Capitalize on a Near-Term Investing Trend

Near-term investors also have to act fast because the window of opportunity will be narrow. An investing trend could be as short as a few days, making it critically important to catch it before it comes. "If you look at what's happening today, it's too late," Mendelsohn says.

Other companies like Wall Street Horizon, which gives investors up-to-date information about earnings calendars, dividend dates, option expiration dates, splits and investor conferences, and Simpler Trading, which offers actionable trading advice, also provide tools to help investors make better near-term trade decisions.

But financial experts say that most investors shouldn't try to time or beat the market, and near term investing – which requires more active trading and a lot of research – should be left to the pros. "To build wealth, an investor should [forget] about the daily financial weather, like market news and headlines, and instead concentrate on growth of wealth over time," says Dejan Ilijevski, president of Sabela Capital Markets.

[See: 8 Ways to Buffer Your Portfolio From a Market Slide.]

Also, a near-term strategy often requires more complex maneuvers – such as straddles, options, puts and calls – to execute trades successfully. A straddle, for example is when you buy a call and a put option for the same underlying stock, says James Schramm, a financial advisor with Schramm Financial Group in Valencia, California. A call option gives an investor the right to buy a security at a certain price during a specified period, and a put option works the same way for selling an investment.