KickingByLength

The Kicking pattern with the signal taken from the longer of the two marubozu rather than from the gap direction. When the two shadowless candles differ in size, the bigger one is treated as the dominant force.

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 — KickingByLength::new()
Warmup period	2 (first bar always 0.0)
Interpretation	Kicking reversal, signed by the dominant (longer) marubozu

Formula

marubozu = |close − open| >= 0.95 · (high − low)
setup: two opposite-coloured marubozu separated by a gap
  black then white gapping UP, or white then black gapping DOWN
signal = colour of the LONGER marubozu  (white -> +1.0, black -> -1.0)

This can disagree with Kicking: a black marubozu kicked up by a shorter white marubozu reports −1.0 here (the longer black dominates), whereas plain Kicking reports +1.0 from the gap. See crates/wickra-core/src/indicators/kicking_by_length.rs.

Parameters

None. Constructed with KickingByLength::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, KickingByLength, Candle};
// KickingByLength: Input = Candle, Output = f64
const _: fn(&mut KickingByLength, Candle) -> Option<f64> = <KickingByLength 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 the result is 0.0 (no_gap_yields_zero).
• Longer-candle sign. Pinned by longer_white_is_plus_one and longer_black_is_minus_one.
• Reset. reset() clears the one-bar cache (reset_clears_state).

Examples

Rust

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

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut t = KickingByLength::new();
    println!("{:?}", t.update(Candle::new(12.0, 12.0, 10.0, 10.0, 1.0, 0)?)); // black marubozu, len 2
    println!("{:?}", t.update(Candle::new(14.0, 20.0, 14.0, 20.0, 1.0, 1)?)); // white marubozu, len 6
    Ok(())
}

Output:

Some(0.0)
Some(1.0)

The white marubozu (length 6) is longer than the black (length 2), so the signal is bullish +1.0. This matches longer_white_is_plus_one.

Python

import numpy as np
import wickra as ta

o = np.array([12.0, 14.0])
h = np.array([12.0, 20.0])
l = np.array([10.0, 14.0])
c = np.array([10.0, 20.0])

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

Node

const ta = require('wickra');
const t = new ta.KickingByLength();
t.update(12, 12, 10, 10);
console.log(t.update(14, 20, 14, 20)); // 1

Streaming

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

let mut t = KickingByLength::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)  => { /* longer marubozu is white — bullish */ }
        Some(-1.0) => { /* longer marubozu is black — bearish */ }
        _ => {}
    }
}

Interpretation

1. Dominant force wins. When one kicking marubozu dwarfs the other, the bigger candle is the stronger statement of intent — this variant signs the pattern by length rather than by the gap.
2. Disagreement is information. When Kicking and KickingByLength disagree, the pattern is ambiguous (a small candle gapping past a large opposite one) — treat it with caution.
3. Same rarity caveats. Like plain kicking, clean gaps are rare on 24/7 feeds.

Common pitfalls

• Assuming it equals Kicking. They agree only when the gap-direction candle is also the longer one.
• Shadows. The 95 % marubozu threshold still applies to both candles.

References

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

See also

• Kicking — signal from the gap direction.
• Marubozu — the shadowless candle this is built from.
• Indicators-Overview — the full taxonomy.