What this page is trying to find
A strong breakout often begins long before the day price clears resistance. A stock first reaches a prior high, suffers a meaningful decline, spends months absorbing supply, and eventually returns to the right side of the base. The Breakout Structure page searches the current 300 largest Taiwan-listed stocks for that sequence.
It is not a visual-pattern oracle. The page turns a few measurable properties into a research list: adjusted closing prices, a prior high, at least a 20% drawdown, at least three months of consolidation, recovery toward the old high, and sufficient price momentum. The labels describe where price sits in that process; they do not promise that the pattern will complete.
Four time frames answer four different questions
You can scan six months, one year, two years or five years. A six-month structure reacts quickly and is useful for recent resets, but it can contain more noise. A one-year structure covers a full market cycle for many swing trades. Two- and five-year structures capture much longer supply zones, where a successful breakout may matter more but also takes longer to form.
Changing the time frame changes the question. A stock can be near a six-month high while remaining far below its five-year high. That is not a contradiction. The shorter structure may be complete inside a much larger recovery.
Adjusted closes are used so that cash dividends and other corporate actions do not create false gaps or artificial highs. Even then, unusual corporate events can distort history, so a chart review remains necessary.
The three development states
Developing: roughly 80% to 90% of the prior high. Price has recovered onto the right side but still has meaningful overhead distance. This is an early research list. It gives you time to study earnings, the sector and relative strength, but many candidates will never reach resistance.
Near breakout: roughly 90% to 98%. Price is approaching the old high. Supply is being tested, so daily price and volume behaviour becomes more important. This state is useful for setting an alert and preparing a risk plan before the market moves quickly.
Matched or broken out: at least 98%, with momentum above the page's threshold. The 2% tolerance catches names close enough to retest resistance as well as those already above it. Read the exact price: 98% is not the same as a true break above 100%. A completed label says the location and momentum conditions were met, not that the breakout will hold.
U-base and cup-and-handle are descriptions, not guarantees
A U-shaped base usually falls, rounds out and climbs back gradually. The longer repair can reduce the amount of trapped supply released all at once. A V-shaped rebound may also work, but it has had less time to establish a new cost base and can be more sensitive to a fast reversal.
A cup-and-handle adds a smaller consolidation near the old high. The handle is meant to show that modest selling can be absorbed without destroying the larger recovery. In real data, shapes are rarely textbook-perfect, which is why the page should be used to find candidates rather than to certify a drawing.
Some stocks contain more than one valid cycle inside the selected period. The scan can identify multiple structures because an older five-year base and a newer one-year base may both matter. Prefer the structure that matches your intended holding period and invalidation level.
Why drawdown, duration and momentum are all required
A prior high alone is not a base. Requiring at least a 20% decline separates a meaningful reset from ordinary weekly noise. Requiring at least three months prevents a two-week dip and rebound from being called a long consolidation. Recovery toward the high shows that price has reached the decision area.
Momentum is a final quality filter. A stock drifting back to resistance over years may technically recover its old high without showing current demand. Requiring stronger price performance helps keep the list focused, but it can also exclude slow, steady breakouts. Every threshold trades completeness for a more manageable list.
A practical workflow
Start with the homepage. If 20- and 60-session median returns, participation and long-term breadth are weak, a technically complete base may still fail with the broader market. The market label sets your exposure; it does not erase the individual setup.
Next, check RS rankings. A near-breakout candidate with improving 20- and 60-session RS is different from one that is merely being carried by an index rally. Then open sector strength: several members recovering together are stronger evidence than one isolated chart.
Check the latest half-year EPS comparison and monthly revenue growth, then inspect the full chart for price gaps, thin liquidity and event risk. Use Risk Management to view 14-day ATR and size the position from the planned stop. If price is still below resistance, a price alert is often more useful than an early order.
Three ways to use the list
Weekly preparation. Scan one- and two-year periods, save developing and near-breakout names, and review changes once a week. This avoids discovering a candidate only after a large breakout candle.
Breakout confirmation. Compare the near-breakout list with new highs and RS. A move above the old high that retains strong relative performance and sector participation is easier to define than an isolated intraday spike.
Pullback after acceptance. A stock may break resistance and later retest it. If price holds near the former high while trend and sector evidence remain intact, the stop can sometimes be defined more tightly than on the original breakout day. A retest that collapses into the old base is contrary evidence, not an automatic bargain.
Point-in-time replay and its limits
When the page offers a historical replay date, calculations must use only information available up to that date. This prevents future prices from leaking into the pattern. Point-in-time discipline makes review more honest, but it does not turn the scan into a complete backtest: membership in today's top 300 can still introduce survivorship bias, and trading costs, slippage and exact entry rules remain outside the pattern label.
The page also cannot know why a stock formed a base, whether a future announcement will invalidate it, or whether resistance visible on intraday data differs from the adjusted-close level. Use it to reduce hundreds of charts to a list you can inspect. Do not use it to skip inspection.
The simplest interpretation
The three labels can be translated into actions:
- Developing: research the company and watch whether RS and sector evidence improve.
- Near breakout: prepare the alert, invalidation level and position size.
- Matched or broken out: verify the exact close and follow-through before treating resistance as cleared.
Structure identifies location. RS measures relative speed. Sector strength checks whether the move is shared. ATR controls the financial consequence if the idea fails. Keeping those jobs separate is more useful than forcing one chart label to answer everything.
Use this software according to your own investing experience. Nothing here constitutes investment advice.