Trenddraws on the price

Five lines and a shaded cloud that answer trend, momentum and support in one glance. Every line is a range midpoint, so flat tape reads flat.

On this chart: 9 / 26 / 52, cloud plotted 26 bars forward.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo — "one-glance equilibrium chart" — builds everything from range midpoints, not close averages: the Tenkan (9-bar midpoint), the Kijun (26-bar), and a cloud whose edges are the Tenkan/Kijun average and the 52-bar midpoint, both plotted 26 bars into the future. The lagging Chikou line is today's close drawn 26 bars back, for comparing now against then.

Because midpoints do not drift the way averages do, the lines go genuinely flat in a range — a flat Kijun is a literal statement that the 26-bar range has not moved.

The single-glance read: price above a green cloud with the Tenkan above the Kijun is an aligned uptrend; the mirror below a red cloud is aligned down. Price inside the cloud is contested ground. The cloud ahead of the last bar shows where equilibrium sits for the coming weeks — thick cloud is thick support or resistance; thin cloud crosses cheaply.

The cloud is a support-and-resistance forecast drawn 26 bars forward — roughly the tenor of a monthly cash-secured put. A strike beneath thick green cloud sits under a zone the structure has to break through first; the flat spans of the Kijun mark levels price has repeatedly re-found. Both are descriptions of where a strike stands relative to structure, in the same spirit as the S/R engine's zones.

Like everything in this guide, these are descriptions of conditions and reference levels — context for your own decisions, not instructions to trade.