I get it if Monday's market confused you; along with the market from last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday too.
This is a very difficult market to trade and it has been that way for over two years now. The bulls can't sustain momentum and the bears can't come through at key inflection points on the charts -- instead, they relinquish control to the bulls every time.
So here we are again, the NASDAQ makes new all-time highs, the S&P 500 gets close to it and suddenly "Bam", the market immediately sells off -- again.
Be Ready For Anything
The key is to continue thinking 1-2 steps ahead of the market. Expect the whipsaw nature of the market to persist and to be ready to adjust your portfolio accordingly each time. It doesn't hurt when the market is rallying to have some exposure to the short side, and vice versa when it's selling off. That's called 'hedging your bets' as the market will usually comeback, making that trade profitable.
Indeed, until the market trades with conviction, that's one of the best courses of action you can take right now.
Consider, for example, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). Sure the stock has pulled back over the last two days, but it has found key support at the $64 area and spent Monday afternoon avoiding a bigger selloff. Plus, take its longer-term trend and you'll see that the market has held very steady over the last 6-plus months without deviation from its uptrend.
So get going on the list of stocks below and start planning ahead.