Hourly Sizzle Index Dashboard for ThinkorSwim

It is a custom watchlist column for ThinkorSwim that shows how far each stock has moved since the start of the current hour, measured against its average true range. It resets every hour. I built it for Volatility Box members to find the stocks making bigger than usual moves on the hourly models.

The sizzle index is the current close minus the hour's opening price, divided by the 14-period ATR. In the video's example, a stock at $100 that opened the hour at $95, with an ATR of $3, reads 5 divided by 3, or 1.667. Positive readings are above the hour's open and negative readings are below it.

In the watchlist settings, choose Customize, pick an unused Custom Quote and open its code editor. Delete the code, name it Sizzle Index, set the aggregation to 5 minutes, check Include extended hours and paste in the 3 lines. You can also import the shared link from the download through Setup and Open shared item.

I keep the column on a 5-minute aggregation, which helps me find trends that may be starting or exhausting. You can raise it as far as 1 hour, which I think is the slowest setting where you can still react. The hour's open stays the same either way, and the ATR follows the column's timeframe.

There is no fixed cutoff. Sort the column and look at both ends first, such as readings around +5 and -5, then work your way in. In the video, FedEx read 5.78 and UPS 5.33 in the 7 to 8 a.m. Pacific hour, and both were making unusual moves on the hourly models.

It is built to match the hourly Volatility Box models for stocks and futures. Using the hour's open as the starting point shows which stocks are moving more than usual in the current hour, the same window those models cover. A daily sizzle index would mix the whole session together.

The column keeps updating outside market hours because I set it to include extended hours, and in the video I show after-hours readings on Duke Energy and AT&T. There isn't much useful data then, though. The index is far more useful during the session, when the numbers move constantly.

Sort the column each hour, open the extremes on a chart and check whether price has broken outside the hourly aggressive or conservative Volatility Box. Then decide whether the move fits a strong trend or a range. In the video, FedEx's 5.78 reading led to a range read, and it sold off after filling a gap.