In another thread you mention building a basket of long stocks.
The /NQ will work fine as a basis to build from.
You can own QQQ as your long basket representing equity ownership. If you focus on daily chart as your primary and look mostly at hourly for actionable signals. When you have time frame continuity (both bars the same color) you have a better chance of being "right" directionally. Owning the basket will allow you to trade the /NQ from the short side or as a hedge longer term.
Additionally, you could begin to position the top ten or so components of the Nasdaq 100 as those individual companies diverge from the directional trade of the broader index. What that means is that you can sniff out "natural buyers" or "natural sellers" in an individual name. When the index is down and one of those "members" has a bid it can reasonable be said that there are natural buyers and vice versa. For me, and I recognize this wont work for everyone, I'd look to be selling puts on individual names (long delta) to collect the premium. The worst case scenario is I have to roll the puts or buy the stock.