Pretty much this. Market trends change how you invest, but they certainly don't prevent you from profiting either way. The last couple months have been particularly lucrative if you're shorting the market.
I got a bunch of the same response, so I guess I didn't ask the question clearly.
I'm well aware of how a short works. I was asking what parent poster had in mind when they said "if you think the market's going down, short it". Short what? Specific stocks? That's not the same thing as shorting "the market". When people say "buy the market" or whatever they're usually talking index funds or etc.
So did he mean some kind of leveraged inverse VFINX? Or a baroquely complex derivates ETF that's just a ticking time bomb like those inverse VIX funds from earlier this year?
buy contracts for the ability to sell shares at a determined price later when the underlying share is actually worth less than what you are contractually allowed to sell it at.
there's inverse ETF's. SPXS is a leveraged "bear fund" that gains value as the S&P500 decreases in value. SPXS is particular will move 3X the movement of the S&P500 so a loss of 1% in the market is a gain of 3% in SPXS.