A change in the price of some tradable instrument (stock, bond, etc), index, or commodity. A tick is a measurement tool that relates current prices to their previous levels. In trading parlance, a single trade is referred to as a tick (the price of the very last tick is compared to the immediate, preceding trade). For example, the last trade price for XYZ is 65.08 dollars and the previous trade price is 65.05 dollars. This company’s stock is said to be on a higher tick because the current price is higher by the previous one by 3 cents.