The five lines of Ichimoku, explained with their exact formulas
27 August 2026, 09:00
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Ichimoku Kinko Hyo looks intimidating because it draws five lines and a cloud all at once, but the name itself tells you the intent. It translates roughly as a chart that shows balance at a single glance. It was designed by the Japanese journalist Goichi Hosoda and published in 1969 after years of work, and every one of its five lines is built from the same humble ingredient: the midpoint between a high and a low over a fixed window. No exotic math, just highs, lows, and a bit of forward and backward shifting.
Here are the five lines with the exact formulas from Swissquote's Ichimoku guide, using the standard periods of 9, 26 and 52.
The Tenkan sen, or conversion line, is the midpoint of the last 9 candles: the highest high plus the lowest low over 9 periods, divided by two. It reacts quickly and represents short term momentum.
The Kijun sen, or base line, is the same calculation over 26 candles: highest high plus lowest low over 26 periods, divided by two. It is slower and acts as the structural anchor of the system.
The Senkou span A, the first leading span, is the average of the Tenkan and the Kijun, then plotted 26 candles into the future. It is one edge of the cloud.
The Senkou span B, the second leading span, is the midpoint of the last 52 candles, also plotted 26 candles into the future. It is the other, slower edge of the cloud.
The Chikou span, or lagging span, is simply the current closing price plotted 26 candles into the past. It is used to judge momentum against where price was a month of candles ago.
Two details are worth underlining because they are easy to get wrong. First, these lines are midpoints of highs and lows, not moving averages of closing prices. That is a real difference from the usual moving average, and it makes Ichimoku respond to the range of price rather than only its close. Second, the shift matters as much as the formula. The two spans are pushed 26 candles forward, which is what lets the cloud project a support and resistance zone ahead of price, while the lagging span is pushed 26 candles back.
The space between the two leading spans is the Kumo, the cloud, and it is the heart of the system. When span A is above span B the cloud is bullish, when span A is below span B it is bearish. Because the cloud is drawn ahead of price, you can see the terrain the market is heading toward before it arrives.
This is why Ichimoku is a trend following system rather than an oscillator. It does not try to call tops and bottoms. It tells you, at a glance, whether price is above, inside, or below a projected equilibrium zone, and which way the balance is tilting. Once the five formulas are clear, the famous signals, the line crossings and the cloud breaks, are just relationships between numbers you now know how to compute.
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