Good morning, traders…
When the market has this much uncertainty, fear takes over, emotions drive decisions, and even the most promising setups can fail.
But that doesn’t make this tape completely untradeable. There’s always something working. It just means we need to make four crucial adjustments:
- Trade shorter holding times.
- Trade smaller position sizes.
- Trade non-tech names (i.e., defensive stocks).
- Trade with the current market trend instead of fighting against it.
Lately, we’ve been seeing classic signs of a correction. Tech is leading the drop, money is rotating into safer sectors, and the VIX is still elevated.
We got a bit of a relief rally yesterday following cooler-than-expected inflation numbers, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
If you’re trying to be a hero, catch falling knives, and buy bloody dips in growth and momentum stocks — you’re playing a dangerous game.
Instead, we need to adapt. We need to adjust. We need to step up and meet the moment.
Fortunes can be made in bear markets if you make the necessary strategy shifts in time.
With that in mind, let me show you how to trade the market we have (not the one we want)…
The Truth About Market Corrections
Corrections are an unavoidable part of the stock market. They happen every couple of years, like clockwork…
We saw a 25% crash in 2020, a full-fledged bear market in 2022, and now, a 10% pullback in 2025.
It’s no secret that there’s a lot of uncertainty out there. But here’s what’s actually happening:
- Money is leaving speculative growth stocks (like tech)
- Money is rotating into stable, defensive sectors (like energy, consumer staples, utilities, and healthcare)
- The VIX is up, meaning the market is emotional
That last point is crucial because the “should” goes out the window in a high VIX environment, and the “feel” takes over.
We saw this with Asana Inc. (NASDAQ: ASAN) recently. The algo correctly predicted an earnings beat.
But instead of a pop, the stock dropped a whopping 30% because:
- The market is skittish.
- The company’s CEO announced his surprise retirement.
- Tech is struggling as a whole.
Even great earnings don’t always lead to great trades in an emotional market.
That’s why the highest probability trade right now isn’t the pre-earnings setup — it’s the post-earnings confirmation trade…
How to Adjust Your Trading in a High VIX Market
With uncertainty in the air, the best way to trade is to focus on setups that align with market psychology:
- Less focus on Strat Two (pre-earnings breakouts) – These have higher risk in uncertain markets.
- More focus on Strat Three (post-earnings continuation moves) – These work because they capitalize on the emotional reaction after earnings.
- Stick to strong sectors – If the market is rotating into defensive names, trade with that rotation, not against it.
This is why traders who can read emotions in the market have the best edge right now.
When the VIX is low, the algo performs extremely well because the market behaves logically.
But when the VIX is high, emotions take over. So we adjust by shifting to post-earnings plays confirmed by Smart Money.
Introducing: The Smart Money Earnings Scanner
To help you make these adjustments, we’re launching a Smart Money Scanner that tracks big institutional earnings trades in three ways:
- Pre-Earnings Positioning – Where is smart money placing bets before earnings?
- Day-of Earnings Activity – How is big money reacting on earnings day?
- Post-Earnings Continuation Confirmation – Is smart money piling in after earnings, signaling a strong continuation of the trend?
Example 1: Asana Inc. (NASDAQ: ASAN)
Before earnings, our new tool showed $800,000 worth of short-dated put orders coming in on Asana.
That’s a massive warning sign that institutions were positioning for a drop — even though our algo expected an earnings beat.
The result? Asana beat earnings but dropped anyway — just as the Smart Money predicted.
If you had seen those put contracts stacking up before earnings, you might have skipped the trade or played it differently.
Example 2: LifeMD Inc. (NASDAQ: LFMD)
On March 7, the Smart Money Scanner picked up multiple aggressive short-dated call orders for LFMD.
Earnings came out, and the stock jumped from $4.25 to over $5.10.
The $4 calls that traders picked up for $0.70 nearly doubled — all because the Smart Money signaled the move before it happened.
How the New Scanner Works
This new tool will be similar to the OMEN Scanner, but for Earnings Edge setups.
When this scanner goes live, it’ll show you:
- If a stock has heavy Smart Money activity in one direction (e.g., all puts or all calls), it can help confirm the setup.
- If a stock has mixed signals, the trade is less clear, and you might reduce risk or avoid it altogether.
- If a stock just reported earnings and smart money confirms the post-earnings move, that’s where Strat Three becomes the highest probability trade.
And speaking of Smart Money, let’s look at:
💰The Biggest Smart Money Bets of the Day💰
- $11.2 million bullish bet on GLD 04/17/2025 $275 calls @ $4.00 avg. (seen on 3/12)
- $1.5 million bullish bet on DOCU 03/21/2025 $81 calls @ $4.89 avg. (seen on 3/12)
- $1.2 million bullish bet on DAL 04/17/2025 $45 calls @ $3.25 avg. (seen on 3/12)
The new Smart Money Earnings Scanner is coming soon. Once we finalize a few tweaks, you’ll get access to this amazing new tool.
Until then, don’t fight the market.
Talk soon,
Ben
P.S. Since launching my first scanner 19 months ago, I’ve achieved an 89% win rate with a 72% average gain.*
My top 120 trades have all generated 100% or higher. 27 have soared above 200%, and 12 have exploded beyond 300%.*
And just last week, I released a massive new upgrade to my system that could change everything.
Join the great Danny Phee TODAY, March 13 at 4:00 p.m. EST for a LIVE WORKSHOP where he’ll break down everything you need to know about our new OMEN system.
Let the Smart Money do the hard part for you — Click here to reserve your seat!
*Past performance does not indicate future results
