Homing Pigeon (CDLHOMINGPIGEON)

Summary

Two-candle pattern: a long black candle followed by a small black candle whose real body sits inside the prior body. A hit signals a bullish reversal, most meaningful in a downtrend, which the code does not verify.

Formula

Two candles at i-1 and i. Both black: close[i-1] < open[i-1] and close[i] < open[i]. First body long: realbody[i-1] > BodyLong average. Second body short: realbody[i] <= BodyShort average. Second body contained by first: open[i] < open[i-1] and close[i] > close[i-1].

Notes

Does not verify the preceding downtrend that the bullish reversal classically assumes.
Despite the bullish-reversal label, Bulkowski's testing found this behaves as a bearish continuation 56% of the time — "near random" by his own description — though its overall post-breakout performance rank (21st of 103) is comparatively strong. (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 when the pattern is detected, 0 otherwise. Never emits -100 (always bullish)

Output Values

Value	Meaning
0	No pattern
100	Homing Pigeon detected — a bullish reversal signal, most meaningful after a downtrend (unverified by the function)

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: cdlhomingpigeon.c · cdlhomingpigeon.yaml

Native	File
C	`ta_CDLHOMINGPIGEON.c`
Rust	`cdlhomingpigeon.rs`
Java	`Core_CDLHOMINGPIGEON.java`

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

Aliases

Homing Pigeon