Hi,
Can anyone please advise what is the best/recommended timeframe for swing, specifically for Ichimoku Cloud indicator.
Thanking you in advance.
Kind regards,
Riz
Ichimoku Kinko Hyo (IKH) was originally designed to be used on the daily timeframe so you may want to try that.
Also, start with JPY pairs, since those are what Asian traders trade using IKH.
Any plans to expand the lessons here?
I don’t think Japanese versions of technical analysis such as IKH and charting techniques such as Heikin Ashi, Renko, and Kagi get the same amount of love as “Western” methods so maybe we just might write a course. 
Works best in a trending market. Use the daily TF as the trend indicator. Then go down to two lower TFs (e.g. 4hr & 1hr) to see if they’re following the Daily trend. If so, there will be a good trade awaiting. Then back to Daily or 8hr for swing trade entry.
Alternatively, use the Monthly, Weekly, Daily-entry set up. Which is probably the most profitable if you’re willing to hold for more than one day, as do institutional pro traders…
best of luck.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your advise.
I am confused in multiple timeframes. For example, on 1H chart the signals (price, tenken, kijun, chikou) are for long and for the same pair on the 4H chart the signals are for short.
Would be grateful if you advise which timeframe will have more weightage for swing trading.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Riz
In today’s environment, market sentiment is very volatile and a minefield, which affects all pairs, and causes many unexpected retracements. IMO, swing traders should use the higher TF’s, e.g. daily chart trend - but nowadays, I wouldn’t trade a pair if the 4hr chart is not in correlation with both the Daily and/or 8 Hr.
For clarity, what is happening on your 4hr is a combination of selling trades from lower time frames, that if continued for hours would eventually affect higher time frames. Therefore it is important to obtain correlation of the 4hr to make it a good trade probability.
Also, remember the daily candle contains all the conglomoration of the lower time frame movements - e.g. six 4Hr candles. A perfect ‘three ducks in a row’ line up would be correlation throughout, which is an ideal situation. Otherwise, the probability of a winning trade is reduced.
Hope that helps. And it’s why FX trading is so damn difficult.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the detailed reply; my apologies, I got late in responding.
I was making a mistake of doing swing like intraday that is looking to close position same day due to fear.
So you mean for taking position, all parameters that are for Ichimoku entry should comply with both ID and 4H charts?
And I really do not know about ‘three ducks in a row’ thing.
Kind regards,
Riz
The three duck line up of three TF’s is ideal. TF charts will vary throughout, though,. For example if the monthly, weekly and daily charts are in accord with one another, go down to where a TF gives you an entry point.
I’ve made my best trend trades using correlated TFs of Daily, 4hr and 1 hr entry. I have not made any trades that are not in accord with the Daily chart trend. Others might, if it’s a scalping position.
Well, it ultimately comes down to what kind of a trader you are. If you are a scalper or a day trader, you can use Ichimoku with a short time frame like the one-minute time frame to six hours time frame based on your needs. But if you are a long-term trader, you can use Ichimoku or longer time frames like daily or weekly time frames.
As far as I know, most people use it on a daily time frame. You can give it a try to see if it works for you.