[OPINION: The views expressed by Investopedia columnists are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website.]

The U.S. stock market is on a tear, and professional investors are looking to add to their long positions on any weakness. Here’s why the latest correction will be welcomed by the "smart money."

A long-overdue correction may finally be underway in the the S&P 500. Several technical gauges suggest that the current momentum in equities is unlikely to be sustained, and a widely-used indicator based on the Fibonacci sequence projects that the current upswing has peaked at 2670, heralding a pullback.

Usually the prospect of a decline would be feared by investors. But in the current bull market, which has seen fewer, shallower corrections than is historically normal, all buying opportunities are being welcomed.

Whilst buying without doing your research beforehand is simply gambling, professional investors are never that dumb (hence the reason why they are known as the "smart money"). The difference comes down to their trading process, and in the hedge fund world we have our own proven formula for investment success (as those of you who have taken our course at The Investopedia Academy will know). We call it our Trading Checklist, and as you can see below, the positive score of +4.5 tells us that we should be looking to own stocks right now.

Applying this bullish signal generated by our Checklist to the current price action in the S&P 500, we will be on high alert to take this opportunity to buy weakness in the coming sessions. From a technical perspective this could produce an entry as low as 2460, but first the 50-day moving average would have to be tested around 2575. In either event, based on our Checklist and personal appetite for risk I will be looking to add longs around these levels.

Our Checklist process has been developed with insight from the hedge fund world based on 25 years of professional trading experience, and provides an actionable score for major currencies and commodities markets as well as stocks.

Our Trading Club provides all of this analysis to our members on a continuous basis, with weekly indicators and video analysis alongside the monthly checklist report. If you would like more real-time insights with actionable scores for other major markets including currencies and commodities, I would encourage you to take check out our membership options and join us today.

James Helliwell is the Chief Investment Strategist and Director of the Lex van Dam Trading Academy.