One year the Venezuelan stock was #1 up in the world. Some day the US will be up #1 in the world. Venezuela was #1 when the peso collapsed from hyperinflation. Of course in dollar terms it was a loser. When the $US repeats that hyperinflation scenario, they will also be #1.
Hence depending what you trade. You could have entered a trade at any point in time 1-5-10-15-20yrs ago on the spy and been up money or even had you just held. But I get what you are saying.
Even if that's true, one could in theory short overvalued stocks and hedge by being long individual stocks or an index.
%% I agree with a lot of that; except a good short is more like a first responder smashing the door with a house already on fire + do rescue. And in some cases corp management are the arsonists........... Lots of ways to get '' burned'' \shorting a single stock. Besides/ Like Art Cashin [floor manager]says ''shorts help fuel the rally ''[when covering,]