While I have seen some swings in my portfolio including some big red days days (e.g. -5%), I am ahead overall in the last few months (about +10%) because I am not afraid to short with puts, leveraged inverse ETFs and actual short selling. If you are willing to play both sides you can profit on volitility and maybe even come out ahead in a bear market. However I have noticed even many people, even those with with bearish sentiment/convictios, have a block around shorting and would never even consider buying a put or shares in an inverse ETF.
I do not exclusively use bear plays and even have a majority bull portfolio currently (I believe a relief rally is due). The key is to be nimble and combine long and short positions as needed with a willingness to admit defeat rather than double down on bad trades and investments. Trying to make money on purely bull plays right now is a fool's errand. I am seeing people on Reddit who are down -40% to -50% since their highs in 2021 and seem to have a degree of learned helplessness around this. It boggles my mind that so many people have allowed their portfolio to so severely depreciate, or that they acknowledge that we are in a bear market yet refuse to consider opening bear positions. While I am not super skilled or knowledgeable with stocks, I do believe that this rarely said advice would help a lot of people.
I also want to add that shorting is not unethical and actually serves a social and economic good by facilitating efficiency and realism in the market. Shorting is how you say the emperor has no clothes and it is not morally wrong.
Submitted October 01, 2022 at 12:45AM by TryingToBeHere https://ift.tt/5SUpvDq
