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The tick is the upward or downward movement of a stock's price. (i.e. "It just ticked up.") The TICK, usually given as one of a number of market indicators, refers to the net tick on their last trade of all stocks being traded on a given day.

This information is useful in determining the current direction of the market and strength of the market in a given direction. For example, the market could be up 50 points, but, if the TICK were -400, it would indicate that the market had changed directions and was heading down. Or the market could be up 50 points with a tick of +750. This would indicate that the market was likely to go much higher since the momentum is clearly up.