High-Wave Candle (CDLHIGHWAVE)

Summary

Single-candle pattern: a short real body with both a very long upper and a very long lower shadow. Signals market indecision; the output sign reports only candle color, not a bullish/bearish direction. A hit marks indecision (long-legged candle); not directional - sign encodes only the candle's color.

Chart

Reference data (CSV) · Chart (SVG)

Chart metadata i

Outputs

outInteger: pattern_color · zero · positive · negative

Formula

One candle at index i. Hit when all hold: (1) short real body: real body < the BodyShort average; (2) very long upper shadow: upper shadow > the ShadowVeryLong average; (3) very long lower shadow: lower shadow > the ShadowVeryLong average. No color, gap, or trend condition.

Notes

Bulkowski's testing found the High-Wave candle acts as a reversal only 51% of the time — statistically indistinguishable from random — which he notes actually agrees with the pattern's theoretical meaning of pure indecision. (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 — On a hit, +100 when the candle is white (close >= open) or -100 when black (close < open); 0 otherwise. Sign denotes color, NOT bull/bear

Output Values

What candlestick values mean: Candlestick Outputs. The function's flags declare which values it can return: rW7.

Value	Meaning
-100	High-Wave candle, black (close < open): sharp indecision after a volatile session; the sign marks the candle's color only, not a bullish/bearish call
0	No pattern
100	High-Wave candle, white (close >= open): sharp indecision after a volatile session; the sign marks the candle's color only, not a bullish/bearish call

Properties

Numerical Stability: Start-Independent


☐ Overlap Input
✅ Independent Y-Axis i
✅ Candlestick i
☐ Display Shift


☐ Can Output NaN or ±Inf
☐ Identity at Period 1
☐ Uses Transcendental
☐ Input Must Be Positive

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ta_libc.h>

int n = 252;
double open[252]; /* your data, oldest first */
double high[252]; /* your data, oldest first */
double low[252]; /* your data, oldest first */
double close[252]; /* your data, oldest first */
int out[252];
int outBegIdx, outNBElement;

TA_Initialize();
TA_CDLHIGHWAVE( 0, n - 1, open, high, low, close, &outBegIdx, &outNBElement, out );
printf( "%d values from bar %d; last out = %d\n", outNBElement, outBegIdx, out[outNBElement - 1] );

Rust

use ta_lib::Core;

let open = vec![0.0; 252]; // your data, oldest first
let high = vec![0.0; 252]; // your data, oldest first
let low = vec![0.0; 252]; // your data, oldest first
let close = vec![0.0; 252]; // your data, oldest first
let mut out = vec![0i32; 252];

let core = Core::new();
let range = core.cdlhighwave(0, open.len() - 1, &open, &high, &low, &close, &mut out)?;
println!("{} values from bar {}; last out = {}", range.count, range.beg_idx, out[range.count - 1]);

Java

import io.github.talib.Core;
import io.github.talib.OutRange;

double[] open = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
double[] high = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
double[] low = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
double[] close = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
int[] out = new int[252];

Core core = Core.DEFAULT;
OutRange r = core.cdlhighwave(0, open.length - 1, open, high, low, close, out);
System.out.println(r.count() + " values from bar " + r.begIdx() + "; last out = " + out[r.count() - 1]);

using System;
using TALib;

var open = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
var high = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
var low = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
var close = new double[252]; // your data, oldest first
var outInteger = new int[252];

var core = Core.Default;
OutRange r = core.Cdlhighwave(0, open.Length - 1, open, high, low, close, outInteger);
Console.WriteLine($"{r.Count} values from bar {r.BegIdx}; last outInteger = {outInteger[r.Count - 1]}");

TypeScript

import { cdlhighwave } from 'ta-lib';

const open = new Float64Array(252); // your data, oldest first
const high = new Float64Array(252); // your data, oldest first
const low = new Float64Array(252); // your data, oldest first
const close = new Float64Array(252); // your data, oldest first

const { begIdx, values } = cdlhighwave({ open, high, low, close });
console.log(values.length + ' values from bar ' + begIdx + '; last values = ' + values[values.length - 1]);

Implementation

Added in 0.4.0.

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

Native	File
C	`ta_CDLHIGHWAVE.c`
Rust	`cdlhighwave.rs`
Java	`Core_CDLHIGHWAVE.java`
C#	`Core_CDLHIGHWAVE.cs`
TypeScript	`cdlhighwave.ts`

Python: talib.CDLHIGHWAVE, see ta-lib-python.

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

Aliases

High-Wave Candle, High Wave