Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator: Cloud Edges as Levels

Written by Dominic Walsh · Published 10 Jun 2026 · Last updated 9 Sep 2026

Ichimoku draws five lines and most traders read three of them as levels. The ichimoku support resistance ad indicator strips the display back to exactly that. It takes Senkou Span A and B, sorts them into a top and a bottom so the cloud edges stay in a fixed order, and adds the Kijun-sen. Three lines, and an alert when price closes through one.

This build ships as a compiled .ex4 for MT4 and .ex5 for MT5; the screenshots below come from EURUSD H1.

Platforms	MT4 (.ex4) + MT5 (.ex5)
Chart window	Main price chart
Plots	3: Senkou A SR, Senkou B SR, Kijun SR
Alerts	popup
Inputs	5

What the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator draws on the chart

Senkou A SR is the dodger blue line, always holding the HIGHER of the two span values.

Senkou B SR is the tomato line, always holding the lower one.

Kijun SR is the gold line, the Kijun-sen at its standard setting.

The cloud is not shaded here. You get the two boundaries as plain lines, plus the Kijun.

• Senkou A SR: line, dodger blue, width 2
• Senkou B SR: line, tomato, width 2
• Kijun SR: line, gold, width 2

How the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator calculates its values

Reading the standard Ichimoku values

Three iIchimoku calls supply everything: sA from MODE_SENKOUSPANA, sB from MODE_SENKOUSPANB and kj from MODE_KIJUNSEN. All three use `InpTenkan`, `InpKijun` and `InpSenkouB`, which default to the classic 9, 26 and 52. The values match any other Ichimoku on your chart at the same settings.

Sorting the cloud into a top and a bottom

This is the part that differs from a normal Ichimoku. Span A and Span B swap places whenever the cloud flips, so a line labelled A is sometimes support and sometimes resistance. The code removes that ambiguity: sr_top takes MathMax(sA, sB) and sr_bot takes MathMin. The blue line is therefore always the ceiling and the tomato line always the floor, whichever span happens to be which.

Detecting a close through a level

For each line the code compares two closes, c0 at bar ci and c1 at ci+1. crossed_up holds when c1 sat below the level L and c0 finished above it, with crossed_down the mirror. Using two consecutive closes rather than a touch means a wick through the cloud raises nothing.

How to read the signals

Blue above tomato is the normal picture: the cloud has a top and a bottom, and they never swap labels.

Price between the two lines is inside the cloud, which most Ichimoku traders treat as no-mans-land.

Kijun in gold often acts as the nearer level, since it tracks price more closely than either span.

The warmup is long by construction, so the leftmost part of any chart carries no lines.

Alert channels in this build: popup, one message per closed bar.

One channel exists, a terminal popup, governed by `InpAlerts` at its `true` default. It fires when a close moves through any of the three lines, so a single bar can qualify against more than one level. The guard keeps output to one message per closed bar.

Every Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator input

Core settings

Setting	What it does	Default
InpTenkan	Tenkan-sen period. Tenkan-sen period, default `9`. It feeds Senkou A even though the Tenkan itself is not drawn.	9
InpKijun	Kijun-sen period. Kijun-sen period, default `26`, which sets both the gold line and part of Senkou A.	26
InpSenkouB	Senkou Span B period. Senkou Span B period, default `52`, the slowest input and the one that sets the warmup length.	52

Display settings

Setting	What it does	Default
InpArrowOffsetPts	Arrow vertical offset (points). Left over from an earlier build, default `10`. Its comment in the source mentions a vertical offset, but this version plots three lines and no markers, so the value positions nothing. Leave it alone.	10

Alert settings

Setting	What it does	Default
InpAlerts	Alert on price crossing any SR line.	on

Settings that fit your chart

Goichi Hosoda built Ichimoku around daily candles, and it still reads best on higher timeframes. EURUSD H1 is the reference chart, where the 52-period span covers about two days. On M5 the cloud edges move too quickly to hold as levels. On H4 and daily the lines settle and each cross carries more weight, which matches the system’s original intent.

When the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator fails

Standard Ichimoku projects the Senkou spans forward. This build reads them at the current bar, so the levels describe the present rather than the projection some traders expect.

A long warmup means the tool needs plenty of history. On a freshly opened chart with few bars, the lines simply will not appear.

Sorting the spans into top and bottom hides which one is which, so you lose the cloud-flip signal that some Ichimoku traders watch for.

Copy the compiled Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator file into your MQL4/Indicators folder, and the MT5 build into MQL5/Indicators, then restart the terminal and drag it onto a chart. The step-by-step guide with screenshots is at how to install MT4 and MT5 indicators.

Related on forexmt4systems.com: Ichimoku Trend Strategy.

Background reading on the method behind the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator: iad (AD) at the MQL5 Documentation, Stockcharts Ad Percent at StockCharts ChartSchool.

Download the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator for MT4 and MT5

The zip holds the compiled Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator build for MT4 and MT5, plus a short README. Compiled files only, no source. Enter your email below and the download link arrives in your inbox.

FAQ

Why sort Senkou A and B into a top and a bottom?

Because they swap. In standard Ichimoku, Span A sits above Span B in an uptrend and below it in a downtrend, so a line labelled A changes role as the cloud flips. Taking MathMax and MathMin gives you a line that is always the ceiling and one that is always the floor, which is what you want when reading them as support and resistance.

Does this draw the full Ichimoku system?

No. It plots three lines: the two cloud boundaries and the Kijun-sen. It leaves out Tenkan-sen and Chikou Span, and it does not shade the cloud. `InpTenkan` still matters, because Senkou A averages the Tenkan and Kijun, so changing it moves the blue line.

What does InpSenkouB at 52 control?

The slowest Ichimoku input, and with it the warmup. The code computes warmup as the largest of the three periods plus `InpKijun`, so a 52 setting means the tool needs roughly 78 bars before it can draw anything. Shortening it makes the lines appear sooner and react faster, at the cost of the standard settings.

Why does a wick through the cloud raise no alert?

The cross test compares two closes, c1 at the previous bar and c0 at the current one. Both must sit on opposite sides of the level. A wick that pierces the line and pulls back before the close never satisfies that, which keeps the alerts tied to settled moves.

Are results guaranteed?

No. Trading involves risk. Results are not guaranteed; past performance is not indicative of future results. Use the Ichimoku Support Resistance AD Indicator as one input. Always backtest before trading live.