From Adam Milton,
Your Guide to Day Trading.
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Description

The Ticks is not really an indicator (in the sense of moving averages), but it can be used as an indicator when day trading. The Ticks is one of three market internals, with the Trin and Tiki being the other two. The Ticks compares the number of upticking (price increasing) and downticking (price decreasing) stocks on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), and calculates a ratio showing whether there are more upticking or downticking stocks.

The Ticks is based upon the stocks that are traded on the NYSE, so it is primarily (actually almost exclusively) used as an indicator for the US markets, but the same principles and formulae can be applied to the European and Asian markets.

The Ticks can be displayed as a single line, or as a bar chart, but it is always displayed on its own chart, separate from the price bars, and is shown as a bar chart in the example chart (view full size chart).

Calculation

• Description : The Ticks (T) is a comparison of the number of upticking and downticking stocks.
• Calculation :
      T = Upticking Stocks - Downticking Stocks

Trading Use

The Ticks shows whether there are more individual stocks with increasing prices or decreasing prices, so it provides a detailed overview (detailed because it uses the individual stocks, and overview because it calculates a single value) of the sentiment of the markets. As the Ticks can be displayed as a bar chart, it can be interpreted like a price bar chart, using concepts such as support and resistance and trend lines. The Ticks can be used independently, or as part of a larger trading system.