DislikedVic,
It is not a "pissing match". You simply stated something that is not correct when you said that ticks are inconsequential because they might or might not contain any trades.
The entire point of a tick is to notify the user platform of additional trades! And that is why, during the slow time of the day, there might pass a minute or more without any tick......no new trades yet! It is the advent of a new trade (or trades) since the previous tick, that causes a new tick, which sends the additional trade count to the user platfrom. And over...Ignored
although you seem to be convinced that you know how it is....
As I said before, you can believe whatever you want..... I urge you to consider the possibility that the retail forex market is not like trading some exchange traded instrument. You may be getting a tick simply when your friendly MT4 broker wants to change the price for any reason he so pleases - trades or no trades. For example, consider that no small time retail forex broker is going to let himself become a sitting duck just because he did not happen to have any trades come in at the current price while the rest of the market reveals which way price is headed. Moreover, when price is still, do not think it is only because there are no orders....just as when it moves fast do not believe it is necessarily because there were lots of orders. The big guns will move the price to where they want it to be so they can then profitably fill the large orders that they always had in hand........and they will hold price for as long as they need to play with the minds of retail traders. The fact that there is no regulated/audited environment, enables them to move price up or down when it is advantageous to them to do so without any accountability as to why. Consider making some broker friends, believe me, it can be quite enlightening....
I have not traded with an MT4 retail trader for more than two years now, so it is possible that things have changed drastically - and they have all become self regulated, transparent and operating solely for the benefit of their clients, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, enough from me - today is the most time I have ever spent on a forum, and not likely I will be checking in again for a long time - so all the best again and trade safe.