Skip to content
All library documents

Using Tick Counts and Price Movement to Gauge Market Speed

Article MQL5 code base

Summary

This document describes a trading indicator that tracks price changes during the period after it starts. It reports counts of upward and downward ticks alongside the corresponding price movement in points. The example compares total volume with tick counts and point changes, illustrating that the number of price updates and the size of the resulting moves are distinct measurements. The author suggests using these readings to assess the speed or acceleration of price changes.

The indicator has no input parameters and only accumulates readings from launch until it is stopped, so it does not provide a user-selected historical window. The document also cautions that mathematical operations on its values should use absolute values. It presents a translated indicator and an illustrative snapshot, but gives no formal definition of acceleration, tested signals, performance results, or guidance for turning the readings into a trading strategy. Its usefulness is therefore as a basic market-activity measure rather than evidence of a profitable method.

Key ideas

  • The indicator counts upward and downward price changes separately during its active period.
  • It also measures the points gained and lost, which can differ from the tick counts.
  • The readings may help assess the speed or acceleration of price changes.
  • Data accumulates only from indicator launch until it is stopped.
  • The document advises using absolute values in mathematical operations on the indicator readings.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.