How this oil explorer can hit nine-month highs

88 Energy (LSE:88E)

The key number for 88 Energy today is 2.969p and the highest the share achieved was 2.95p.

However, the share price does appear on the brink of some positive action and we'd rather strongly suspect any trades now above the blue in the chart will head to 3.45p or so, if our super trend tool isn't lying.

As can be guessed, we don't actually spend the day drawing lines on charts, "simply" using software to extrapolate trend levels and compare these levels with the current price.

For shares where we've not bothered to import all historical data, we created a silly little piece of software where by entering either high prices or low prices it calculates where the up or down trend is at the current point in time.

Anyone who wants to download the program can get it from our website, but be warned, it's only for machines running Windows and, what's more, we're not offering support. It was written for in-house use as it makes a handy reference aid when writing articles.

To return to 88E, it's certainly on the edge of some positive movement, as above 3p should prove capable of generating 3.45p next with secondary, if bettered, at an interesting 3.85p.

The reason we're fairly interested in the 3.85p thing is it gives the share a chance to actually close above the bonk against the downtrend in August last year, an event which allows us to speculate on a longer-term 5.5p.

But for now, it's stuffed!

Or perhaps not. There's something else puzzling us and it's the break below the red line during March, an event (circled) which has now been corrected.

Generally when this sort of nonsense happens with the share miraculously recovering above the red line - as happened at the start of April - we take it as a sign the drop was fake and tend anticipate some strength ahead.

Of course, this is the UK stockmarket and it has a sense of humour, but we'd need see the price below 2.3p before thinking we'd been conned (again... there are no fixed rules!).

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.