Hikkake Pattern (CDLHIKKAKE)

Summary

A 3-bar pattern: an inside bar followed by a false breakout, optionally later confirmed by a follow-through bar. Signals a bullish or bearish reversal/continuation depending on the breakout direction. A false-breakout setup: positive = bullish, negative = bearish; magnitude 200 flags the confirming bar.

Notes

The name comes from the Japanese word for a deceptive move or "trap" — fitting, since the pattern exists to catch traders acting on a false breakout. Bulkowski's testing of the confirmed pattern found the trap itself barely beats a coin flip: the bullish variant continues as expected only 52% of the time and the bearish variant exactly 50% ("random"), both ranking in the bottom fifth (83rd-84th of 105) for post-breakout performance. (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/-100 at the hikkake (breakout) bar for bull/bear; +200/-200 at a later confirmation bar; 0 otherwise

Output Values

Value	Meaning
-200	Bearish Hikkake confirmed — price breaks down through the setup's low within 3 bars, validating the trap and the move lower
-100	Bearish Hikkake — a false upside breakout from a tight, inside-bar range traps buyers before price turns back down
0	No pattern, and no trap awaiting confirmation
100	Bullish Hikkake — a false downside breakout from a tight, inside-bar range traps sellers before price turns back up
200	Bullish Hikkake confirmed — price breaks up through the setup's high within 3 bars, validating the trap and the move higher

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: cdlhikkake.c · cdlhikkake.yaml

Native	File
C	`ta_CDLHIKKAKE.c`
Rust	`cdlhikkake.rs`
Java	`Core_CDLHIKKAKE.java`

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

Aliases

Hikkake Pattern, Hikkake