A computer-implemented method performs an operation on a set of at least one BFP operands to generate a BFP result. The method is designed to reduce the risks of overflow and loss of accuracy attributable to the operation. The method performs an analysis to determine respective shift values for each of the operands and the result. The method calculates result mantissas by shifting the stored bit patterns representing the corresponding operand mantissa values by their respective associated shift values determined in the analysis step, performing the operation on shifted operand mantissas to generate preliminary result mantissa, and shifting the preliminary result mantissas by a number of bits determined in the analysis step.