Ichimoku

How do I read Ichimoku?

• Close above the cloud = bullish regime. Close below the cloud = bearish regime. Close inside the cloud = no-trade zone (undefined regime).
• Tenkan/Kijun cross = momentum trigger. Tenkan crossing above Kijun is bullish; crossing below is bearish. The position of the cross relative to the cloud matters — crosses above the cloud are strong-trend continuation signals; crosses inside the cloud are usually noise.
• Cloud thickness = strength of the projected support/resistance. A thick cloud is hard to push through; a thin cloud breaks easily.
• Future-cloud color (the cloud 26 bars ahead): green when Senkou A is above Senkou B, red when below. A future-cloud twist (color flip) is an early regime-change signal.
• Chikou Span confirmation: if the lagged close is clear of past candles, the regime is confirmed. If it is tangled in past price, momentum is mixed — wait for clarity.
• Price respecting the Kijun-sen during a trend is a clean continuation pattern. Bounces off the Kijun are textbook trend-following entries.

How is Ichimoku calculated?

Ichimoku is built from midpoints of high/low ranges over three lookback windows, plus two derived lines (one averaging Tenkan and Kijun, one lagging price). Two of the lines are projected forward to form the cloud; one is shifted backward to confirm regime against past price.

1. 1.Tenkan-sen = (9-bar highest high + 9-bar lowest low) / 2 — the short-term equilibrium line.
2. 2.Kijun-sen = (26-bar highest high + 26-bar lowest low) / 2 — the medium-term equilibrium line.
3. 3.Senkou Span A = (Tenkan-sen + Kijun-sen) / 2, plotted 26 bars forward — one boundary of the cloud.
4. 4.Senkou Span B = (52-bar highest high + 52-bar lowest low) / 2, plotted 26 bars forward — the other cloud boundary. Color the cloud green when Span A > Span B, red when below.
5. 5.Chikou Span = current close, plotted 26 bars back — used to confirm regime by checking if lagged price is clear of old price action.

What are the default Ichimoku settings?

How do I plot Ichimoku in Pine Script?

//@version=5
indicator("Ichimoku Cloud Example", overlay=true)

tenkanLen    = input.int(9,  title="Tenkan-sen Length",    minval=1)
kijunLen     = input.int(26, title="Kijun-sen Length",     minval=1)
senkouBLen   = input.int(52, title="Senkou Span B Length", minval=1)
displacement = input.int(26, title="Displacement",         minval=1)

donchian(len) => math.avg(ta.lowest(len), ta.highest(len))

tenkan  = donchian(tenkanLen)
kijun   = donchian(kijunLen)
senkouA = math.avg(tenkan, kijun)
senkouB = donchian(senkouBLen)
chikou  = close

plot(tenkan, title="Tenkan-sen", color=color.blue)
plot(kijun,  title="Kijun-sen",  color=color.red)
p1 = plot(senkouA, title="Senkou Span A", color=color.green, offset=displacement)
p2 = plot(senkouB, title="Senkou Span B", color=color.red,   offset=displacement)
fill(p1, p2, color=senkouA > senkouB ? color.new(color.green, 85) : color.new(color.red, 85))
plot(chikou, title="Chikou Span", color=color.purple, offset=-displacement)

Pine has no built-in ta.ichimoku() — the lines are computed manually from highest/lowest. The donchian() helper returns the midpoint of an N-bar range, which is exactly what Tenkan, Kijun, and Senkou Span B require. The two Senkou plots are forward-shifted with offset=displacement, and fill() between them produces the colored cloud that automatically swaps green/red based on Span A vs Span B. Chikou is just the close plotted backwards with a negative offset.

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