The Dow 30 - Ichimoku Study - Week: 30 April to 04 May, 2012 -

.....Regulars can skip below and go straight to the chart......

Introduction:

We do a weekly Ichimoku study, to complement our 'Triple Screen Technical Analysis', of the markets that we track, in our quest to master Technical Analysis.

When taking the 'weekly' time frame, to use the Ichimoku Cloud, we need to consider the following..

The standard settings for an Ichimoku Kinko Hyo chart are 9, 26, 52 and are used on EOD charts.  

When Ichimoku was created back in the 1930s, a trading week was 6 days long.  So we have one and a half week(9), one month(26) and two months(52). 

Now that the trading week is 5 days, we should actually use 7,  22 and 44 instead. 

However, the majority of systems, worldwide, still use the old settings 9, 26, 52. 

We need to study markets, on a weekly basis on this Blog.  

How do we fit 52, 26 and 9 into that need?  With one candle being one week?

There are 52 weeks in a year, 26 weeks form two quarters (or a half year) and 9 weeks equal about 2 months.  Fits the old logic - albeit differently.

Presto, we have a longer term view with the same settings!

So, if you like to move off the beaten track, for a change... do read on...

Quick Reference : 

Chikou Span - purple line,

Kijun Sen - blue line, 

Senkou Span A - black line, 

Senkou Span B - grey line, 

Kumo - grey shaded area,

Tenkan Sen - red line.

Useful resources (free) from the Web:

http://www.freestockcharts.com/

http://www.kumotrader.com/ichimoku_wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

DJI 30: Medium Term View (or) Week Chart (or) EOW with the Ichimoku Cloud:  

DJI 30 - End of Week Chart - 04 May 2012  

Last 6 Signals seen on DJI 30 - Week Chart (EOW) marked on chart above:

1. Senkou Span Cross: Neutral Bullish Signal (S)

2. Chikou Span Cross: Strong Bullish Signal (C)

3. Tenkan Sen/Kijun Sen Cross: Neutral Bullish Signal (T)

4. Kumo Breakout: Bullish Signal (B)

5. The Flat Kumo: Bearish Signal (Ko)

6. Tenkan Sen Cross: Strong Bullish  Signal (minor signal - see arrow)

'1'. Price crossing the Tenkan Sen (red line) is considered as an early warning sign of sentiment reversal. 

The Arrow points to last week's candle which has stayed above the Tenkan Sen. So our signal marked '6' above remains valid for this week too.

Conclusion is same as pointed out last week, 'Bulls are still all over this screen. Bears need to get Index below the Tenkan Sen, to have a chance of taking this one over.'