All: let me try to drill this in again: SPY SPY SPY SPY SPY SPY and SPY.
To be technical, Stand & Poors Depository Receipts, or SPDRs. (Pronounced "spiders".) Each share of SPY represents 1/10 the value of 1 share of each of the stocks in the S&P 100 (OEX).
For those with access to the futures markets, there are probably better (and better-leveraged) hedges. But for the rest of us, SPY is a handy thing to have.
It's low volatility. It's usually boring. (But might not be tomorrow.)
But it can be shorted on a downtick, at any price. (NYSE stocks must be shorted on an uptick. NASDAQ stocks can be shorted on an uptick, or at a price higher than the bid.)
Remember, if you can't find an uptick, there is always SPY!
(I believe there are some other instruments on AMEX that act this way as well. I stuumbled upon one, but now I can't remember it. Perhaps all of the WEBS, etc.? Can somebody fill us in?)
By the time you find an uptick, you could already be making money on SPY. Shoot first, ask questions later. You may be able to partially save a portfolio that has remaining margin by FIRST quickly shorting SPY, and THEN dealing with selling individual securities. I have done this in the past with good success when the few minutes it took to back out of multiple equity positions resulted in some additional losses. But, in the mean time, a quickly-executed SPY short was offseting much of the loss.
Itsy, bitsy spider, crawled up the water spout!
Down came the rain and washed the spider out! |
