended trading hours" enabled.
- Custom: With the "Custom" option, traders can configure the start and end of the daily period and its timezone, allowing one to inspect TPOs for specific time regions within each day.
See our Help Center's Time Price Opportunity article to learn about the other inputs and style settings available for this indicator.
Alerts
You can now create alerts on TPO — allowing you to receive notifications when price interacts with key structural levels of completed profiles.
TPO alerts help you track important market reactions to value areas, points of control, and profile anomalies, without the need to constantly monitor the chart.
Available alert conditions
The following alert conditions are currently supported:
- Price crossed extended POC
- Price crossed extended VAH
- Price crossed extended VAL
- Price crossed extended poor high
- Price crossed extended poor low
- Price crossed extended singleprint
How TPO alerts work
- Alerts are available on TPO chart types, as well as on Periodic TPO and Session TPO studies.
- Alerts are triggered only by completed profiles.The currently forming (real-time) TPO profile is ignored to avoid excessive noise and false signals.
Important notes and limitations
Extended levels only
You can create alerts only on extended TPO objects listed above.
If a level is not extended, it will not appear in the alert conditions list.
Extended levels are controlled in Settings → Lines & Labels.If an extend option is disabled, alerts for that level cannot be created and will be hidden in the alert's creation dialog.
Real-time profile is excluded
Alerts do not take the real-time (unfinished) TPO profile into account.Since the profile is still forming, using it for alerts would generate unnecessary noise and unreliable signals.
Merge & Split behavior
TPO charts and studies support profile merge and split operations.However, alerts do not dynamically react to these changes.
Key implications:
- When an alert is created, a snapshot of the study parameters is used on the backend.
- Any subsequent changes to chart settings — including merging or splitting profiles — are not propagated to existing alerts.
- As a result, after merging or splitting profiles:
- Alerts may continue to trigger based on outdated extended levels
- In some cases, alerts may fire for levels that no longer exist on the chart
Alert dialog behavior
- A new condition group Time Price Opportunities appears for TPO charts.
- Only alert conditions whose corresponding extend options are enabled will be shown.
- If all extend options are disabled, the Time Price Opportunities group will not be displayed at all.
- When clicking an alert:
- Alerts created on TPO charts will open the chart in TPO mode
- Alerts created on TPO studies will not change the chart type
Why use TPO alerts?
TPO alerts allow you to react instantly when price revisits or breaks through structurally important market profile levels, such as:
- Acceptance or rejection around value boundaries
- Re-tests of control points
- Resolution of unfinished auctions (poor highs/lows)
- Interaction with low-liquidity single print zones
By combining TPO alerts with profile visualization, you can monitor market structure passively, while staying focused on execution and decision-making when it matters most.