Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Trading The Ichimoku Path PDF
Trading The Ichimoku Path PDF
o Think back in time. When you used your first candlestick Ichimoku works in the same way helping to identify changes
chart, it was probably a small revelation to see how the in the trend and momentum giving you a visually superior
patterns that show up everywhere on the charts could idea of where the potential support and resistance areas are
really help to identify turning points and reversal signals. on the chart by analysing the trend and momentum. The
second concept of Ichimoku is to understand that the chart
is forward projecting and places lines and formations ahead
F1) The Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Chart of the price. This is a great variation from using conventional
indicators such as MACD to generate buy and sell signals in a
retrospective manner. It is literally, a forward thinking chart.
This can help to give a clearer picture especially in F2) Anglo American PLC
markets where the closing prices are artificially inflated with
a flurry of buy orders seconds before the end of the day. The
chart is made up of three major components (see Figure 1).
T1) Formulas
Kinjun Sen = (HH (26) + LL (26)) / 2
Tenkan Sen = (HH (9) + LL (9)) / 2
Senkou Span 1 = (Kinjun Sen + Tenkan Sen) / 2, -25)
The 6-month downtrend resistance line is broken at the beginning of September 2007 so we have a classical
Senkou Span 2 = (HH (52) + LL (52) / 2, -25)
breakout buy signal at 13.10 (red arrow).
Chikou Span = C [-25] Source: www.sharescope.co.uk.
F4) Ichimoku Chart of British Land PLC 2. Lets now look at the cloud, known as the Kumo, which is
the area plotted between the Senkou Span A and B. This
is highlighted in blue and pink in Figure 2. This support
and resistance band is wider and more useful when
compared to a single trend line. The thicker the cloud,
the greater the volatility that has been in place in the
preceding price movements. Note that the price gapped
over the cloud on the 17th of September.
Getting an Edge
Ichimoku charts have historically been used in the daily
time frame, although using them in both the weekly and
shorter-term time frames can give added value. The time
periods used for calculating the Tenkan (nine working days
in 1.5 weeks) and Kinjun (26 working days in one month) are
derived from the number of trading days in Japan at the time
of its creation. The working week was six days in Japan at the
time and it can be argued that a modification to change this
to a 5-day working week as we currently have in the western
system would yield better results and improve the system.
As with all technical analysis, feel free to experiment to see
We added Chikou Span, a lagging span indicator (dotted green line). Here you can see how the price trends above what works best for you.
and below the clouds.
Source: www.sharescope.co.uk. Strategy Timing for Ichimoku Trading
By further analysing a longer-term 2-year weekly Ichimoku
chart (see Figure 5) we can put this recent downward move
into perspective in the cycle of ups and downs that this stock
exhibits.
We can clearly see how the price trends above and below
the clouds. This is a strongly trending stock and this means
we can assume that Ichimoku will work well. On this chart
Rakesh Shah we have added Chikou Span (a lagging span indicator). This
is the current price shifted 26 periods behind shown as the
Rakesh Shah, a professional trader, specialises in Advanced dotted green line. Chikou Span gives additional information
Trading Strategies after working as an investment banker from by comparing it with the current price. We can use it to find
1995 in London and on Wall Street. support and resistance with the clouds, Tenkan and Kinjun
lines.