Hard to say, Mr. Rosen. But it is the art of short selling to sort out the real bears. Stocks who losd much more than the broad market in a reasonable time.
As the lookouts were bad for biotechs earlier that year, as a whole, with many special situations, the 3rd quarter definitely made things worse for the credit-quality spread hit financials, and amongst those, the specialty financials of various sorts.
What must be added into a worsening lookout is management's ability and willingness to cope with economic shortfalls. But this is the field covered by specialists, so far.
So you can lose, or hardly win money if you do ill timed bets on the wrong sector. If you shorted first tier internets throughout the bear period, after July, you were most of the time underwater. If you made average bets on YHOO, AMZN or AOL your are barely ahead, if ever.
What is even more important is to find special situations even in an already beaten down market, and we're not talking some 20% drop - the index lost so far. Consider finding weak stocks as hedges against quality investments, as few people are short thoughout their portfolio, still.
C. |
