Tick The tick is the direction in which the price of a stock moved on its last sale. An up-tick means the last trade was at a higher price than the one before it and a down-tick means the last sale price was lower than the one before it. A zero-plus tick means the transaction was at the same price as the one before, but still higher than the nearest preceding different price. The tick becomes especially important when large market movements trigger the implementation of certain circuit breakers meant to stabilize the market.