Do I need all five lines?

No, and most EAs do not use all five. Tenkan and Kijun alone give a workable crossover system, and Kijun on its own is a respectable trend filter — that is what the Builder template uses. The cloud adds regime context, and the lagging span adds a check against past structure. Each line you add costs a condition; add them because they change the outcome, not for completeness.

Should I change the 9 / 26 / 52 settings?

You can, but be aware that 26 does three jobs — the base-line window, the forward shift of the cloud, and the backward shift of the lagging span. Changing it changes the geometry of the whole system, not just one line. The classic numbers come from a 6-day trading week; 7 / 22 / 44 is the common 5-day adjustment.

Why does my cloud rule behave strangely in a backtest?

Almost always because of the forward shift. The Senkou buffers already contain the 26-bar displacement, so reading them at index 0 gives you a level that belongs 26 bars in the future. A cloud comparison has to read the buffer at the matching offset — this is the single most common way an Ichimoku EA goes wrong without erroring.

Does Ichimoku have an applied-price setting?

No. Every line is a midpoint of highs and lows over its own window, or a shift of one of those, so there is no price series to select. MQL5's iIchimoku takes only the three periods.

Can I build an Ichimoku EA without coding?

Yes for the line-based rules. The Ichimoku template wires Tenkan and Kijun nodes into a Cross node with the three periods as EA inputs. Cloud position and cloud twist are the exceptions — both depend on reading the forward-shifted spans at the right offset, which is easy to express incorrectly and worth writing deliberately.

How should I validate settings before going live?

Backtest on quality tick data first, then run the EA on a demo account before risking money. When optimising, hold back data the search never saw and prefer settings that stay profitable across periods over the single in-sample peak — chasing that peak is overfitting the noise. No default or preset here is a performance promise; every value is a starting point to re-validate on your own pair and broker.

Trend TrendCrossoverSupport & Resistance Available in Builder

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo

Ichimoku

Ichimoku packs trend, momentum and support/resistance into one overlay of five lines, including a forward-projected cloud that shows where resistance is expected before price gets there. Its crossover rules translate directly into a no-code EA; the cloud rules need more care.

Default settings: 9 / 26 / 52
Lines: 5 buffers
Cloud shift: 26 bars ahead

Build in Builder Strategy recipe

Illustrative — synthetic data, not a live quote.

What Ichimoku tells you

Ichimoku is a complete system rather than a single reading. Two fast lines give the entry timing, the cloud gives the regime and the levels, and the lagging span checks the current move against where price was a month ago. The forward shift is the unusual part — the cloud is drawn ahead of price, so tomorrow's resistance is already visible today.

Price above the cloud: bullish regime
Price below the cloud: bearish regime
Price inside the cloud: no regime — the system says stand aside

1 Midpoints of 9, 26 and 52 bar ranges
2 Two of them averaged and pushed 26 bars forward
3 The close pushed 26 bars back

Show the formula & calculation detail

Ichimoku builds five lines from high–low midpoints, then displaces two of them forward and one backward:

Tenkan-sen (buffer 0) — the midpoint of the highest high and lowest low of the last 9 bars.
Kijun-sen (buffer 1) — the same midpoint over the last 26 bars.
Senkou Span A (buffer 2) — the average of Tenkan and Kijun, plotted 26 bars into the future.
Senkou Span B (buffer 3) — the midpoint over the last 52 bars, also plotted 26 bars ahead. The shaded area between A and B is the cloud.
Chikou Span (buffer 4) — the current close, plotted 26 bars into the past.

Every line is a midpoint of a range rather than an average of closes, which is why Ichimoku reacts to the extremes of a session rather than to where it settled. The displacement is the design’s real idea: because Senkou A and B are drawn ahead of price, the levels that will matter are visible before price arrives, and because Chikou is drawn behind, the current close can be compared directly against the structure of a month ago.

In MQL5 the call is iIchimoku(symbol, period, tenkan_sen, kijun_sen, senkou_span_b) and it returns a handle to all five buffers. There is no applied-price argument. Goichi Hosoda published the system in 1969 after decades of development; the periods reflect the six-day trading week of the era.

Signals

The distinct, backtestable signals Ichimoku gives — and the regime each one suits.

Tenkan / Kijun Crossover

Builder ready

Condition: The conversion line crosses the base line
Best regime: Trending markets
Typical use: Time entries in the direction the cloud already permits

Price vs Kijun

Builder ready

Condition: Price closes above or below the base line
Best regime: Established trends
Typical use: Use one line as a trailing regime filter

Cloud Breakout

Advanced logic

Condition: Price leaves the cloud in either direction
Best regime: Regime change
Typical use: Switch the whole system's bias

Cloud Twist

Advanced logic

Condition: Leading spans A and B swap places ahead of price
Best regime: Trend exhaustion
Typical use: Read where regime support is expected to fail

MT5 implementation

What MetaTrader 5 itself computes and draws — the reference every rule on this page is written against.

Buffers

Index	Buffer	Drawn in MT5 as	What it holds
0	TENKANSEN_LINE	Line	Conversion line — midpoint of the last 9 bars' high and low. The fast line.
1	KIJUNSEN_LINE	Line	Base line — midpoint of the last 26 bars. The slow line, and the most common single-line filter.
2	SENKOUSPANA_LINE	Cloud edge	Leading span A — the midpoint of Tenkan and Kijun, plotted 26 bars into the future.
3	SENKOUSPANB_LINE	Cloud edge	Leading span B — midpoint of the last 52 bars, also plotted 26 bars ahead. The cloud is the area between A and B.
4	CHIKOUSPAN_LINE	Line (shifted back)	Lagging span — the close plotted 26 bars into the past, used to compare current price against past structure.

Platform notes

MQL5 function

iIchimoku

Applied price

This indicator takes no applied-price argument.

In the Builder

iIchimoku takes no applied-price argument. Every line is a midpoint of highs and lows over its own window, or a shift of one of those, so there is no single price series to select. The Builder's Ichimoku node exposes the three periods plus a line selector.

Implementation notes

iIchimoku publishes all five lines from one handle, so a rule reads different buffers of the same indicator — the Builder does this with two Ichimoku nodes set to Tenkan and Kijun.
The two leading spans are already shifted 26 bars forward inside the indicator, which means the value at the current bar describes a level 26 bars ahead of price — comparing price to the raw Senkou buffer at the same index compares two different points in time.
Cloud rules therefore need a deliberate shift when reading the buffer, which the node's shift parameter can express but which is easy to get wrong; that is why the cloud signals here are marked advanced.

Works best / use carefully

No indicator is a universal edge. Here is where Ichimoku helps — and where it misleads.

Works best

Trending markets
Higher timeframes
As a complete regime + entry system
Instruments with sustained directional moves

Use carefully

Tight, directionless ranges
Price inside the cloud
Low timeframes
Changing the classic periods without validation

Build a strategy with Ichimoku

Wire the signal into entry and exit rules, then export a compilable MT5 EA — no code.

Tenkan-sen (9)
Kijun-sen (26)
Tenkan crosses above Kijun → Open Buy · SL 60 / TP 120
Tenkan crosses below Kijun → Open Sell

Combine Ichimoku with other indicators

One indicator rarely stands alone. These pairings cover Ichimoku's blind spots.

Ichimoku + ADX

ADX > 25
Tenkan crosses Kijun
Buy

Why: Require measurable trend strength before taking a line crossover, since Tenkan and Kijun cross constantly in a flat market
Best regime: Trending

No single-flow template pairs Ichimoku with ADX. Start from the Ichimoku template and add an ADX node with a Compare at 25 into an And gate.

Open Builder →

Ichimoku + Moving Average

Price > 200 MA
Tenkan crosses Kijun
Buy

Why: Add a longer-horizon direction filter above the 26-bar base line, so entries only fire with the larger trend
Best regime: Trend continuation

No single-flow template pairs Ichimoku with a moving average — the portfolio template that holds both runs them as separate legs. Add an MA node and a Price node into a Compare.

Open Builder →

Ichimoku + ATR

Tenkan crosses Kijun
ATR sets the stop distance
Buy

Why: Replace the fixed 60-pip stop with a volatility-sized one, since Ichimoku's periods span a month and market conditions change inside it
Best regime: Any

No single-flow template pairs Ichimoku with ATR. Add an ATR node feeding a risk-based lot or stop node.

Open Builder →

Parameters

Starting values to validate on your own pair and timeframe — not guaranteed settings.

Parameter	Default	Suggested test range	What it does
Tenkan-sen	9	7–12	Window for the conversion line's high–low midpoint. The fast line; shortening it makes crossovers more frequent and less meaningful.
Kijun-sen	26	22–34	Window for the base line, and also the forward and backward shift applied to the spans. Changing it moves three things at once.
Senkou Span B	52	44–70	Window for the slower cloud edge. Widening it makes the cloud thicker and regime changes rarer.
Line	Tenkan / Kijun	—	Which of the five buffers a rule reads. A buffer selector, not a numeric setting.

Starting presets

Classic 9 / 26 / 52 Hosoda's original, tied to a 6-day trading week

Modern week 7 / 22 / 44 Adjusted for a 5-day week

Slow 12 / 34 / 70 Swing-level regime only

Market examples

Where Ichimoku works, where it fails, and how a filter changes the outcome.

Works

Crossover above the cloud

Price is already above the cloud when Tenkan crosses Kijun, and the move continues — the configuration the full system is built around.

Fails

Crossover inside the cloud

The two lines cross while price sits inside the cloud. The system's own rule says there is no regime here; the crossover fires anyway and goes nowhere.

Filtered

Regime filter suppresses the entry

Add the cloud position as a condition and the same in-cloud crossovers are all skipped, leaving only the ones that agree with the larger picture.

Related indicators

Moving Average View guide →

ADX View guide →

Alligator View guide →

FAQ

Do I need all five lines?: No, and most EAs do not use all five. Tenkan and Kijun alone give a workable crossover system, and Kijun on its own is a respectable trend filter — that is what the Builder template uses. The cloud adds regime context, and the lagging span adds a check against past structure. Each line you add costs a condition; add them because they change the outcome, not for completeness.
Should I change the 9 / 26 / 52 settings?: You can, but be aware that 26 does three jobs — the base-line window, the forward shift of the cloud, and the backward shift of the lagging span. Changing it changes the geometry of the whole system, not just one line. The classic numbers come from a 6-day trading week; 7 / 22 / 44 is the common 5-day adjustment.
Why does my cloud rule behave strangely in a backtest?: Almost always because of the forward shift. The Senkou buffers already contain the 26-bar displacement, so reading them at index 0 gives you a level that belongs 26 bars in the future. A cloud comparison has to read the buffer at the matching offset — this is the single most common way an Ichimoku EA goes wrong without erroring.
Does Ichimoku have an applied-price setting?: No. Every line is a midpoint of highs and lows over its own window, or a shift of one of those, so there is no price series to select. MQL5's iIchimoku takes only the three periods.
Can I build an Ichimoku EA without coding?: Yes for the line-based rules. The Ichimoku template wires Tenkan and Kijun nodes into a Cross node with the three periods as EA inputs. Cloud position and cloud twist are the exceptions — both depend on reading the forward-shifted spans at the right offset, which is easy to express incorrectly and worth writing deliberately.
How should I validate settings before going live?: Backtest on quality tick data first, then run the EA on a demo account before risking money. When optimising, hold back data the search never saw and prefer settings that stay profitable across periods over the single in-sample peak — chasing that peak is overfitting the noise. No default or preset here is a performance promise; every value is a starting point to re-validate on your own pair and broker.

Glossary

Key terms

Backtest Overfitting Volatility