The volume of securities traded per tick (i.e., per trade). Tick volume can be also defined as the number of recorded price changes, irrespective of the volume or the size of the price change during a specific period of time. However, tick volume is not actual volume and mindful traders do not use it as a substitute for actual volume regardless of its usefulness in an environment of rapidly changing prices. In fact, there is a direct relationship between tick volume and actual volume because, as market activity (and hence liquidity) increases, prices alternate between bid to asked at a faster pace. Market liquidity depends on a minimum number of trades within a specific period of time (say 10 trades within 5 minutes).

Tick volume analysis involves the evaluation of the change of price and volume on a tick-by-tick basis.