Further Explanation of C & H Pattern

3 people commented (on another site) yesterday about the Cup & Handle pattern being a basing pattern and that the current situation did not meet that criteria because it was occurring too near the ATH's. My response at that time  was not as thoughtful as it needed to be. An important deeper explanation is that the charts I posted were Stockcharts.com Gallery views which feature a daily chart at the top and a weekly chart beneath it.There is actually a C & H pattern from the daily chart which is embedded, or nested if you will, within the C & H pattern on the weekly chart.
On the weekly chart we can see that the bottom of the cup goes down to the 1810 area and was indeed the result of a steep decline. The upper edge, or lip of the cup, on both sides is not far below the ATH's.  I think most people were looking at the daily chart,on which the whole C & H pattern does take place within about 100 points of the closing ATH. But, in fact the whole C & H pattern on the daily chart forms the developing handle on the weekly chart. On the Gallery view, the weekly C & H looks V-shaped, which is not ideal since the ideal shape has a more rounded bottom forming a U, not a V. I originally called it an inverted  H & S pattern which was mutating into a C & H pattern with an inverted pyramid shaped cup. Below is a Gallery view of the $SPY. Note how the C & H on the daily forms the handle of the C & H on the weekly.