Do you have a good definition (mathematic or otherwise) of what a cup is?

John:

John, the best approximation I can find is this:

a = 10% // fluctuating toleration
ß = 33% //cup depth criteria ? = 10% //RH,LH d = 15% //handle depth
obsPoint = t, high = t // t > 26, suggest 52 weeks or longer
//start from time t, trace back to find Righ High Point While (a[t-1] >= a[t] || a[t-1] < a[t]&a[t-1]>=(1- a )*high
{ If(a[t-1]>=a[t], then high=t-1; t--; }
Right_High_Point = t; //found Right High
If( |a[Right_High]-a[obsPoint] | > ? * a[Right_High])
Return false; //rule 3
//start from Right High, trace back to find Dip Point low = t
While (a[t-1] <= a[t] || a[t-1] > a[t]&a[t-1]<=(1+ a )*low
{ If(a[t-1]<=a[t], then low=t-1; t--; }
Dip_Point = t; //found Dip Point

If(Right_High-Dip_point < 2 || Right_High-Dip_point > 8
Return false;
//shakeout handle is too long or too short (rule 5) If(a[Right_High]-a[Dip_point]> ß * a[Right_High])
Return false; //because too dip (rule 2)
//start from Dip, trace back to find Left High Point While (a[t-1] >= a[t] || a[t-1] < a[t]&a[t-1]>=(1- a )*high
{ If(a[t-1]>=a[t], then high=t-1; t--; }
Left_High = t; //found Left High
If(Right_High-Left_High <12&&Right_High-Left_High >26)
Return false; //because cup is too narrow or too wide (rule 4)
If(|a[Right_High]-a[Left_High]|> d*a[Right_High])
Return false; //rule 1

@Larry, you can use three back-ticks to tell the editor to treat a block of text as code. Also it is possible to edit posts after submitting. Cheers.

I guess you're talking about the Cup & Handle chart pattern?

http://www.investopedia.com/university/charts/charts3.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_and_handle

Someone implemented it in AmiBroker language: http://www.amibroker.com/library/detail.php?id=306

Of course I cannot vouch for the efficacy of that program. It would be interesting if you could get it working!

It seems to me like cup and handle patterns are pretty rare, so it might require extra effort to get enough action. I attempted a port of that AmiBroker algorithm. It doesn't yet compute alpha and beta as is talked about in http://www.haikulabs.com/mh.htm, though, since I couldn't find any cup and handle patterns even without those extra bounds.

Because I couldn't find any matches for cup and handle patterns (even after searching for a while), I can't say for certain that this works. Can anyone find a stock that it matches? If so, this could be more easily analyzed and could be useful.