{"id":23558,"date":"2025-03-25T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/?p=23558"},"modified":"2025-08-22T07:36:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:36:31","slug":"my-favorite-way-to-trade-this-frenzied-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/my-favorite-way-to-trade-this-frenzied-market\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Way to Trade This Frenzied Market"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Managing Editor\u2019s Note: <\/strong>During the recent sell-off, while \u201cbuy and hope\u201d investors have been taking lumps, Jonathan Rose has been guiding folks in his his live trading room<\/a> to double-digit gains. (As you\u2019ll see, one of them made nearly $400,000 over the past two months.)<\/p>\n

Few traders have a grip on what really drives the market like Jonathan does. Fewer still have the smarts and creativity to make money no matter where it\u2019s moving.<\/p>\n

Below, Jonathan shares his story. Plus, he shows how, when volatility kicks up, you want to stop speculating on stocks\u2019 direction and trade volatility itself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s how he recently closed out gains of 61%… 74%… and 78% in a matter of days while stocks were tanking.<\/p>\n

Read on and learn why this strategy works so well for a frenzied market\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

My Favorite Way to Trade This Frenzied Market<\/h2>\n

BY JONATHAN ROSE, FOUNDER, MASTERS IN TRADING<\/strong><\/p>\n

My headache was so bad, I ended up in the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where a doctor plunged a needle into my spine\u2026<\/p>\n

I was 33 years old. And I was a director of trading at a leading \u201cprop\u201d trading firm in Chicago. That just means we traded with our own money,\u00a0instead of managing money for clients.<\/p>\n

My job was to manage the risk for the entire firm\u2026 with dozens of traders under my supervision.<\/p>\n

This was 2008. We were facing a catastrophic loss on one of our trades that could cripple our firm.<\/p>\n

I was in good health. And I had plenty of experience handling risk. But I had a queasy feeling about this trade. And I was developing a blinding headache.<\/p>\n

So, I went to my doctor. And she sent me to the hospital to get a spinal tap. It\u2019s what you do if you\u2019re worried someone has meningitis, a brain bleed, or other severe neurological issues.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the test revealed no serious medical condition \u2013 just extreme stress.<\/p>\n

At that time, our firm had $32 million in capital, and we had one oil trade on our books that put $15 million of that capital at risk.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, there was little I could do to mitigate the risk.<\/p>\n

The trader who had placed it was the majority owner of the firm. And the $15 million on the line was his own money. He didn\u2019t want to hear from a 33-year-old with a stress headache over his trade.<\/p>\n

In the end, the trade went sour. And our firm\u2019s capital shrank from $32 million to $18 million.<\/p>\n

We eventually dug our way out of that hole. And two years later, we sold the firm to a billion-dollar hedge fund.<\/p>\n

But that near-death experience taught me a lesson I\u2019ll never forget\u2026<\/p>\n

As a trader, your goal is to survive first and make money second. <\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially crucial when all hell breaks loose \u2013 like in 2008\u2026 or this past month.<\/p>\n

Since they peaked in late February, the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq just saw one of their fastest 10% drops in history.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s scary for buy-and-hold investors. And it can wipe out inexperienced traders who banked on stocks going up.<\/p>\n

But as I\u2019ll show you today, there\u2019s a strategy you can use to profit in this choppy market\u2026<\/p>\n

You just need to stop speculating on stocks\u2019 direction \u2013 aka coin flips \u2013 and trade volatility itself.<\/p>\n

When you get creative like this, you don\u2019t care if a stock goes up or down. You make gains when it moves a lot in either direction.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strategy I used during the recent stock market sell-off to give my subscribers the chance to close out gains of 61%… 74%… and 78% while stocks were tanking.<\/p>\n

Even better, the longest holding time for these trades was three days.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get into that in a moment\u2026 plus how you can apply this strategy to your own wealth-building journey.<\/p>\n

First, if you don\u2019t know me, here\u2019s a quick introduction.<\/p>\n

Winner\u2019s Mindset<\/h2>\n

Over my nearly three decades as a professional trader, I\u2019ve tested countless strategies.<\/p>\n

In 1997, I got my start as a floor trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. I traded futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 during the dot-com boom and bust. (Futures are contracts that allow you to bet on where the market is headed.)<\/p>\n

This was back in the day of open outcry pits. If you\u2019ve seen the Eddie Murphy movie\u00a0Trading Places<\/em>, you\u2019ll recognize the shouting and frantic hand signals we used to execute trades.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2003, a group of top Chicago traders asked me to join their new prop trading firm. I was employee No. 6. By the time we sold the firm seven years later, I was one of the four partners.<\/p>\n

I was on top of my game. But I felt it was time for a break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, I took a year off to train for the Ironman Wisconsin triathlon. I pushed myself to new heights every day \u2013 ultimately achieving my long-time goal of completing the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I swam 2.4 miles in Lake Monona, biked 112 miles over city roads and rural highways, and then ran a 26.2-mile marathon through downtown Madison \u2013140.6 grueling miles in total.<\/p>\n

Finishing the Ironman was a huge personal accomplishment. And it taught me that, with enough dedication and hard work, I could achieve anything.<\/p>\n

With this winner\u2019s mindset, in 2011, I rented a seat on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. And I became a market maker at the largest options exchange in the world. (A market maker buys and sells stocks to keep markets efficient. They profit off the gap between the buy and sell price.)<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until 2015 that I found my true passion \u2013 teaching individual investors how to trade like the pros.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I launched Masters in Trading (MIT).<\/p>\n

At MIT, I host daily video livestreams at 11 a.m. ET, where I break down the day\u2019s market action and highlight my favorite trade setups.<\/p>\n

(You can sign up for free here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I also run a thriving online community of apprentice traders who support each other, share their progress, and chat with me in real time. (I\u2019ve included some screenshots of their feedback below.)<\/p>\n

And in that community, we trade differently than you may be used to\u2026<\/p>\n

Turn Volatility Into Profits<\/h2>\n

When you think of traders, you probably think of folks taking big risks in the hope of earning big returns. And some traders are like that.<\/p>\n

They think a stock is going to go up or down\u2026 And they place a big trade that will pay off if they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n

That may work once or twice. But these folks almost always crash and burn at some point.<\/p>\n

These are directional trades. You make money only if you guess the direction the stock will move \u2013 up or down.<\/p>\n

But as I mentioned, you can also trade volatility. These trades pay off when a stock moves a lot in either direction.<\/p>\n

Say you think a stock is going to move\u00a0a lot\u00a0in the near future. But you don\u2019t know if it will go\u00a0up\u00a0or\u00a0down.<\/p>\n

To profit, you can place two trades at the same time \u2013 one that pays off if the price rises, another that pays off when it falls.<\/p>\n

As one of my mentors taught me: Why bet on a coin flip when you can profit from both sides of the coin instead?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve refined this strategy through hundreds of trades, documenting returns that include\u2026<\/p>\n