Everyone is very familiar with buying a stock but many are missing a huge opportunity within the market by not being educated on the short sell.

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First off, what is a short sell? Short selling a stock is when you borrow the shares at a set price with the hopes of buying them back in the future for lower. Just as you want to buy low and sell high, you want to short high, and re-buy back in low.

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What are the pros to short selling? You can explode the returns of your portfolio if you believe a company is extremely overvalued. For example $ZM $FVRR $PTON are all exceptional examples of overvalued companies last year that could have generated over 80% returns in 2 years.

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What are the risks of short selling? Unlimited downside potential, hard to borrow shares with some brokers, unable to borrow shares in retirement accounts, and at times higher fees.

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How do I utilize short selling? I primarily short a stock as it is transitioning from a stage 3 top into a stage 4 downtrend. If you are unfamiliar with this, it is called stage analysis and it shows the higher time frame trend of a stock.

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Given The Feds major change in stance this year with higher interest rates, potential end of QE, war with Ukraine - Russia, and other macro headwinds - I saw a huge opportunity for stocks to decouple this year. At first, we saw small caps roll over which gave a foreshadowing of what is to come in the mid/large cap world. While some might use short selling as a way to make money from an overvalued company, I utilize short selling when macro headwinds are ahead and TA is confirming major breakdowns. A few examples of these have included $U $UPST $MDB $APPS $DKNG $NIO $BABA and many more.

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There are major risks to short selling as I only utilize them as trades, but they have been a huge part of my portfolio this year instead of sitting in cash or staying long in many downtrending stocks.

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No matter how much you believe in your stock over the next 5-10 years - understanding how to actively invest can lead to explosive returns if you can capture both the upside and the downside.

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I have not taken 1 long in over 6 months as an will wait patiently for my watchlist stocks to base after decoupling. For example, I am bullish on $TWLO long term, but I have shorted it this year to increase my portfolio value to buy more shares when it transitions from stage 4 into stage 1.

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It’s important to learn to play both sides of the market because only playing the long side misses out on so much money when the market is rolling over.

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If you can’t short, you can always look into inverse ETFs such as $SPXU $RWM $SQQQ $SDOW.

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Trade the trend. Use the profits to buy more shares of your favorite long term names. Rinse and repeat.

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