Making money in the market is almost entirely from high level dd and good reasoning. It also takes the right personality, and being able to sleep at night after bad losses. An accommodating market though is super helpful & needed of course. Technical analysis also can help if done properly. Right now, we're not in an accommodating market. Therefore one can't make positive %s on the long side only IMO. That's why I've been shorting so much lately. You can follow my trades on my board if you want. I've been doing rather well this year so far, but tough to stay ahead in this market.