The most granular form of price data. A tick is one update of the bid or ask price (often corresponding to a trade or quote change). Tick data records every price change and its timestamp. In forex, tick data gives the finest resolution of market activity. As one guide explains, “Tick Data in finance is pricing data with the details of each bid and ask [with] the associated timestamp… Every instance a broker provides a quote… the timestamp and prices are recorded”. High-frequency trading algorithms and detailed backtests often require tick data to capture every market movement.

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