I read one of Bill O'Neill's books... he said he "made money shorting only 2 times in his 40-year career". While "up" is the opposite of "down"... it is NOT true that a bear market is the mirror image of a bull market. The PSYCHO of the bull and bear are waaaaay heavily slanted towards the bull side for many reasons and factors.... even in a bear market. Trying to make money on the short side is for those who are bold and experienced. The "wind is in their face", yet they try to make money anyway. That is NOT a "low risk" game considering all the forces trying to (1) always make the market go up, and (2) stop the market from going down. The conservative play (and most likely to succeed) is to "keep your powder dry and play only when the wind is at your back". Very few "smarty-pants" short-selling traders survive in the long run. FWIW...
I haven't traded currencies (or stocks) in years but I have traded the ES for the past 18 years and my setups are the same for long and shorts, simply reversed. There are many on these threads who have never experienced a bear market. In a bull, there are no lack of good long entries. In bear market conditions, shorts pay better, whether it is a bear market or simply a bear correction (a bear market is just a longer correction). We all have our own trade plan, you have to decide what works for you.
Rules I follow when shorting companies. I avoid shorting: when required margin > 100% when shorting fee is significantly higher compared to "average fees" when liquidity is low price is below 20 health&biotech
Hello mikeriley, I do not discriminate long or short. I am Slave to the direction of price. If price shows up, I trade up. If prices shows down, I trade down. Master = Price Slave = SimpleMeLike
%% Good points + good charts\ but when i Short them by a click\cuts waaaaaaaay to much off the edge @ right. LOL I dont think shorts/inverse are like leveraged longs/or longs @ all or much like them. Inverse give profits faster \take away profits faster. Most leveraged stuff pays NO dividends also, TZA used to , no more ; +SPXL/ UPRO / UDOW may pay a bit but NOthing like SPY
Always been a long/short trader. I am far more selective when shorting a stock since the risk is unlimited - especially if your holding days to months like I do. The math of trading significantly favors the long side, although there is still plenty of room for making out on shorts if you know what you are doing & bring an A game with risk/trade mgmt. Buffet's panic Covid exit sets the stage: An equal size move nets 63% short & 173% long. This illustrates why the long side has far more reward-to-risk not even counting the the carry cost for holding a short which can really add up.
%% ME 2/mostly 2 you mentioned. %% I used to be that way+ still I am mostly that waY. I do long only /but use long inverse ETFs instead of shorts/big advantage= NEVER get a margin call /@ all [Small disadvantage \decays abit/not much decay.] Another small disadvantage for some but not me \if one is real used to for years shorting stock + very pictorial person it looks so strange to make money on a bear trend when it goes up LOL. BUT NO way does a bear trend work anything like a bull trend/especially with leverage\ a bear will make money faster + make losses faster + some times deeper. And that'$ just a order slippage comment /trends even more so. To answer your question from earlier in MAY, sure i'm responsible for my losses but another way to look @ it follows. FEW bear funds , many bull funds,many many, many win/win / long mutual funds. My comment$ only apply to ETFs, + sure dont apply to crypto cr*p.........................................................................
" ...... risk is unlimited..." Except probabilities are zero might happen before unlimited ever does. I go with probabilities.
%% LOL good points] i seldom do biotek or semiconductor inverse , simply too wild/\sloppy of a trend. The TNA\ small cap bull X 3 is about the same way. A daytrader may do ok with those, but so many choices better for me anyway . Price [$20 ]does not seem to matter much on ETFs; even though SPXL looked much better than UPRO yesterday. Almost the same thing except upro,in $40s, better volume ; SPXL in $80s + pays a bit better dividend..........................................................................................................