Month 9: Profitable trades 7/8 - 88% , + $428, overall + $620. March really restored my confidence that i have figured out significant strategies when i clearly identify the trend. I added a new strategy from Trade ATS on youtube which is based around three phases at any given time starting with a contracting price action, this is where you determine a fair value gap in the middle of that range, then you wait for the next step which is an expansion led by the big money outside the previous range that you play toward the long term trend such as the daily. The third phase being the trend phase where everyone makes money at and then tend to lose back in phase one once a contraction starts. So i used this combined with my standard technical trading i follow from Chris Vermeulen primarily and the betting markets positions i have discussed called net gex or gamma exchange as well. So all that is a setup to say when the overall trend proved to be down in the markets i then started shorting at the smaller time frame moves up, betting that the overall down trend would continue, i use a 30 minute time frame for the actual taking of the trade, with a daily chart determining the overall direction of am i betting up or down, led by the gamma betting market numbers to help establish is the trend likely still up or down. I have to say i feel pretty confident that while the overall market went down 10% i was able to make money, i feel like i am starting to understand the game better. So what am i trading? My only loss was betting GLD would go up, everything else since then has been a short on SPY, QQQ, or SMH. Another trick i have found that is if you try to short a stock and it will not allow you to, 9/10 times it then goes exactly that direction with force. So for example i went to short SMH earlier and it said it was hard to borrow, so this i take as the big money pre-positioning before the big drop they are all betting on. I then bought SOXS which is a triple short stock for SMH more or less, now it is leveraged so i plan on getting out of it asap but that is how i have found to get around and use the "hard to borrow" issue as an advantage. Overall what to expect? At this exact moment it still seems like a down trend to me, but i think the turn around could come fast and furious when it happens. I have no desire to pick the bottom since you can only tell it is the bottom later, my main focus now is evaluating each week where the trend is going and then setting up really strong risk/reward trades based on long term trend direction. As soon as we have a move up above the 50 day moving average i am going heavily into VTI and possibly going leveraged with TQQQ. The most obvious level is around 6000 for the S&P , if we get there the likelihood of that being the bounce area is very high and if we hit that then moved above the 50 day average that would signify the long term trend up has returned and focus will be back on going long for a sustained rally.