Ichimoku Additions

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Thanks for sharing cclsys. We appreciate your efforts made here.

[cclsys]

Consolidated Code

After posting the above, I realised it was time to clean up and consolidate the code a little.

So here attached is a file with both 'Clouds3' and 'IchiLines3' that have the following improvements/simplifications:

1. Clouds now has the Displacement Nr in the code and also you only have to input the FastPeriod and the rest is automatically calculated.
2. Ichi3 now has the Donchians, along with the Trading Range pink back color, incorporated.

So to set up a basic chart, you just set the Fast Period (default is the original Ichimoku Developer's 9), load both Ichi 3 and Cloud 3, and you have it.

I also add in a second Cloud 3 based on 3* the base amount (i.e. 27) and a second Ichi3 with only the LT Kijun displayed, in my case and for both using purplish colors to distinguish them from the Main Ichis and that way you can quickly have a chart showing 2 timeframes.

I also attach the RPM (Range per Minute for tick chart traders) and IchiRSI indicators. The RSI is designed to help show favourable pullback/retracements areas in an overall trend. The default length is 9, same as the other Ichis.

The RPM has the option to include a sound alert. I have coded it to Alert1.wav and others might want to change this inside the code since there is no option in the Menu Panel to reference the file, although this can easily be done.

[cclsys]

In the picture attached above just to clarify a little:

OS rubbers in bottom left (maroon triangles)
Dots in a line show the current Donchian High/Low levels
Tenkan- Red Line
Kijun - Green Line
KijunLT - Dark Green
Equi Main- Pink Hash
Equi LT - dashed (barely visible) purple line
Pull Back Triangles - in this example the ones plotted are from the LT Ichis (as determined by the relative position of K and K2 versus Tenkan and Kijun), so although the ST trend as defined by T and K is up (in the middle left area for example), the LT was down, so the lighter blue triangles were plotted. 90 tick based triangles in my setup are a darker blue or gold, but there aren't any in this particular example.)

Light Blue or Gold arrows indicate LT TK cross (shown on this Main Chart as the Kijun and Kijun 2, light green and Dark Green respectively.

Darker Blue or Gold indicate 90 (this chart's) TK crosses. One happens around 13.55 just before a pink trading range starts.

K2 Cross Arrow: the dark pink down arrrow also around 13.55 indicates the K2 median (equivalent of the LT Kijun on a 270 chart) crossing under the SenkouSpanB cloud line. In this example, the K2 line ended more or less tracking the SSB line sideways. After this chart ended (whilst I was posting, both the K2 and the SSB cloud line moved down a little and the mkt with it, although basically nothing is going on with this market right now except consolidation after a huge move two hours ago.)

LT Clouds (with purple lines to define them as such) in lower right
Main Clouds going up and down across the chart. These clouds are drawn 27 bars 'before' the market and anticipate probably support-resistance zones. In this case, with such oscillating but sideways action they 'anticipated' a sideways trading range type market which is what happened. When the market charges through these, it indicates conviction one way or another (the 270 cloud is way below current mkt because there was just a big move at 1.00 pm EST which the mkt is still digesting.)

Green BackColour = not-lined up market
Blue Back Color = bear market
Gold Back Color = bull market
Pink Back Color = Trading Range.
Pink Square Lines = Chikou (current close displayed relative to 27 bars ago and plotted on those previous bars to compare current with past price quickly. Part of classic Ichimoku methodology not explained here.)

The beige and greyish-bluish zones are the clouds, beigish being bullish and grey-blue bearish.

GoldenRod Dot indicates a Senkou Span Cross (happening off the chart 'in the future' to the right) at the price at which the cross occurred. This is also part of classic Ichi methodology not explained here.

The RSI indicator back colors (not yet attached) are based mainly on the Ichi Trend, not on the indicator values itself. This one tends to turn less quickly than most RSI-type oscillators, but is helpful at identifying pullbacks against the trend. It is based on the movement of the close relative to the Equi price which is the average of the close - each of the three medians, so although it responds to bar-to-bar action, it is not based on simply that alone, rather closing price in relation to overall median prices. When the code is posted reading it will be simpler than trying to explain which is more difficult for some reason.

The Better Volume Indicator developed by Barry Taylor is taken from the Indicator Sharing area.

The RPM indicator (also not yet attached) has nothing to do with Ichimoku, but is helpful for those trading tick charts. It shows the relative price action in terms of the number of ticks per minute rate, something which is sometimes hard to gauge looking at the tick chart alone.

I have also changed the SlingShot indicator so as to be able to fill in the gap between the Tenkan and Kijun in bullish (gold) or bearish (steel blue) fill colors with about 15 opacity. It just adds more texture to the color-background, most of which I don't even see consciously, rather it just gives an overall sense of the weather, i.e. is it bullish or bearish or some sort of mix right now.

At first the chart might seem too busy, and probably it is. But after a while most of the clouds, back colors and lines fade into the background, though they provide general as well as specific support/resistance and trend information around current price action, which is all they are designed to do.

General Color remarks: Everyone has their own set up which looks strange to others. To help 'read' mine basically I have the bull and bear colors based on what could be called a daoist approach, namely with dark/heavier colors indicating sinking, i.e. going down, as with water which is blue, versus lighter colors going up. So I have blue as bear, Gold/yellow as bull, and green, which is a mix of both, as neutral. So then I tend to use purples and reds as indicator colors.

I have never really liked the notion of red being bearish (I think it comes fro a Stop Light reference) and Green being bullish (Go light). Maybe that makes sense for long-only stock traders, but not for futures or especially futures day-traders. In any case, that's the way I do it.

[cclsys]

What follows in this thread are a collection of indicators I have developed based on the Ichimoku Indicators available in the Shared Indicators section of this forum. More on the Ichis can be found at: http://www.kumotrader.com/ichimoku_wiki/; also at http://www.kumotrader.com/forum/index.php

Introduction to these Indicators:

I am into day trading and mainly use tick charts. I also like to compare 2-3 'timeframes' and usually set them up thusly:

ST = 45 tick
Main = 90 tick
LT = 270 tick.

These change based on the market being followed but the main idea is that the LT is 3* the Main Chart and the ST is half and I use it to help with entries and exits in certain types of conditions, basically cutting the Main bars in half.

It is for this type of setup that I began to work with re-coding the Ichis. Principally, I started off with adding a 3rd Ichi to the default 2 (hence the name 'Ichi3'). This third Ichi corresponded to the LT Median (Kijun) in the 270 LT chart. To be clearer:

90 Tick 'Main' Chart
Tenkan (FastPeriod) = 9
Kijun (MediumPeriod) = 27
Kijun2 (SlowPeriod) = 81

270 Tick 'LT' Chart

Tenkan (FastPeriod) = 9 ( = 27 on the Main 90 Tick chart)
Kijun (MediumPeriod) = 27 ( = 81 on the Main 90 Tick chart)
Kijun2 (SlowPeriod) = 81

In this way, on the 90 chart the Kijun and Kijun 2 have the same values as the Tenkan and Kijun on the 270 chart.

Now there is a further wrinkle: the default Cloud values for an Ichi Chart use a slower Slow Period which is double the Kijun, i.e. 54 on the 90 Tick Main Chart. This I have not changed.

So on the Main Chart we have the Tenkan (9), Kijun (27), Kijun2 (81) and the Clouds are basis Kijun*2 = 54.

One thing I have noticed tracking this setup is that the K2 often tracks the Senkou Span B (slow Cloud line) exactly, often for many bars at a time, but then it moves away and the direction in which it moves provides yet another trend indicator - longer term. It is slow, but it is rarely whipsawed like the shorter term ones can be.

I have also added in another new line which I call the 'Equi', for 'Equilibrium'. This is the average of the 3 Lines and it is helpful because sometimes the three lines are regularly spaced, but sometimes they are 'conflicted' or 'unbalanced'. For example, in a strong trend they tend pretty quickly to become 'lined up' as in (bull example): K2 is at the bottom, then the K, and then the T on top, sort of equidistant from each other.

But sometimes you get a Tenkan over Kijun (T-K) bull cross, but the K2 is way above them (conflicted market). And sometimes you get a Tenkan way up there after a recent rapid move the past few minutes but the K and K2 are quite a ways below indicating the market has got ahead of itself. The Equi shows the relative mid-point of all three. Very simple but helpful.

I have also used this Equi as the basis for an RSI indicator showing OS and OB within the context of the trend as defined by the Ichis, not the price alone.

In addition, I have added to the standard Donchian Indicator which shows the Donchian Channel Highs and Lows with the median (a median is the same as an Ichi line) by mixing in an ATR-derived calculation that determines when the range is narrow enough to be called a Trading Range and it Back Colors accordingly. It is not always correct, like anything, but it is often quite quick to identify a Trading Range, after which a break out, especially one in the direction of the LT Ichi Trend, can often yield dependably favorable action.

In addition, you can put on the LT clouds by inputting the correct values so on the Main Chart alone you can see the basic two Ichis, plus the LT Kijun, the basic Clouds, plus the LT clouds.

I would like to share these indicators even though I am not a proficient Ninja coder because I got these from the Ninja forum and would like to give something back, little as it is.

I will soon post one at a time with a picture and a brief explanation, although if you find them of interest and read through the code and look at the charts they should be fairly self-explanatory like most simple indicators.

The Ichis are unusual in that, based on simple Median prices alone, and with a simple yet sophisticated way of comparing present action to the past (the Chikou line) and also with the future (displaced Senkou 'Cloud' formations, you get an ongoing picture of support, resistance and trend.

So first, the basic Ichi3Line Indicator along with what I call 'Cloud2' because I have added the Senkou Cross as both an audible and visual alert plotted at the price it occurs on the current bar even though it is projected out the Kijun Period distance (27 bars) into the future. In live trading you often won't have the chart adjusted to see this happening, so the alert is helpful. That is the only change I made to the one on the forum.

In addition to the general features mentioned above, the Ichi3 Indicator also has various bells and whistles, many of them no doubt coded in a somewhat beginner-like fashion, but they work and I have been using them for a few months now without any problem.

Features include:

Drawing a diamond on the close and also a line back to the Chikou Span Cross point when it occurs. This happens when the Chikou line (which represents the price 27 bars ago and is plotted on the screen 27 bars back) crosses through the current price. Sometimes it's hard to see when it's doing that (not so much in live training but in historical review), so this helps. I think there is also a sound.

I have arrows showing when there is a cross of the Tenkan over/under the Kijun.

There are back colors for various types of trend - simple cross over of T and K, or when all 3 lines are 'lined up'.

There are 'Pullback' Triangles which indicate when a short term counter trend move has happened for several bars in a row indicating a return to the trend might soon occur. There are some small filters involved with this which are easy to understand in the code hopefully but I can explain more if anyone is interested or has questions. (Same for all of the above of course).

There are also 'Rubber Band' triangles which show when the market has gone zooming up or down far enough away from the Kijun basis the current ATR (volatility) to trigger them. They often give an indication when things are due for a pause.

There is also a K2-SenkouB cross which is when the LT Kijun crosses over the SenkouB (LT Cloud) line.

Some of my bells and whistles you won't like or find helpful. I believe they are all turnable-offable. But some simply take the basic Ichi methods and make them more clearly displayed, in particular the Cloud (Senkou) Span cross, the Chikou Span cross.

Further indiators to come that complement this:

Donchians with the Trading Range component;
Equi-based RSI indicator
RPM - Range per Minute indicator helpful for Tick-Chart traders.

In all cases where there are sound files, you are probably going to have to manually type in your own preferred sounds. I have made several indicating trends and if people request it I can also post them here, things like '45 bull' and '45 bear' etc.

Any comments, feedback, suggestions for improvement, more elegant coding solutions etc. are most welcome.