After staring at a chart and scratching my head, I realized that the volumes were being incorrectly reported for lower time frames.
A chart that has no updated tick for 5 minutes will report the volume that occurred in the WHOLE 5 minutes - in one tick. For a 5 second chart like above, we have now a chart that at first appearance is giving us numbers to believe that there is MUCH more liquidity than is real.
This can really confuse us, and other scripts that rely on volume information.
This script simply takes into consideration the time delay before the next tick. If it took 5 minutes to update a tick, the volume should be divided into whatever seconds we are currently using. I also changed the coloring code - if there is no length to the candle it will look at the candle before it to determine if it is a positive or negative movement.
It does make technical sense to have the volume that occurred over 5 minutes in one tick as it is the true volume. However, this script should not be viewed as the absolute value, but a consistent, usable number that will be more accurate with tools.
To give a quick example on why this is important:
In a 10 second chart, we are given an updated tick every minute. In 2 minutes we have 2 ticks that have 1K volume each. Alternatively, we have a 10 second chart, and we are given an updated tick every 10 seconds. In 2 minutes we have 12 ticks that have 100 volume each.
With quick mental math we can determine that the second scenario is actually (albeit slightly) more busy. However, a script would not do that extra layer of math and would assume that the first scenario is bouncing off the walls with activity and the second is a graveyard.
It's exactly for this example that I have created this script, and I hope it helps someone else out.
That's what happens when you publish a script at 2 in the morning haha