Most explanations of tick size in India give you one number, and that number is five paise.
That stopped being the whole answer on 10 June 2024, when NSE moved the cash market to a price-linked tick. A share under ₹250 now moves in one paisa, not five.
Tick trading is built on that number, so it is worth getting right before anything else.
What Does Tick Size Mean in Trading?
Tick size is the smallest price change an instrument may make on an exchange, and nothing can trade between two ticks.
It also sets the narrowest possible bid-ask spread, the gap between the best buy and sell price on screen.
NSE circular 66/2024 changed that, effective from the trade date of 10 June 2024. The tick in the cash market now depends on the share price, rather than sitting at five paise for everything.
How Does Tick Trading Work?
A tick trader takes many positions in a session and aims to close each one after a very small move, often a single tick.
Nothing about the style is exotic, because the order types are ordinary and the holding period is measured in seconds or minutes.
What makes it hard is that every trade pays brokerage, Securities Transaction Tax, exchange charges, GST and stamp duty. Those costs do not shrink because the target is small.
Also Read: If you are new to trading, explore our Online Share Market Trading for Beginners: Comprehensive Guides to understand the basics before applying a short-term trading approach.
How Does Tick Size Affect Tick Trading?
Directly, because the tick is the size of the win you are aiming at.
Share price | Tick size |
Below ₹250 | ₹0.01 |
₹250 to ₹1,000 | ₹0.05 |
Above ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 | ₹0.10 |
Above ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 | ₹0.50 |
Above ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 | ₹1.00 |
Above ₹20,000 | ₹5.00 |
One tick on a ₹200 share is a paisa, while one tick on a ₹2,000 share is ten paise. The same one-tick target is a very different percentage of each.
NSE reviews the tick monthly, on the last trading day, and applies it for the following month. Stock futures joined the same bands on 15 April 2025, and index futures moved to bands of their own on the same date.
What Are the Benefits of Tick Trading?
Positions are closed the same day, so there is no overnight gap to sit through and no funding cost to carry.
Each trade carries a small and defined loss if it goes wrong, because the exit sits close to the entry and the position is not held.
Frequency also means feedback, so you learn quickly whether the approach works.
The same frequency multiplies the costs, and it multiplies the mistakes at the same rate.
What Are the Risks of Tick Trading?
The main risk is arithmetic. If one tick on your chosen share is a paisa and the round-trip cost is more than that, the trade cannot pay however well it is timed.
Slippage adds to it. Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price you got, and it grows when the book is thin.
The tick can also change under you. A share that crosses ₹250 moves from a one-paisa tick to a five-paisa tick at the next monthly review, which changes the arithmetic without warning.
Is Tick Trading the Same as Scalping?
They overlap without being identical.
Scalping is a broader label for taking small profits quickly, and a scalper may aim at several ticks or at a chart level.
Tick trading is narrower, because the target is defined by the exchange's increment rather than by the trader's read of a chart.
Both live or die on the same question: does the average win clear the average round-trip cost?
What Role Does Technology Play in Tick Trading?
More than most explanations admit, and this is where a retail reader should be careful.
The fastest participants use co-location, which means their systems sit in racks inside the exchange's own premises. NSE's page states plainly that the facility is for members and CaaS vendors.
The prices are published. A quarter rack costs ₹2,25,000 a year and a high power density rack ₹18,00,000, before data subscriptions that run from ₹50,000 to ₹1,25,00,000 a year.
A retail account cannot buy any of that, and while advanced trading charts and a fast connection help, they are not the same thing.
Things to Consider Before Trying Tick Trading
Work out your round-trip cost per trade first, in rupees, before you look at a single chart or pick a single share.
Check the tick band of the share you have in mind, and check it again after the monthly review.
Decide how many trades a day you can place before the costs eat whatever the strategy earns.
Then ask whether the edge you think you have survives that number.
Conclusion
Tick trading is a style, and tick size is the exchange rule underneath it. Getting the second one right is what makes the first one arithmetic rather than hope.
Since 10 June 2024 the cash market tick has depended on the share price, and since 15 April 2025 stock futures have followed the same bands. Both are reviewed monthly.
The bands, and the current tick for any individual scrip, are published by the exchange before you place an order. None of that removes the risk of loss on the position.
