Interesting indicator Ichi. I have read the best or safest way to trade it is to wait for price to be at least two higher timeframes above/below the kumo and trade in that direction using the 5 or 15 t/f as your signal to enter when tenken-sen crosses kijun-sen and most importantly when the chikou span has crossed price. At the moment, eur/usd is on it's way long heading for the daily bullish kumo with a flat bottom that always attracts price, albeit the chikou span has crossed price on the monthly and weekly which signals bearish, however, we also have bullish clouds here so I am long eur/usd for somewhile now. I use the original settings as do most of the Japanese so it would appear sensible to follow suit. The above strategy in a backtest provided an 80% accuracy rate!
EURUSD 30 Sep 2011 Ichimoku Trading Was not trading for the past 2 days due to work commitment. Back to trading tonight for the last day of the month. Price had been trading downwards earlier till 2000h. Was planning what trade to do for the night. Tenkan-sen cut above the jikun-sen while above the kumo cloud. The chikou span also cut above the kumo later, there was opportunity to go long at around 2030h. Knowing there was a number of news, was stepping a side. After 2030h, relook at the ichimoku charting, an opportunity was forthcoming... Tenkan-sen cut below Jikun-sen while above kumo cloud. The price went into the kumo cloud, and Chikou Span had yet cut below the cloud completely. Placed a stop in order (50%) just below the cloud, was stopped in the next moment. Placed another stop in order (50%) below the low of the kumo cloud, was stopped in the next moment. Price began to trade lower. Set a target profit to close 50% of the position. It was hit Set another target profit to close 50% of remaining position (25%). It was hit The remaining was stop loss, it was stopped out. Called it a day...
EURUSD 03 Oct 2011 Ichimoku Trading Price had been trading lower again before 2000h. Tenkan-sen was diverging from Jikun-sen from 2000h. There was a cross over of Tenkan-sen above the Jikun-sen, chikou-span was still below the price high, no long position established. Tenkan-sen cross below the Jikun-sen and the price traded below. Placed a stop-in position, (amended subsequently to reduce the position). Was stopped in thereafter. Tenkan-sen cross above the Jikun-sen again, and the price traded upwards. Closed the position and decided to call it a day.
EURUSD 04 Oct 2011 Ichimoku Trading Price had been trending downwards prior to 2000h, and subsequently an short term uptrend appeared. There was no doubt that the price had already factored everything into it, cannnot ignore the fact on Euro Crisis. It is REAL. Thus favour on the SHORT side of EURUSD. With news at 2100h and 2200h, decided to use ichimoku with reference to news. After 2100h, Price already traded below Jikun-sen. Decided to hold on. Price retraced back forming a high higher than previous high. Placed a stop in order below the Jikun-sen for a short. It was triggered. Price began to trade sideways after stopped in. As 2200h approaching, price traded lower. There was a rapid move downwards around 20-25 pips after 2200h. Shifted stop loss to break even as this was a ichimoku trade based on news. The move down did not sustain. Shortly after the stop loss was shifted down, price did a reversal and move above the kumo clouds... Called it a day...
EurUsd 05 Oct 2011 Ichimoku Trading Another day where not much had been made. Price was trading upward before 2000h, and began to retraced just before 2000h. Awaited the opportunity that would be arising. Finally the tenkan-sen cut below the jikun-sen. Placed a stop in order awating to get stop in. It happened 2 minutes later. Price did not trade lower significantly. It was congested and traded sideways. In anticipation, a limit order to close half the postion was placed, and subseqently cancelled. Had shifted the stop loss lower, since the price was not moving what had been expected. Stopped out. Call it a day...
It had been quite some time since I last updated. As mentioned earlier, I went for an overseas business trip in China, and was occupied with work thereafter. Nevertheless, have taken a number of positions. GBPUSD, the trade was initiated on 19 Oct when the price was trading in the ichimoku cloud. The tenkan-sen had already cut above the jikun-sen, and the chikou span is about to cut above the jikun-sen. In addition to the ichimoku indicators, double bottoms pattern had been formed. As the price began to moved upwards, had taken another position earlier with reference to Euro-zone debt issues. When the deal was announced later, price moved in favour on the long position of GBP. Hanging on...
AUDUSD Daily Oct 2011 Ichimoku Trading This was the second position taken for the daily trade. Probably one of the idea set up in ichimoku trading. The trade was initiated on 19 Oct 2011. Tenkan-sen had already cut above the Jikun-sen, and price acceleration as seen from the width between tenkan-sen and jikun-sen. Price itself was trading just above the kumo cloud. And most of all, the chikou span was about to cut above the jikun-sen. Though on that day itself, price went against the position initiated. It was still structurally within the ichimoku set up to take a long position. Of course, with the good news from EU earlier, it helped. Hanging on...
USDSGD Daily Oct 2011 Ichimoku Trading This was the third and position initiated on 19 Oct 2011 for USDSGD. It was taken when the price just traded into the cloud. Fundamentally, tenkan-sen had already cut below the jikun-sen, chikou-sen was about to cut jikun-sen. The price on the day on entry went against the short position. Held on to the trade. A stop in order was placed earlier just below the cloud, and with chikou-span likely to cut below jikun-sen, it was an ideal set up. The price moved lower thereafter. Again, that was due to the news from EU. Holding on...
NZDUSD Daily October 2011 Ichimoku Trading Taken another position on NZDUSD. Price had been trading upwards. As usual, the tenkan-sen cut above the jikun-sen while below the kumo cloud. Another important signal was the chikou-sen about to cut above the jikun-sen, it would be idea if it cut above the cloud. The price moved into the cloud and about to trade above the cloud. Placed a stop-in order and it was triggered on the day itself. Will hold the position and see how the trade turns out.
EURUSD 03 Nov 2011 Ichimoku Trading It had been quite some time that no intraday trade for EurUsd due to workload. Travelling again during mid November to China. Look at the price, it was trading above the kumo cloud. 1. Tenkan-sen cut below the jikun-sen while above the cloud. The first signal to signal to initiated a short trade if any one wanted to. After a price period trade below tenkan-sen, intiated a short position while the price traded into the cloud. 2. The first profit taking zone. Closed out partial postion after reaching first target profit zone. also closed partial position from candle stick patterns. When the tenkan sen cut above the jikun sen, closed out partial position again. 3. The second profit taking zone. Price continued to trade lower. Closed out partial position after reaching second target profit zone. 4. Technical exit zone: Tenkan-sen cut above the jikun-sen while below the kumo cloud. First signal of warning that price could reverse. Closed out partial position when price traded to below the cloud. All remaining position closed out when price traded above the cloud. Called it a day.