Building Tick-Count Equivolume Charts from Historical Price Data
Summary
The article explains an alternative chart construction method in which each bar contains a fixed number of price ticks rather than representing a fixed time interval. It distinguishes this approach from Richard Arms’s volume-weighted equivolume charts: the bars are balanced by tick count, not traded volume. A tick collector can save live data, or historical tick records can be downloaded, converted, and used to create an offline chart in MetaTrader 4.
The author illustrates charts built with different tick counts per bar and describes the chart builder’s operation. The examples use EURUSD tick history, but the chosen bar sizes are arbitrary and the article does not develop a method for selecting them or evaluating trading signals. It also notes practical limitations: generated bar times are synthetic, omitted ticks can distort small-period charts, and adding earlier history can shift how later bars are grouped. Forex tick counts are not true traded volume, so the method’s interpretation depends on the quality and meaning of the available tick feed.
Key ideas
- Each constructed bar groups a fixed number of price changes instead of a fixed time span.
- Tick history can come from a live collector or downloaded and converted historical data.
- The examples demonstrate multiple tick-count settings but do not propose an optimal setting.
- Synthetic timestamps, possible missed ticks, and changes in the history start point can affect charts.
- Forex tick counts should not be confused with actual traded volume.
Tags
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.