Protection

Lets say that you desire a little protection for that porfolio that you have been managing. It used to be that you could short some high momentum stocks, which is highly risky cuz when it turns, these will also be the first to rampage higher, you could short some futures on the S&P, or you could buy some puts. There are a myriad of other ways, but these suffice for now.

The ETF explosion has spawned some new ways, such as one I have been following and that is QID, which is a fund that shorts the Nasdaq and goes up in value when the QQQQ goes down in value. It is highly liquid and costs no more than a transaction fee to get some protection, or for that matter to "bet" that the mkt is going lower.

I think this one should be considered right now for a little protection, should the mkt go lower. This can save you a bunch of transaction fees by not selling the individual stocks you own, but rather using this to "hedge" your portfolio.