Is it really necessary to shift the cloud forward when you can get the same information with the cloud
aligned with price while referencing the chikou span to the cloud?
What do you see when you look at the cloud and price?
You see of course price represented in candles or bars and then you see two averages that have been shifted x periods ahead. Then you have Chikou Span that is x periods behind. So when price gets to the cloud, you're seeing prices relationship to two moving averages that are from x periods ago.
So again, the whole idea of the cloud is that you're seeing two moving averages shifted x periods ahead so that means when price meets up with the cloud, you're actually seeing the averages of price from x periods previously.
Then of course you have TS/KS that are two moving averages aligned with price.
Isn't that what you are seeing when you compare chikou span to TS/KS? When the chikou span interacts with TS/KS, you're are really seeing price (in the form of the close) interacting with two moving averages x amount of periods ago.
Regular
Ichimoku Setup - Note the location of price compared to the cloud.
Cloud shifted back with TS/KS. 4 moving averages are redundant and unnecessary IMO. Leave them in you prefer though.
TS/KS taken out with the cloud still shifted back. The information that we saw previously between price and the cloud (regular ichimoku setup)
can still be seen using the Chikou Span and the cloud moved back. It gives the trader the same exact information in a simpler format IMO.
In other words, all of the information that we gather from the regular ichimoku setup is still seen in this setup (minus TS/KS but add them if you want to).
If there are two solutions that give the same information, but one is simpler, then the simpler solution should be used.
Does this make sense? Occam's Razor anyone?
If you want 3 averages, then half the cloud (ssa+ssb) / 2)) makes the most sense.
Note - I put a few thousand hours into Ichimoku when i first started.
Now I only trade using price and volume but Ichimoku is still one of my favorites to play around with.
