A computer implemented method, a processor chip, a computer program product, and a data processing system managing a link stack. The data processing system utilizes speculative pushes onto and pops from the link stack. The link stack comprises a set of entries, and each entry comprises a set of state bits. A speculative push of a first instruction is received onto the data stack, and the first instruction is stored into a first entry of the set of entries. A first bit is set to indicate that the first instruction is a valid instruction. A second bit is set to indicate that the first instruction has been speculatively pushed onto the link stack. The link stack pointer control is updated to indicate that the first entry is a top-of-data stack entry.