A system and method provides for generating high compression program flow trace data by generating first program flow trace data whenever a conditional branch instruction of a program is executed by a CPU, generating second program flow trace data whenever an indirect branch instruction of a subset of indirect branch instructions is executed by the CPU, and generating third program flow trace data whenever a stack for storing instruction addresses of the program is manipulated, the manipulation occurring after a CALL instruction to a function or subroutine of the program is executed by the CPU and before a RET instruction is executed by the CPU. The subset of indirect branch instructions excludes RET indirect branch instructions of any function or subroutine for which the stack is not manipulated after a CALL instruction to the functions or subroutines is executed by the CPU and before the RET instruction is executed by the CPU.