How to Make Money in This Market Environment

For those of you who like to stay active in the markets, the past few months have probably felt like banging your head against a wall. There’s been very little consistency or direction. What worked for the last three years simply hasn’t worked for the last six months.

So really, you have a few choices right now. You can step aside move into CDs, bonds, or cash and wait it out. You can hold your current positions and ride through the downturn. Or… you can adapt. This is the kind of environment that rewards shorter-term thinking. Instead of trying to catch big trends, it becomes about identifying high-probability opportunities that may only last a day or two. Even if 90% of your portfolio is in cash, that remaining portion can still be put to work strategically.

Let me walk you through a recent example I used in my own account and implemented selectively for some clients during this move. The market had been in a continued sell-off, largely driven by the Iran conflict. One of the biggest leaders over the past six months, Micron Technology (MU) started to break down sharply after a strong run.

If you look at the chart above, you’ll see two panels.

On the bottom, the Nasdaq continues to trend downward making lower highs and lower lows, showing clear ongoing pressure in the broader market. On the top, Micron tells a different story. It had already sold off hard, pushing well below its typical range (outside the Bollinger Bands), and then began to stabilize. You can see the large red down move followed by a smaller green candle circled this is often the first sign that selling pressure is exhausting.

At that point, I wasn’t looking to “buy the dip.” That’s how you get hurt in markets like this. Instead, I was watching for a setup. This strategy here is called mean reversion, when a stock moves far beyond its normal range (often measured with Bollinger Bands), there’s a tendency for it to snap back. But timing matters.

Before entering, I needed confirmation: The broader tech indices had to stop falling

Ideally, they would show signs of a bounce . That’s exactly what happened on March 31. The indices had a strong move up over 3% while Micron quietly held and closed slightly positive.

That told me the pressure was easing. At end of day, I placed a short-term options trade on Micron, expecting just a bounce not a full trend reversal. To hold just 1-2 days.

Risk: $650 (1 contract)

Profit: $2,990 (peaked near $4,000 before I exited before that)

That works out to roughly a 460% return on the risk taken, and at the peak it was over 600%.

For larger accounts I sized at 2 contracts, the percentage return was the same but the dollars double:

Risk: $1,300

Profit: $5,980

I didn’t catch the entire move and that’s okay. The goal isn’t perfection. (that's what I keep telling myself ,LOL) It’s capturing a solid return relative to the risk taken.

The Takeaway - This market isn’t about being right long-term right now. It’s about being adaptive.

You can sit in safety. You can hold through the storm. Or you can selectively engage when opportunity presents itself. Think shorter time frames. Wait for confirmation. Focus on high-probability setups not predictions. And most importantly stay nimble.

Even in uncertain markets, there is opportunity. You just have to play a different game. If you would like help with some of these strategies, feel free to book a coaching session.