Microsoft has started off strong again this week, surging more than 2.6 percent in late-day trading on Monday. Without any major news, Microsoft shareholders now find themselves up 7.9 percent in the past five trading days and 15.4 percent since the Black Monday crash on August 24.

While a Bank of America upgrade from Underperform to Neutral might partially explain why Microsoft recently found a bottom, Benzinga turned to the charts to see if there is a technical explanation for the aggressive bounce in share price.

Trading Channels

Since the beginning of 2013, Microsoft’s share price has climbed about 69 percent. From late 2012 to early 2015, the stock was trading inside a tight ascending channel, identified by the green lines in the chart below.

However, since breaking out of that channel in early 2015, Microsoft has been range-bound within a horizontal channel, indicated by the blue lines in the chart. The ceiling of this range is around $49, and the floor of this channel is in the $40 range.

Technical Bounce

The boundaries of this channel have both been tested…

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