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POC Migration (ticks) — Volume, in its own panel below the chart.
What POC Migration (ticks) measures
Point of control prices are held as tick indices rather than floating-point prices, so the difference between two bars is exact integer arithmetic and a one-tick move reads as exactly one. Ties inside a bar resolve to the lower price, the same convention as POC Position. The value is unsigned by design: it answers how much the control price is moving, which is a different question from where it is going. A signed drift line exists separately, and the two are complementary rather than interchangeable. No point is plotted for the first bar of a loaded series, for a bar with no usable point of control, or when the instrument's tick size is unknown, since a distance in ticks has no meaning without the price grid.
The formula, as implemented
This is not how the indicator is usually defined elsewhere — it is what the shipped code computes, documented next to the implementation:
Migration du POC — AMPLITUDE du déplacement entre deux barres : value = |POC(t) − POC(t−1)| en TICKS Les clés étant des indices de tick (`barPocLowTie` avec `ctx.tickSize`), la différence est de l'arithmétique ENTIÈRE exacte : aucun arrondi de prix. ÉGALITÉ de volume → prix le plus bas (Sierra, choix du repo). POURQUOI : une suite de migrations faibles = le point de contrôle tient, l'enchère est en balance ; une rafale de migrations larges = le marché cherche un nouveau niveau d'acceptation. La valeur ABSOLUE (et non signée) répond à « ça bouge combien », pas « ça monte ou ça descend » — c'est exactement ce qui manque à `poc-drift` (tape.ts), qui rend le déplacement SIGNÉ en ligne ; les deux se lisent ensemble, ils ne se remplacent pas. Dégradés : première barre (pas de précédente — on ne compare jamais à une barre inventée), barre sans POC (aucun niveau exploitable) ou tick size inconnu (« en ticks » n'a pas de sens sans grille) → PAS de point.
How to read it
- A run of small values means the control price is holding: successive bars do their business around the same level, which is what balance looks like.
- A burst of large values means the market is relocating — each bar finds its heaviest price somewhere new, typically while searching for acceptance.
- The transition from a low, flat stretch into repeated large readings carries more than any single bar's value.
- Because the value is absolute, large migrations oscillating around one price look identical to a one-way relocation; pair it with a signed drift reading to separate the two.
- Compare readings within one instrument only: a tick is a different amount of money on each contract.
Parameters and defaults
Color and smoothing only, the smoothing at 1 by default so each bar shows its own distance. Raising it toward 200 turns the series into an average relocation rate, which reads more cleanly as a regime measure but blurs away the single bar on which the control price jumped — usually the bar being looked for.
| Parameter | Type | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoothing | number | 1 | 1 – 200 |
What it does not show
The absolute value discards direction entirely, which is the first thing to remember before drawing conclusions from a high reading. Ties inside a bar resolve downward by convention, so a bar with two near-equal peaks can produce a large apparent migration that reflects the tie rule rather than a real shift. Results depend on complete per-level data: a bar whose levels are partly missing may report a point of control that was never the busiest price. Nothing is plotted where tick size is unknown, and contract rolls produce a jump that should be ignored rather than interpreted.
Related indicators
- Volume — Volume
- Buy/Sell Volume — Volume
- Average Trade Size — Volume
- Volume ROC % — Volume
- Relative Volume — Volume
- Trade Count — Volume
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Frequently asked questions
- What does POC migration measure?
- The distance in ticks between the current bar's point of control and the previous bar's, taken as an absolute value. Small readings mean the heaviest-traded price is staying put, large ones mean it is relocating. It measures the size of the movement, not its direction.
- Why is POC migration unsigned?
- Because it answers a different question from a directional drift line. The absolute distance says how much the control price is moving, which is what marks the shift from balance to relocation; a signed series says whether it moved up or down. Read together they give both answers, and neither replaces the other.
- Why does POC migration measure in ticks rather than price?
- Because points of control are stored as tick indices, so subtracting them is exact integer arithmetic with no floating-point rounding and a one-tick move always reads as one. The consequence is that no value is plotted when the instrument's tick size is unknown, since a tick distance has no meaning without the grid.