[scurvy]

Or he can sell SPX calls. Or sell calls on another index or individual stocks. Or a combination of the two. Or he can sell futures. Or buy options on futures.

There are a zillion ways of shorting the market while not selling or directly shorting your existing long positions.

[lujim]

Careful with selling naked options though. You can have limited profit and unlimited risk in some cases. Selling naked puts on a stock you want to own or selling covered calls are pretty safe. Otherwise maybe spreads to hedge things out.

[scurvy]

I didn't say they had to be naked. I almost always trade spreads. Naked options tend to be for casino individuals.

Also, selling naked puts against the VIX is a good long hedge. It's not going to 0 and when it gets really, really low there's already a little resistance in there as skepticism kicks in. You won't make a ton of money on the downside, but you can sell enough to buffer any long losses.

[lujim]

Hmm interesting that's a good point about vix. What strike do you go for? Like 15 on VXX?

[scurvy]

I wait until it's around 12-13 personally. During QE it can hang out around 10.