The price where the most volume traded is where the market found the most agreement. When yesterday's is left untested, today's price tends to go find it.
NoVo Options Trading ·
The Point of Control (POC) is the price at which the most volume traded in a session — the peak of the volume profile, where the market spent the most time and found the most agreement. When a prior session's POC is left untested the next day — a “naked” POC — it acts as a magnet.
Why a naked POC pulls
A POC represents a price the market considered fair enough to transact heavily. If a new session opens away from yesterday's POC and hasn't traded back to it, that unfinished business tends to draw price — participants who want to transact at that fair-value price are still there. Like other high-volume nodes, it's a magnet; being naked (untested) makes it a target that hasn't been satisfied yet.
How to trade it
Mark yesterday's POC and treat a naked one as a magnet target: if price is above it, a pullback toward it is likely; if below, a bounce toward it. You can trade toward the naked POC (targeting the magnet) and watch for a reaction at it (it often acts as support/resistance once tested). It's especially useful on a gap day, where an untested POC below a gap-up is a natural gap-fill objective.
A naked POC is unfinished business — a fair-value price the market hasn't revisited. Price tends to go close the loop.
The caveat
A naked POC is a magnet tendency, not a guarantee — a strong trend day can ignore it entirely. It's strongest as a target when it lines up with a dealer level (gravity, a wall) — volume magnet plus positioning magnet at one price. Use it to frame where price is likely drawn, and let the regime decide whether the pull holds.
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NoVo is a software tool for market analysis, not financial advice. This article is general education, not investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss, up to and including your entire capital. NoVo makes no guarantee of profit, win rate, or performance, and past results do not predict future outcomes. You are responsible for your own broker account, configuration, and trading decisions.
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