Hays (LON:HAS) has quite an interesting line on its chart. Similar to many shares, it started 2015 with some flamboyance, breaking above its downtrend and laying the bedrock for optimism.
However, the double whammy of Greece and China has tended stifle further movements.
What interests me is the effort which has gone into keeping the share price above the blue long-term downtrend.
It suggests there’s some hope for the future. There are a few stocks that share Hays’ characteristics in that they appear to want go up, but are in some way being restrained.
In the case of Hays, I’m calculating a future potential of 190p initially with secondary, longer term, of 216p.
While neither aspiration is particularly exciting for those folk who dream of multi-baggers, to my eye they are safe and sane ‘potentials'. With this stock I tend to look at the closing price rather than the intra-day high. On that basis, if it closes above 165p then I’d suggest the next stop is the 190p talked about earlier - I’m still not sure how long it will take to achieve the higher target. Now let’s have a look at the downside scenario. I’ll be concerned if the stock closes below my blue line. This would negate any upward push and worse, kick open the trap-door toward weakness to an initial 140p. As usual, get in touch with any requests for this column. Alistair Strang is the founder of www.trendsandtargets.com