Engulfing Pattern (CDLENGULFING)

Summary

A two-candle reversal pattern where the second candle's real body engulfs the first candle's opposite-colored real body. Bullish (white engulfs black) or bearish (black engulfs white) reversal signal; ideally after a downtrend (bullish) or uptrend (bearish), which the code does not verify.

Notes

Does not verify the prior trend (down for bullish, up for bearish) the reversal classically assumes.
Bulkowski's testing found bearish Engulfing has a strong 79% reversal rate (5th-best of 103 patterns by that measure alone) but a weak overall post-breakout performance rank of 91st of 103 — the reversal fires reliably but rarely sustains. Bullish Engulfing reverses 63% of the time with a similarly weak overall rank of 84th of 103. (thepatternsite.com)

Inputs

inOpen — Open price of each bar
inHigh — High price of each bar
inLow — Low price of each bar
inClose — Close price of each bar

Outputs

outInteger — +100/+80 (bullish, white engulfs black), -100/-80 (bearish, black engulfs white), 0 otherwise. Magnitude 100 when the second body strictly engulfs both ends; 80 when the bodies share an exact endpoint (open[i]==close[i-1] or close[i]==open[i-1])

Output Values

Value	Meaning
-100	Bearish engulfing: the black body fully swallows the prior white body — a strong reversal signal
-80	Bearish engulfing, weaker variant: one edge of the two bodies lines up exactly rather than fully overhanging it
0	No pattern
80	Bullish engulfing, weaker variant: one edge of the two bodies lines up exactly rather than fully overhanging it
100	Bullish engulfing: the white body fully swallows the prior black body — a strong reversal signal

Properties

Numerical Stability: Start-Independent


☐ Overlap Input
✅ Independent Y-Axis i
✅ Candlestick i
☐ Can Output NaN or ±Inf
☐ Identity at Period 1

Implementation

TA-Lib Definition: cdlengulfing.c · cdlengulfing.yaml

Native	File
C	`ta_CDLENGULFING.c`
Rust	`cdlengulfing.rs`
Java	`Core_CDLENGULFING.java`

TA-Lib is also available for Python, R and more using a wrapper.

Aliases

Engulfing Pattern, Engulfing, Bullish/Bearish Engulfing