Every few years, new coins and narratives dominate crypto, but one thing never changes: winning charts follow winning patterns.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trading Cardano, Ethereum, memecoins, or a new L1 on page 100 of CoinMarketCap. When a chart is gearing up for a big move, it often whispers the same signals.

And some of the most profitable signals in history come from the cup and handle, the double bottom, and the flat base patterns.

These aren’t random shapes on a chart. They’re battle tested market structures taught by legends like William O’Neil and Mark Minervini that capture human psychology in motion. They show when a coin is taking a breather, reloading, and about to sprint again.

And today, I want to break them down for you in plain crypto terms so you can spot these setups before they explode.

Buy Point 1: Cup and Handle

Think of this pattern like a deep inhale before a breakout.
A coin rallies hard, hits resistance, pulls back into a rounded base (the “cup”), then forms a smaller sideways consolidation (the “handle”).

This final pause is a test. It shakes out weak hands and builds pressure for the breakout.

Here’s what to look for:

• A deep rounded correction, often 20–30% in stocks and upwards of 40–60% in crypto is normal.

• The cup should take weeks or months to form, not hours.

• After recovery near old highs, the coin drifts sideways for a week or more, creating the “handle.”

• Volume should dry up in the handle, then expand on the breakout.

Coins forming a cup and handle on daily and weekly timeframes often explode when they break out. If BTC dominance or ETH is forming this pattern, it’s a macro signal. If altcoins are forming it while BTC is stable, it’s rotation time.

Buy Point 2: The Double Bottom

This is your “W” setup—first crash, failed rally, second crash (that undercuts the first), then liftoff. The second bottom undercuts and traps shorts and recharges buyers.

Here’s what to look for:

• The two lows should be close in price (but there’s some leeway here), with the second slightly lower.

• The middle rally (the center of the “W”) should get near resistance but not break it.

• Volume often spikes on the second leg down, then goes quiet right before the breakout.

This is perfect for bear markets and bull markets. Watch for it on long timeframe altcoin charts after a brutal downtrend. The second dip often makes it look like the project is dying right before it rebounds 200%. Add alerts around the center peak of the W to catch confirmation. Your buy price is at the middle part of the W across as price rebounds from the second bottom point.

Buy Point 3: The Flat Base

This pattern says: “I'm already strong but I’m not done yet.”

A Flat Base forms after a breakout, when a coin consolidates in a tight sideways range for 5–10 weeks. Think of it as a coin digesting its gains. The range is shallow, often just 10–15% (in stocks), maybe 20–30% in crypto.

Here’s what to look for:

• Tight, horizontal price action

• Minimal deep pullbacks

• A breakout on volume that lifts price out of the zone

Flat Bases often happen mid-cycle in bull runs, and to me, aren’t as popularly found as the previous two mentioned buy points. If you missed the initial move, this is your second chance. When the base breaks upward, these coins can often go 2–3x fast.

Chart-Reading Tips for Crypto

• Use BTC as your benchmark. Instead of comparing altcoins to the S&P 500 like stock traders do, use Bitcoin as your baseline. You can set up indicators like Mansfield Relative Strength to spot coins outperforming BTC or simply look at their Bitcoin pairs.

• Timeframe matters. Daily and weekly charts give the clearest picture. Ignore the 5-minute noise. Patterns like cup and handle and double bottom take time to form.

• Volume still tells the truth. Even in crypto, volume confirms strength. Low volume during consolidation is healthy. Big volume on breakouts is what you want to see.

It’s easy to overcomplicate trading. To stack 100 indicators and get stuck in paralysis.

But the biggest winners often show these same patterns before liftoff. If you can train your eye to spot the cup and handle, double bottom, or flat base, you’ll have a massive edge over most retail traders.

These are the patterns that built fortunes in the stock market.

And now they’re showing up all over crypto.

If you combine these buy points with what we talked about in our stage analysis post (basically buying above the 30 and 40 week SMA and selling when your crypto falls below), you will be basically unstoppable in your crypto investments.

Thanks,

Dawson