A key question my students often ask me is: “With the stock market down, can I still make money trading stock?” My reply is that it is really dependent on the kind of investments you hold.

Stock holdings, mutual funds, or asset allocation investment accounts make it very difficult to make money in a down market. This is because these investments are held in large, regulated accounts that don’t allow short stock positions. So, if the stock market goes down, as it probably will over the next three to five years, these accounts will lose money year after year.

Using the short position strategy, though, will give you the leverage to make money both when the market is up and down. But you can only take advantage of short positions if you trade through an individual account.

If you trade through your individual account rather than a fund, it is possible to for you to take charge of your own investment and make money in the stock market almost every day. This is because regardless of the direction a stock is moving, you can make money, by buying if you expect it to go up, or selling short if you expect it to go down.

So, if that’s all there is to it, why isn’t everyone taking advantage of it? Well, first, you have to be willing to invest around $25,000 into an individual trading account. A lot of folks don’t have the money, or don’t want to take the risk. And there are a lot of challenges for a new trader. You could lose your money fast if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I can suggest a few things to minimize your concerns.

The first step is to find a trading system that provides you minimal risk recommendations. The system I and my students use has stock pickers with an average experience level of thirty one year. This means that you can just follow their suggestions and are fairly assured that you will make a profit. And if you set your stops to tie in with your personal risk tolerance level, your loss over time will be minimal.

You also need to find a program where you will walk through step by step until you feel comfortable trading on your own. To illustrate, I teach a nine day course where my students are taught each and every step needed to successfully trade stocks on their own, no matter if the market is up or down.

The goal with any system you choose is to find one that will give you stock trading success while those around you complain over poor performance; by making sure that you are working with experienced advisors and a step by step process, you can achieve that goal.