The easiest way to make money in the stock market is to be in the market when it is rising and out of the market when it falls. Simple. One way of monitoring is to look at where a market indicator closed with respect to the 50 day moving average of closing prices. There is no special reason for 50 days except that it is widely followed. You may choose 100 or 200 days. The main advantage of this approach is that it will be out during bear markets and in during bull markets. There may be a few whipsaws, but it will save you a lot of money during severe market declines, which is what we all worry about.  I have chosen below a ten year chart of the S&P 500 Spyder exchange traded fund (symbol SPY). You can see that during the big declines, 10% or more, the SPY was trading below its moving average and triggered the sell.  Call to discuss