Kicking

Two-bar reversal of two opposite-coloured marubozu separated by a gap. A shadowless candle is "kicked" the other way by a shadowless candle of the opposite colour that gaps clear of it — a violent change of control. It is trend-agnostic: the gap direction alone defines the signal.

Quick reference

Field	Value
Family	Candlestick Patterns
Input type	Candle
Output type	f64 — +1.0 bullish, -1.0 bearish, 0.0 otherwise
Output range	{-1.0, 0.0, +1.0}
Default parameters	none — Kicking::new()
Warmup period	2 (first bar always 0.0)
Interpretation	Violent two-bar reversal; one of the strongest signals

Formula

marubozu = |close − open| >= 0.95 · (high − low)   (no meaningful shadows)
bullish (+1.0): black marubozu, then a white marubozu gapping UP   (low2 > high1)
bearish (-1.0): white marubozu, then a black marubozu gapping DOWN (high2 < low1)

Trend-agnostic: the gap direction alone defines the signal. The signal follows the gap (second-candle direction); for the length-weighted variant see KickingByLength. See crates/wickra-core/src/indicators/kicking.rs.

Parameters

None. Constructed with Kicking::new().

Signed ±1 encoding

Emits the uniform candlestick sign convention — +1.0 bullish, −1.0 bearish, 0.0 no pattern — a single feature-matrix dimension.

Inputs / Outputs

use wickra::{Indicator, Kicking, Candle};
// Kicking: Input = Candle, Output = f64
const _: fn(&mut Kicking, Candle) -> Option<f64> = <Kicking as Indicator>::update;

• Always emits a value. Never None; warmup and no-match bars return 0.0.
• Node. update(open, high, low, close) → number; batch(open, high, low, close) → Array<number>.
• Python. update(candle) → float; batch(open, high, low, close) → 1-D numpy.ndarray (0.0 on warmup / no-match).

Warmup

warmup_period() == 2. The first bar returns 0.0 (first_bar_returns_zero, accessors_and_metadata).

Edge cases

• Both bars must be marubozu. A candle with shadows yields 0.0 (not_marubozu_yields_zero).
• Gap required. Without a clean gap between the two bars the result is 0.0 (no_gap_yields_zero).
• Reset. reset() clears the one-bar cache (reset_clears_state).

Examples

Rust

use wickra::{Candle, Indicator, Kicking};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut t = Kicking::new();
    println!("{:?}", t.update(Candle::new(12.0, 12.0, 10.0, 10.0, 1.0, 0)?)); // black marubozu
    println!("{:?}", t.update(Candle::new(14.0, 16.0, 14.0, 16.0, 1.0, 1)?)); // white marubozu, gaps up
    Ok(())
}

Output:

Some(0.0)
Some(1.0)

A black marubozu kicked up by a white marubozu whose low 14 > 12 (the prior high) — a bullish kicking. This matches bullish_kicking_is_plus_one.

Python

import numpy as np
import wickra as ta

o = np.array([12.0, 14.0])
h = np.array([12.0, 16.0])
l = np.array([10.0, 14.0])
c = np.array([10.0, 16.0])

print(ta.Kicking().batch(o, h, l, c))  # [0. 1.]

Node

const ta = require('wickra');
const t = new ta.Kicking();
t.update(12, 12, 10, 10);
console.log(t.update(14, 16, 14, 16)); // 1

Streaming

use wickra::{Candle, Indicator, Kicking};

let mut t = Kicking::new();
let candle_stream: Vec<wickra::Candle> = Vec::new(); // your live OHLCV candle feed
for bar in candle_stream {
    match t.update(bar) {
        Some(1.0)  => { /* violent bullish reversal */ }
        Some(-1.0) => { /* violent bearish reversal */ }
        _ => {}
    }
}

Interpretation

1. Regime change. Two opposite shadowless marubozu separated by a gap signal an abrupt shift in control — one of the most forceful classical reversals.
2. Trend-agnostic. The signal needs no prior trend; the gap and marubozu pair carry it. Often news/event-driven.
3. Rare on 24/7 feeds. The clean gap is uncommon in perpetual crypto; more frequent on session markets.

Common pitfalls

• Shadows. Even small shadows can disqualify the marubozu at the 95 % threshold.
• Length disagreement. When the two marubozu differ in size, KickingByLength can report the opposite sign.

References

• Steve Nison, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques (1991).

See also

• KickingByLength — signal from the longer marubozu.
• Marubozu — the shadowless candle this is built from.
• Indicators-Overview — the full taxonomy.