Ichimoku Cloud

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo means "one look equilibrium chart." The cloud, or kumo, is the space between Senkou A and B, drawn into the future. Price above the cloud is the bullish regime in this system. Price below it is bearish. Price inside it is balance. Tenkan and Kijun are midpoints of their windows, not averages of closes. Chikou compares today's close with price 26 bars ago.

A full bullish alignment is price above the cloud, Tenkan above Kijun, cloud green or with A above B, and Chikou above price 26 bars back. You will rarely get all of that at the start of a turn. The cloud is slow because of the 52-period span and the forward shift. That slowness is the filter.

A close up through the cloud, with the cloud ahead flat or turning up, is the long regime. Tenkan pulling back to Kijun inside an uptrend is a location, similar to a moving-average pullback. Risk can sit beyond Kijun or beyond the cloud, which is often far.

A close down through the cloud is the short regime. The cloud then acts as resistance on rallies. Do not buy a dip just under a thick cloud and call it support. In this system that cloud is the supply.

Taking a Tenkan-Kijun cross against the cloud as a full signal. The cross is the fast part. The cloud is the regime. Also changing 9, 26, 52 without a reason. Those numbers were tied to a six-day Japanese week. They survive as a default, not as magic.

Five lines invite overconfidence. They are three lookbacks plus two shifts of the same highs and lows. Inside the cloud the system is explicitly uncertain. Forcing a trade there throws away the only part of Ichimoku that says "stand aside."