Tick Chart Compare: How to Use Tick Chart Compare

Tick Chart Compare counts how many bars your chart and a reference chart printed over the same stretch of time. The reference is ES 2000 ticks by default. From the two counts it works out the interval that would give your chart about as many bars as the reference. If you have not added it to a chart yet, start with Getting Started.

How it counts

Each time a bar closes on your chart, Tick Chart Compare looks back over Time span to compare in minutes and counts the bars on both charts. It takes your count minus the reference count, turns that difference into ticks for your interval, and adds those ticks to your current interval. The result is the target interval, and it is what the Sync button uses.

Each value is smoothed over Smoothing Period bars (default 4), so one busy bar does not move it much.

When your chart printed more bars than the reference, the values are positive and the target is a larger interval than yours. When it printed fewer, they are negative and the target is smaller.

Match MES to ES 2000 ticks

Open an MES tick chart, for example MES 500 ticks, and add Tick Chart Compare with the default settings.
Look at the line in the panel under the chart. With the default Output it shows the target interval.
Click the Sync button on the chart toolbar. It types the target into the chart as a whole number with a T, for example 1108T.
Press Enter to apply it. With Auto Send Enter on Button Click on, the button presses Enter for you.

Your chart now runs at the new interval, and the indicator goes on counting with the new bars.

The Sync button shows on the toolbar only while its chart tab is selected. If the chart window has several tabs, select the one with Tick Chart Compare on it first.

When to sync again

The bar counts change as the market speeds up and slows down, so the target changes with them. Sync again when the line has moved away from your interval:

With the target interval Output, compare the line with the interval your chart runs at now.
The panel also has a gray line at zero. With the difference or ticks Outputs, the closer the line sits to it, the closer your chart is to the reference.

If the target moves too much for you, raise Smoothing Period or lengthen Time span to compare in minutes. Both make it change more slowly.

Auto Change tick period, in the EXPERIMENTAL group, applies a new interval by itself once the ticks to add or take off reach Auto Change Delta Threshold (default 100). It types the new interval and presses Enter in whatever window has focus at that moment. If another program or an order field has focus, the keys go there. Leave it off unless the chart is the only window you use. The Sync button is the safer choice.

What the Output values mean

Output picks which of three values the line shows:

The difference in bars: how many more bars (positive) or fewer bars (negative) your chart printed than the reference over the time span. Zero means the counts match.
The ticks to add or take off: the same difference, as ticks for your interval. Positive means a larger interval would match better, negative a smaller one.
The target interval: your current interval plus those ticks. This is the default.

Whichever Output you pick, the Sync button types the target interval.

Contract months

With Compare to Expiry empty (the default), the reference uses your chart's expiry. Move your MES chart to the next contract month and the ES reference moves with it. Type an expiry such as 12-26 only when you want to compare with another month.

Other instruments and bar types

Compare to Instrument takes any futures instrument, without the month and year. Compare to Bar Type and Compare to Period set the reference bars, and any bar type works. For example, you can compare MES 1200 ticks with MES 5 minutes.

Your own chart does not have to be a tick chart. The Sync button adds the letter for your chart's bar type, for example M for minute, V for volume, R for range and S for second. On those charts, the ticks to add or take off are counted in your chart's own units (minutes on a minute chart). Sync is built for tick, minute, volume, range and second charts. Do not use it on Heiken Ashi, Kagi or WiRenko charts.

See Settings for every setting and its default.

Next: questions and answers.