In 2017 almost the same pattern of growth took place. For a long there weren't big growth, only the market was showing signs of fluctuations. Later it grew gradually, and by then investors began to pour lot of fund into bitcoin. This kept the market keep on growing without any interruptions. Finally by the way close to $20000 the price drop got initiated and showed drastic fall. By this time it is predicted for a growth above $4200 which might take the price further to $6000 by the end of the second quarter 2019.
Not everything can be told by the charts, the year of 2017 was special for many reasons during almost all year the developers were fighting the miners so they could accept segwit and the battle was fierce, that is why the price did not grew that much during the first part of the year, then some miners decided to create bitcoin cash as a response to the pressure of the developers and the community and when we finally got segwit activated the price began to skyrocket very quickly, and right now I do not see that kind of interest from investors that are not part of the community so I do not expect the same scenario repeating itself.