TICK Interpretation Indicator

Posted on September 28th, 2009
Written by Richard
Posted in: N/A (old archives)

This is the second of many free indicators I plan to release. Since it massages the TICK data in ways I wasn’t sure was appropriate, I call it “The TICK Molester!”

Idea Behind the Indicator

If you read my two TICK articles (Better Know the TICK and Distribution of Random Market TICKs), then you know the interpretation basics:

I wanted a basic indicator to put these principles into practice, because I really hate reading the TICK in bar form.  I mean, would you rather look at this (click to enlarge):

tick1

… or would you rather look at this (click to enlarge):

tick2

I know what I’d want…

The indicator has two simple inputs.  You tell it what you think a significant TICK level is (cutoff1, default 500) and what you think an extreme TICK level is (cutoff2, default 1100).   That’s all there is to it.

Some Screenshots

It’s very easy to see TICK extremes in this histogram form, and get ready to fade them (click to enlarge):

tick3

It’s very easy to spot TICK divergences (both standard and ‘hidden’ varieties) and watch for opportunities to exploit them (click to enlarge):

tick4

The default inputs are appropriate for the NYSE TICK, but you can set it for the TICKI or TICKQ if you want. Here’s a chart that shows the NYSE TICK (top) and the TICKI (bottom). Look at how the dow and the overall market were at complete odds with each other all afternoon, potentially contributing to the brutal chop in the ES that we saw (click to enlarge):

tick5

(also note the cool TICKI hidden divergence in the morning leading into the second leg up).

Download Links

This one was developed for Tradestation, Ninjatrader, Multicharts, and eSignal.

[EDIT: Lots of people are trying to duplicate the charts above, and they are all putting the indicator on a plain ES chart. That won't work... you have to apply the indicator to TICK data. To get what I have above, you have to put ES bars and the TICK bars on the same chart, hide the TICK bars, and then apply the indicator to the TICK bars. This is possible with TS and Multicharts and to a lesser degree eSignal, but not ninja until NT7 comes out. You can still pull up a chart of the TICK on ninja and apply it.]

Enjoy… and as a reminder you can check out all of the free indicators by looking at posts tagged free-stuff.

Comments

  • lynette hoot
    i was able to get the ThinkOrSwim: eTICKMolesterSTUDY.ts (this one provided by Eternum) on my chart but i really cant get it to set up correctly. would someone mind walking me thru? the TOS platform
    thanks you guys are great help
    lynette hooten
  • Rhooten
    hey richard,
    this ThinkOrSwim: eTICKMolesterSTUDY.ts (this one provided by Eternum) looks nice
    i am a little confused as to how to add it to tos platform
    does Eternum have a step by step direction to put this indicator on TOS?
    thanks so much
    lynette hooten rhooten@comcast.net
blog comments powered by Disqus