Quote from Charlie Dow:
Minute Charts - The Markets are trading in Contract or Share increments not time so that means you are watching the Markets in constantly varying environment. At best you need Volume indicators to interpret price. Ever hear the phrase, "Open to interpretation"? Impossible to read anything consistent from them.
Tick Charts - These used to be "Constant Tick Charts" until GLOBEX decided to destroy them by manipulating the data, rearranging them at will. They are still better than Minute Charts but ot much. Even when they were Constant Ticks the number of contracts or shares trade per tick was a variable thus eliminating their consistency.
Range Bar Charts - These wonderful charts allow the user to guess at a specific range the Market will play in and then show you when Price breaks out of that range. Perfect for the Breakout trader. Ever see breakouts reverse?
Volume or Contract Bar Charts - A User defined Bar Chart giving the user the ability to see an accurate and consistant view of Price movement. Each bar is a specific number of contracts or shares traded. This is the only chart type that gives you a non-varying view of price. The problem with this chart is the way the charting companies build the bars. To date, Ensign Software and MultiCharts are the only companies that build these bars correctly. I was told that Esignal was working on a fix that would fix their problem building them.