Good question!! I hope others offer their thoughts.
fwiw... I have been full time now for about 2 years. Thankfully last year provided a bit of fat...
For the last few months I have been fully invested but from Wednesday it looked like something radically changed... like gypaetus I bought a (modest) position in an inverse ETF (BBUS... even though I don't like it that much) and pulled 10% of my cash off the table.
Now it's a matter of see what happens next, try to understand the macro picture and be ready to reassess everything.
I am not a trader... I am stock/narrative specific. Just because the market falls doesn't automatically mean the companies I am invested in also fall. However, if I was a trader it's how well I read the macro which would determine the strategy. As an example... the immediate situation is, in the US, the rates yield curve has suddenly inverted (the short term rates up to 2 years have risen, along with the $US, and the 30 year fell). This affects the profitability of the banking sector... if that doesn't repair then the obvious bet is to shortsell the big banks (especially since they are sitting at their highs at the moment). That's not what I personally would do because that's not how I play the game.... but if the banks retreat, because they are the main component of the index, the market will register a fall, sentiment will sour and other things will be sold... for those companies not actually fundamentally involved they are collateral damage and become buying opportunities.
