Here's the near-term trigger level for Lloyds shares

Currently a heck of a lot of shares are doing nothing, simply illustrating movements within our parameters. This forces us to pad out our evening reports with "revisit updates" to give the impression we're working hard! Thankfully, this situation rarely remains for long, with generally a few days of "nothing reports" presaging some real activity.

In the case of Lloyds, we've designated closure above 67p as starting the party.

What's a bit curious has been movement from Standard Chartered. We'd designated 767p as a stutter level for the price and the last few days has seen the price actually exceed 767p, but fail to close above.

Despite this teaser, similar to Lloyds, the share price has thus far remained solidly below the near-term trigger level.

For Lloyds, we think intraday traffic now bettering 66.59p should serve notice something positive is happening, as growth toward a near-term 68.5p should follow.

This would be quite a big deal, illustrating a "higher high" and making further moves toward 75p a pretty comfortable proposition. Visually, this would cover the circled manipulation gap below.

As the chart shows, we've painted a 'dashed' line just below 75p. This glass ceiling "in waiting" will almost certainly provoke a stutter in any rise, if only 'cos a shedload of people will bail once the share covers the manipulation evidence, with the assumption the price will retreat.

They're probably right - but the bunch of people who've bought during the highs of December 2015, March 2016 and June 2016 will also probably opt to bail at break even, adding to selling pressure and giving further ammunition to justify a stutter just below 75p.

For now, it all seems a matter of patience. Lloyds needs below 'red' - currently 61p - to provide alarm and a slowdown toward 57p initially.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.