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Why do charts of the same timeframe for the same stock differ across different platforms?

You will notice chart differences between platforms because each platform captures and displays different tick points from the hundreds of transactions occurring every second on the exchange.

How tick data works

The exchange processes hundreds of transactions per second, with each transaction creating a tick. Your trading platform displays only one tick per second from these hundreds of available ticks. Since different platforms capture different tick points, you will see slight variations in charts, particularly in minute and hourly candles.

Why charts vary between platforms

Different charting platforms select different tick points to display, causing minor variations in:

  • Minute candles
  • Hourly candles

However, daily candles remain consistent across all platforms because the exchange provides standardised daily OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) data in the Bhavcopy, rather than minute or hourly OHLC data.

Despite these minor differences, the overall trend and price movement patterns remain consistent across all charting platforms. These variations do not affect your trading decisions or the fundamental analysis of stock movements.

Did you know? You can subscribe to tick-by-tick data through authorised NSE data vendors to access all available ticks. Some traders also place their systems in NSE collocation facilities to optimise this data usage.

However, tick-by-tick data primarily benefits high-frequency traders and arbitrage trading firms rather than retail traders, who can rely on standard charting data for their trading strategies.

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