LTP difference between marketwatch and chart on Kite
A common observation: the LTP shown on the Kite marketwatch row for a scrip differs slightly from the LTP shown on the chart for the same scrip at the same moment. Usually a few paise to a few rupees, this difference comes from the way the two surfaces consume the exchange tick feed.
The two surfaces consume ticks differently
| Surface | What it consumes | Refresh cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Marketwatch row | Real-time tick stream | Sub-second |
| Chart (TradingView or ChartIQ) | Aggregated OHLC bars | Bar-aggregated; live trade updates within the in-progress bar |
The marketwatch displays the very last tick that arrived. The chart’s last bar updates with each tick within the bar’s timeframe (e.g., a 1-minute bar accumulates ticks until the minute closes), and the chart-displayed LTP is the price of the most recent tick consumed by the chart engine.
Why a small difference appears
Tick stream parallelism
Both surfaces subscribe to the same NSE / BSE tick stream, but the messages flow through separate front-end components in the Kite app or Kite web. One component may render an incoming tick a few hundred milliseconds before the other.
Throttling on the chart engine
Chart engines (TradingView, ChartIQ) throttle tick rendering to maintain frame rate. If 50 ticks arrive in a second, the chart may render only the last 5; the marketwatch may render all 50. The displayed LTP can briefly lag by milliseconds.
Different last-rendered tick
If the marketwatch shows the 49th tick of the second and the chart shows the 50th tick (which arrived between renders), the chart will be slightly ahead, not behind.
How to think about which is “correct”
Both are correct. Both consume the same exchange feed; the difference is rendering latency, not data divergence. For order placement, the order is routed to the exchange and matched against the actual order book at the moment the exchange receives it, not against either Kite-displayed LTP.
For trade-analysis purposes, the difference is in the noise level of normal market microstructure.
When the difference is large
Multi-second lag
A multi-second lag between marketwatch and chart suggests one of:
- A browser tab in the background (browsers throttle non-active tabs).
- A network blip affecting one connection (Kite uses separate connections for live and aggregated streams).
- A chart engine glitch (more common in long sessions with many indicators).
Refresh the affected surface or hard-refresh the page.
Significant price difference (more than a tick)
A several-rupee difference between marketwatch and chart for the same scrip during normal market hours is unusual and warrants investigation:
- Check the chart’s interval (a 1D chart of an illiquid scrip may show only the day’s close, not real-time ticks).
- Verify both surfaces are on the same scrip and same exchange (NSE vs BSE differ in price).
- Hard-refresh and re-check.
Corporate action day
On the ex-date for a corporate action, the chart’s pre-action history is adjusted; the marketwatch LTP reflects the post-action price. The chart’s last bar may briefly show pre-adjustment value before catching up.
TradingView vs ChartIQ
Kite supports both TradingView and ChartIQ chart engines. The two engines have slightly different tick-handling characteristics:
- TradingView: more aggressive tick throttling on lower-tier rendering.
- ChartIQ: smoother tick incorporation but heavier on the CPU.
The choice is a user preference; both produce the same final bars, with sub-second rendering differences during ticks.
See also
- Market depth view on Kite
- How to use the marketwatch on Kite
- Average price on market depth
- Day’s change in absolute and percentage
- How to fix LTP zero on marketwatch
- How to fix Day’s change incorrect vs previous close
- LTP under holdings vs marketwatch difference
- How to use VWAP on Kite
- How to use Supertrend on Kite
- How to trade from charts on TradingView (Kite)
- How to trade from charts on ChartIQ
- Kite TradingView vs ChartIQ engine
- TradingView (third-party chart library)
- ChartIQ
- VWAP
- Delivery volume percentage on the Kite marketwatch
- 52-week high and low on the marketwatch
- 20-market-depth feature on Kite
- How to add scrips to the Kite marketwatch
- Briefcase symbol on Kite
- Event tag on the Kite marketwatch
- Kite (Zerodha)
- Kite web
- Kite mobile app
- Zerodha
- National Stock Exchange
External references
References
- Zerodha Support, Chart vs marketwatch LTP differences, support.zerodha.com.
- NSE India, Live tick stream and market data feeds, nseindia.com.
- TradingView, Real-time data streaming methodology, tradingview.com.