Let me tell you something I learned the hard way…
When the market’s on the move — really moving — you don’t want to be standing in front of it hoping it’ll stop.
You want to ride it.
Most traders try to outsmart the market. Call the top. Call the bottom. Fight the trend.
They’ll say, “Oh, it’s gone too far — it’s gotta turn around soon.”
That’s just asking to get steamrolled.
But let me tell you something from nearly 40 years of trading. I’ve seen crashes, melt-ups, Fed tantrums, you name it.
And what I’ve learned is this:
👉 You don’t fight the trend. You trade with it.
When the market’s bullish — like we’ve seen lately with the SPY and QQQ ripping higher — I’m not about to jump in front of that steamroller and attempt to short it.
I look for bullish setups. Naked puts. Bull put spreads. Covered calls.
And when the market finally flips bearish? Sure, I’ll flip too.
I’m not married to a bias. I’m married to what’s working.
How To Check The Market’s Direction
I check SPY, QQQ, DIA — I want to know the tone of the market.
I set up a 20 day, 50 day and 200 day EMA on my chart.
Them I make sure of 3 things:
- all three trend lines are rising gently.
- short term (green) trendline on the bottom, mid term (blue) trendline in the middle, long term (red) trendline on the bottom
- the price is bouncing nicely off the short term trend line
I do the same thing on all 3 indexes: SPY, DIA and QQQ
Once I’ve got that figured out?
I use it to stack the deck in my favor:
If the market is bullish, I trade stocks that are more bullish.
If the market is bearish, I trade stocks that are more bearish.
Because look — I’m not interested in being a hero.
I don’t need to “call a top.” I just need to stay on the side of momentum and let the probabilities do their thing.
That’s how I’ve survived the big moves without blowing up.
In the next part of this series, I’ll show you another part of the strategy that lets me ride big market moves — in any direction — without blowing up my account.
Stay tuned — that one’s gonna open your eyes.
Trade Well,
Jack Carter
Jack Carter Trading
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