The five components.
- Tenkan-sen (9): fast midpoint of the high-low range.
- Kijun-sen (26): slow midpoint; acts as a trailing equilibrium.
- Senkou Span A and B: the two edges of the cloud, plotted 26 periods ahead.
- Chikou span: the close plotted 26 periods back, used for confirmation.
Reading it quickly.
- Price above the cloud = uptrend bias; below = downtrend bias; inside = no trade zone.
- A thick cloud is strong support or resistance; a thin cloud breaks easily.
- Tenkan crossing Kijun above the cloud is the cleanest long signal.
Keep it practical.
Use Ichimoku on 1-hour and higher. On very low timeframes the lines whipsaw. Many traders use only the cloud and Kijun and ignore the rest — that is a perfectly valid way to trade it.
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