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[Edmonds]

Do you folks who trade equities find it's advantageous to also look at sectors and the major indexes in terms of Ichimoku when deciding to take a position on a stock or is the system more of a stand-alone method that requires no other input?

[ReboundMan]

I trade stocks and ETFs from the "hot sectors". I use the Ichimoku system to verify that the "reported" hot sectors are in fact above the "cloud" (I obtain the hot sectors from StockCharts' "market carpet" for ETFs.). The ETFs and stocks are traded using the Ichimoku system. New individual stock positions are chosen from stocks in the hot sectors. As you know, it's easier to make money when you trade with the market!
I have added one oscillator - the Chaikin Money Flow - at the top of the chart to help me determine the buying and selling pressure on a stock or ETF (StockCharts has a nice explanation of the CMF). It does not interfere in any way with the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo system.

Shorting is just reversing the process. I have not personally shorted ETFs as we've been in an up market since March '09. But don't worry, that type of trade will be valuable in the future.

[Edmonds]

ReboundMan, thanks for your detailed answer and the tip about Chaiken's Money Flow.

[sunman4008]

Hello,

There are many ways you can trade the stock market.    One way is to track using your technical analysis the various sectors that make up a market like DJX or SPX.    Using that along with the technical analysis of the index, you can determine which instrument to trade.    This is a good institutional trading method.

-Manesh