This is kind of a backwards philosophy because there are so many things you can test in the market. What you want to try to do is find an edge and then capitalize on it with the tools at your disposal, just my opinion.
Try this strategy and see if you can automate it. It's called the wheel strategy. What you want to do is setup a $200K account, and sell puts with certain deltas, and then if assigned, sell calls with certain deltas, until you get called. This will get you a relative return of up to 20% per year if done well. You can use your skills to figure out the best delta position to trade, you can look for high volatility to take advantage of. Once you get this completed, you can look for other trends. I always recommend starting with this because it's the easiest way to make some money in the market. It's a lot of work to do it manually, but automated, it would let you earn income while you are not doing much.
You will also want to read and understand what calls and puts are, and what selling/buy calls/puts entails. Probably want to do this with stocks like Disney, GE, and so forth, something with large market caps, small movements, and something you are willing to hold long term and which will not go bankrupt/drop significantly in the near future, disclaimer: I do not like GE at all, however, you also want to try this with 1 contract to start, because 1 contract is 100 shares. You can probably work with a smaller starting capital. If you get this implemented and working, it can generate passive income for you in a sense, or you can blow an account.
Edit: You want to settle/close out around earnings because the volatility is insane at that time.
If you can reliably generate 20%/year, a skill which is worth billions of dollars, why are you giving away the secret for free?
Generally speaking, if someone offers a simple strategy for getting well-above-market returns, they're either lying or failing to mention that this strategy occasionally bankrupts you. I think this is the latter.
I can do way better than 20%. I do 100%. That's how I make my money and pay my bills. I charge for that skill because it has value. This is scalping which I don't do, it's just a good strategy to learn from, IMO.
I don't utilize it because my strategy is much better.
The risk with the wheel is getting assigned stock which you hold forever, but you sell calls against it and over time it ends up being profitable.
I only buy calls or puts, however, you have to look at the wheel in a different view. You are making pennies in front of a steam roller, but you are getting paid to buy the stock you want. Most people say, if AAPL goes to $140, I will buy. Well this lets you sell puts until AAPL hits $140, then you get assigned, so you get paid every week or 3 weeks it goes up. Then when you have the stock, you sell a call against it which helps reduce your overall cost basis.
This is a fairly easy strategy to automate and you can use a small account to do so.
Try this strategy and see if you can automate it. It's called the wheel strategy. What you want to do is setup a $200K account, and sell puts with certain deltas, and then if assigned, sell calls with certain deltas, until you get called. This will get you a relative return of up to 20% per year if done well. You can use your skills to figure out the best delta position to trade, you can look for high volatility to take advantage of. Once you get this completed, you can look for other trends. I always recommend starting with this because it's the easiest way to make some money in the market. It's a lot of work to do it manually, but automated, it would let you earn income while you are not doing much.
You will also want to read and understand what calls and puts are, and what selling/buy calls/puts entails. Probably want to do this with stocks like Disney, GE, and so forth, something with large market caps, small movements, and something you are willing to hold long term and which will not go bankrupt/drop significantly in the near future, disclaimer: I do not like GE at all, however, you also want to try this with 1 contract to start, because 1 contract is 100 shares. You can probably work with a smaller starting capital. If you get this implemented and working, it can generate passive income for you in a sense, or you can blow an account.
Edit: You want to settle/close out around earnings because the volatility is insane at that time.