Ichimoku Cloud
Ichimoku is a Japanese trend system built from range midpoints: a 9-period conversion line, a 26-period base line, and two span lines whose gap forms the cloud that price trades above, below, or inside.
Every Ichimoku line is a midpoint of a high-low range rather than an average of closes, so it marks the middle of everything traded. The conversion line (tenkan-sen) is the 9-bar midpoint and the base line (kijun-sen) the 26-bar one. Span A is the midpoint of those two lines, span B the 52-bar range midpoint, and the region between the spans is the cloud. On this platform the spans are stored unshifted, computed at today's bar without the traditional 26-bar forward displacement.
The system reads as layers of the same question at different depths. Price against the base line is the quick health check: the base sits at the middle of the last 26 sessions' range, so crossing back above it means price has reclaimed the median of its own recent history, and it is typically the first Ichimoku signal to fire in a turn. Price against both spans is the deep check. Above the whole cloud is an established uptrend and below it a downtrend, and inside is the zone where the system honestly says nothing.
The honest caveats. Every line is a trailing midpoint, so the whole apparatus lags, the 52-bar span B especially, and in a sideways market price weaves through the cloud producing signals in both directions. The system also carries an intimidating vocabulary that adds no information: five Japanese names for what are mechanically range midpoints at three lookbacks. The unshifted spans here will also not match a chart drawn with traditional displacement.
Against a moving-average stack the structural difference is midpoints versus means. A 26-bar midpoint ignores how often price visited each level and marks the centre of the traded range. Traders treat that centre as support and resistance more readily than they treat an average of closes.
In Sift
Written as ichimoku().conversion / .base / .span_a / .span_b. A working scan — stocks that reclaimed the Ichimoku base line within three sessions in an intact trend:
where close crossed above ichimoku().base within 3 bars and close > sma(50)1
of the 500 most-traded NSE stocks match today, as of 6 Oct 2026
Common questions
What does it mean when price is above the Ichimoku cloud?
Price trades above both span lines, above the midpoint structure of its last year of ranges. Ichimoku traders read it as an established uptrend with the cloud beneath acting as layered support. Inside the cloud the system is deliberately silent, and below it the same logic runs bearish. It describes a regime and does not time an entry.
What is the difference between the conversion and base lines?
Only the lookback. The conversion line is the midpoint of the last 9 bars' range, the base line of the last 26: a fast line and a slow one, like a moving-average pair built from midpoints. The conversion crossing above the base is Ichimoku's quick momentum signal, and price crossing the base is its sturdier one.
Why do these Ichimoku values differ from my charting app?
Traditional Ichimoku plots span A and span B shifted 26 bars into the future. PatternsRadar stores the spans unshifted, computed at today's bar, because a screener filters on today's values. The arithmetic is identical and the displacement is not, so a chart drawn with the shift will show the cloud in a different place.