NYSE TICK Market Metrics for 2026

The NYSE TICK symbol $TICK in Tradestation and ^TICK in NinjaTrader is a market metrics indicator that is used in several of our trading systems. It is an indicator that we have studied for over 25 years. Lately, in our daily reports, we have discussed the "dead" market environment based on afternoon trade, the markets inability to extend the range after 12 noon, and the range bound market since October. We can also see a "docile" market environment through the TICK indicator.

The NYSE TICK represents the number of stocks on the NYSE that are in an uptick minus those in a downtick. The NYSE includes approximately 3700 stocks and the NYSE has positive and negative values that are usually between +1000 and -1000 but can extend to much greater thresholds and can easily extend +1500 for buy programs and -1500 for sell programs.

NYSE TICK Daily

NYSE TICK Intra-Day

The latest statistics that we see for the NYSE TICK as compared to a 20 year history going back to February 13, 2006 include:

• Since Dec 4, 2025: 3 of 47 sessions (≈ 6.4%) saw Low < -1000.

• Full 20-year history: 2,097 of 5,023 sessions (≈ 41.7%) saw Low < -1000

Even more striking:

• Low < -1200

  • Since Dec 4, 2025: 0 days

  • Full history: ≈ 16.6% of days

And it’s not just the downside:

• High > +1000 (extreme positive breadth thrust)

  • Since Dec 4, 2025: ≈ 12.8%

  • Full 20 year history: ≈ 47.5%

So this is not merely “less selling.” It’s less extreme breadth in both directions—a quieter, more range-managed internal tape.

Also notable: longest 20-year run without any Low < -1000 is 35 consecutive trading days, and the current run since Jan 28, 2026 is 10 trading days—unusual, but not yet record-level.

When both extreme negative lows and extreme positive highs become scarce, the market often behaves like it’s in a “volatility-of-breadth compression” regime.

The next chart highlights the 63 day rolling average of the NYSE TICK extremes. Since there are about 21 trading days per month, we use 63 days to represent 3 months.

The current levels are near historic lows and the path to get there has been a continuous slow grind.

While we are not predicting a February market crash similar to February 2020 for the pandemic or February 2025 for tariffs, we do see an extreme cycle of price compression and anticipate that it will expand and provide some favorable opportunities for some of the short term trend trading strategies. The calm before storm is analogy that becomes true in the markets based on volatility cycles.

Mean Reversion strategies can take advantage of this market environment and have been developed to capture favorable trades in this type of regime. V-Reversal E-mini is a mean reversion strategy developed to trade in this market environment.

V-Reversal E-mini Nasdaq has been a top trading system and has taken advantage of the current price action in the stock index futures. Yesterday it hit an equity peak. The Two System Portfolio NQ includes two fully automated algorithmic trading systems: V-Reversal E-mini Nasdaq and Gap Continuation E-mini Nasdaq. The Gap Continuation trading system has not taken many trades lately. It has done well "not trading" since there have not been many continuations of any signal that would typically indicate an intra-day trend.

Two System Portfolio E-mini Nasdaq

Hypothetical Performance Summary

1/1/2017-2/11/2026

The Two System Portfolio for the E-mini Nasdaq has been developed to trade in Tradestation, NinjaTrader or Multicharts on the E-mini or Micro Nasdaq futures.

To learn more and get live trading results, contact us through the Auto Trade program.