Cup With Handle Pattern Indicator

The result of the pattern remains the same where it is a minor breakout higher, but then prices trade sideways on declining volume to form the handle. The pattern is confirmed when the market breaks above the highest price of the handle. An ‘inverted cup and handle’ is a chart pattern that indicates bearish continuation, triggering a sell signal. A V-bottom, where the price drops and then sharply rallies may also form a cup.

This pattern is likely to appear when the market is in an indecisive phase as a rally pauses and consolidates. Buyers are taking a wait and see approach, but there is not enough selling volume to push the price to a deeper correction. The cup and handle pattern Credit default swap should not make a large correction in the trend. The lowest point in the cup should not fall below the lowest point of the last reversal in the trend . The easiest way to recognize a cup and handle is to look for the distinctive wide rounded bottom.

If you’re day trading and the target is not reached by the end of the day, close the position before the market closes for the day. A trailing stop-loss may also be used to get out of a position that moves close to the target but then starts to drop again. Sometimes the left side of the cup is a different height than the right.

What Does The Cup And Handle Pattern Tell Traders?

The Cup and Handle pattern can take between 30 to 50 candles to form on any given time resolution. The security finally broke out in July 2014, with the uptrend matching the length of the cup in a perfect measured move. The rally peak established a new high that yielded a pullback retracing 50% of the prior rally, nearly identical to the prior pattern. This time, the cup prints a V-shape rather than a rounded bottom, with price stalling under the prior high. It ground sideways in a broadening formation that looks nothing like the classic handle for another three weeks and broke out. This rally failed to reach the measured move target at 50, calculated by adding the four-point depth of the cup to the resistance line near $46.

When it does this, we expect that there will be an indecision between the bulls and the bears, which will push the price lower before an eventual rally. Another breakout succeeds, and the stock’s new high will be set at approximately the former high plus the depth of the cup relative to that point. Upside breakout from the handle portion of the pattern should occur on strong volume. This increase in volume verifies that selling pressures have been satiated.

Cup And Handle Patterns Simplified

Cup rims The two cup rims should reach the bottom at close to the same price. The cup’s recoil handle should not rise above the top of the cup, but often tracks 30% to 60% above… Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst of securities, futures, forex, and penny stocks for 20+ years.

• Stop loss orders may be placed either below the handle or below the cup depending on the trader’s risk tolerance and market volatility.
• If the breakout passes off, the pending buy order will fill otherwise it will expire unfilled.
• Buy when the price breaks above the top of the channel or triangle.
• The change in the move is so gradual that the price action creates a rounded bottom on the chart.
• The cup forms after an advance and looks like a bowl or an object with a round bottom.

On a 5-minute time frame, the handle is made up of at least 4 candlesticks but no more than 10. The reason I like to time box the handle, is because I want to avoid the scenario of being trapped in a sideways conundrum. The stop loss order of the trade needs to be placed above the handle. Its location is shown with the red horizontal line on the chart. The reason for this is that the pattern cannot be drawn with a straight line. Due to the rounded bottom of the pattern, you should use a curved drawing tool.

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Enter a pending buy order to activate at a price just above the main resistance line. Set the order to expire if the price does not reach the entry level within a time limit. The time limit will depend on the chart’s period, but it should be no longer than about half the time taken to form the handle. While the entire pattern should exist in an uptrend, cup and handles can arise after a flat period, or even a brief correction. A standard cup and handle structure should develop in a rising market.

It also tells you where to expect the initial resistance level. This resistance happens at the level where the price reached and started falling. The cup-and-handle pattern is a stock trading pattern in which a share will lose value, only to regain it, briefly stabilize or even slightly decline before resuming growth. It can be used to spot shares potentially poised for growth if correctly identified and also caught in time. The cup-and-handle pattern can be a useful part of anoverall trading strategy, but it should be just one part – albeit a relatively risky part – of a trading strategy. The price projection for the cup and handle pattern can be calculated by measuring the depth of the cup, i.e., from the peaks at the top of the cup to the bottom of hte cup.

The Cup And Handle Pattern

The confirmation of the formation is illustrated with the small green circle when the price action breaks the handle downwards. This would be an advantageous time to sell the USD/CAD Forex pair. As with most chart patterns, it is more important to capture the essence of the pattern than Promissory Note the particulars. The cup is a bowl-shaped consolidation and the handle is a short pullback followed by a breakout with expanding volume. A cup retracement of 62% may not fit the pattern requirements, but a particular stock’s pattern may still capture the essence of the Cup with Handle.

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The 60-minute cup and handle pattern offers an excellent timing tool when looking to buy a larger-scale trend that doesn’t show a low-risk entry price on the daily or weekly chart. Akamai Technologies, Inc. consolidated below $62 after pulling back to major support at the 200-day exponential moving average . It returned to resistance in early February of 2015 and dropped into a small rectangle pattern with support near $60.50. This rectangular handle held well above the 38.6% retracement level, keeping bulls in charge, ahead of a breakout that exceeded the measured move target and printed a 14-year high. As a general rule, cup and handle patterns are bullish price formations.

The handle part is a smaller, usually about one third to one quarter of the size of the cup. The handle should not dip below about fifty percent of the depth of the cup. The rounded top are reversal patterns used to signal the end of a trend. It is not mandatory to test a previous resistance to come close to the old high; but the further the top of the handle is away from the highs, the more significant the breakout should be.

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Over a series of articles in the early 1990’s, O’Neill defined technical requirements for the designation of the pattern formation. While traders since have amended O’Neill’s standards for the identification of a cup and handle pattern, the vast majority of traders using this pattern adhere to the original specifications. As the cup is completed, price trades sideways, and a trading range is established on the right-hand side and the handle is formed. The entry point for a cup and handle pattern is to buy when the price moves above the handle formation. This is made simpler by using a drawing tool and waiting for the price to move up and out of the drawn handle pattern. A stop-loss can be placed below the low price point in the handle.

Because of this, the pattern is often used to spot opportunities for going long in the market. As the price on the right side approaches the left cup level, the last holders will finally decide to cut their losses and there will cup and handle chart pattern be a large volume sell-off. This often is preceded by a day on which the price spikes on high volume which the sellers have interpreted as an overbought condition and therefore a last opportunity to recoup their losses.

The pricing of the handle remained within the upper portion of the cup, so all of the necessary ingredients were present for a bullish breakout. One of the characteristics of the cup and handle pattern is that the handle must form within 10% of the old high. There are times when the market is extremely bullish and the handle pushes slightly above the old high but remains within 10% of it. You should not treat any opinion expressed in this material as a specific inducement to make any investment or follow any strategy, but only as an expression of opinion. This material does not consider your investment objectives, financial situation or needs and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the above information.

A major limitation to the cup and handle pattern is evidenced when applying it to small cryptocurrencies that do not have a large following. The cup and handle pattern works best with cryptocurrencies that are growing their following. The more buying and selling interest that exists, the better the gauge of the pull between buyers and sellers. If both Bitcoin and Ethereum are in an uptrend, then the chance of a bullish breakout is higher. If both Bitcoin and Ethereum are in a downtrend, then a bullish breakout has a smaller chance of occurring. As the handle began to develop, its slight downward slope, coupled with decreasing trading volume, was a big clue that this may be a minor consolidation.

However, just as with any other chart pattern, do not make a trading decision that is solely based on this pattern. Combine your use of the Cup and Handle Pattern with trading signals from other complementary tools in technical analysis for making your trade decisions even more reliable. Preceding the pattern is a period of strong trend, which could be either bullish or bearish. Post that, once the pattern begins to form, in the case of an uptrend, the price of the security starts to fall; whereas, in the case of a downtrend, the price fall begins to lose its momentum. This movement in price takes a downward sloping shape, and thus completes the first phase of pattern development. There are several technical conditions that must be met before our algorithm will recognize a valid pivot.

Author: Ian Sherr