New & Improved Cumulative Tick Indicator
Awhile back I posted the Cumulative TICK indicator on the downloads page, but after experimenting around with it for the past several days I wanted to do some updates and improvements. So I’ve just posted the new code on the site and anyone who has downloaded it before will have immediate access to the new code and the new features. I always want to make sure I offer a good product and good value, so your feedback is important to me. Please let me know in the comments if there are any additional features you are looking for and I’ll see if I can incorporate them in the next version. I’m always programming something, so usually it doesn’t take too long for me to improve things.
What’s New
So first of all, I realized that the old indicator didn’t seem to work properly on certain instruments and timeframes due to data peculiarities in TOS. So I fleshed out the code to account for those situations, and now the indicator works on futures like the E-mini S&P 500 as well as stocks and ETFs. And it also works on any timeframe … monthly, daily, hourly, etc. Originally it had only worked in the way Dr. Brett Steenbarger originally used it and talked about it on his blog. But I realized a lot of traders would probably adjust it to their own trading styles, so I wanted it to work for every situation possible. And now it does that.
Second, to make it useful on long-term historical charts, I wanted to add some features. Normally, since the market rises generally over time, the cumulative TICK just keeps growing and growing. The adjusted cumulative TICK fixes part of that by subtracting a moving average to turn the output into more of an oscillator. But on long-term charts that still didn’t fully solve the ever-growing graph problem. What I needed was a “reset” function for long-term charts the same way intraday charts reset at the beginning of each day. So what I did was add the option to have it reset each year, month, or week. Each of these can be independently set.
Third, I’ve added the ability to choose your own average type and length for the Adjusted Cumulative TICK.
New BONUS Indicator: TICK Extremes Indicator
This is an indicator that a lot of traders use to fade high and low TICK extremes. I’ve tried to make it really easy to customize by letting you show or hide the zero line, average line, and extreme levels. You can choose what levels you want to use based on whether you’re on a long term chart or a short term chart. And you can set the average type and length as well. All the colors and graph types are customizable as well.
New BONUS Indicator: Comparative TICK Indicator
I’ve seen traders use this in other platforms, and I had some time to kill so I thought I’d see what I could do with it in TOS. Essentially this indicator lets you look at multiple cumulative TICKs at the same time and compare how different markets are behaving relative to each other. So you might compare the NYSE TICK to the Nasdaq TICK, S&P 500 TICK, Dow TICK, etc. The automatic comparison line lights up green when all the TICKs are up-ticking, and red when all the TICKs are down-ticking. You can literally type in any comparison TICK symbol available in Thinkorswim.
The complete list of TICK symbols is listed here for easy access:
- $TICK – NYSE
- $TICK/Q – Nasdaq
- $TIKA – Amex
- $TICKAC – Amex composite
- $TICKAR – ARCA
- $TICKARC – ARCA composite
- $TICKC – NYSE composite
- $TICKC/Q – Nasdaq composite
- $TIKI – DJIA
- $TIKIC – DJIA composite
- $TIKND – Nasdaq 100
- $TIKNDC – Nasdaq 100 composite
- $TIKRL – Russell 2000
- $TIKRLC – Russell 2000 composite
- $TIKSP – S&P 500
- $TIKSPC – S&P 500 composite
- $TIKUS – All USA
- $TIKUSC – All USA composite
Summary
So just as a quick recap, the cumulative TICK indicator set has been improved and updated with the following new features:
- Works on all instruments
- Works on any time frame
- Custom yearly, monthly, weekly reset function to make it useful on long-term charts
- Choose your own average type and length for the adjusted cumulative TICK
- Set a custom closing and opening time if desired
- New TICK extremes indicator lets you fade high and low TICK readings
- New comparative TICK indicator lets you see how the different markets are doing relative to each other
This set comes with 4 separate thinkScripts. It includes the basic Cumulative TICK indicator, the Adjusted Cumulative TICK indicator, the TICK Extremes Indicator, and the Comparative TICK indicator.
You can check out the screenshots, video and description of the Cumulative TICK indicator here.
