Okay, you are at least analyzing your options. Is hedging an option? In a bear, is there inflation or deflation? I am not making an argument for cash just trying to get you to think about all of the options.
I don't use hedging strategies. I am not suggesting that you do either. I develop systems that are inclusive of risk models on a per trade and portfolio level basis. I diversify through multiple uncorrelated systems that trade long and short. I trade almost all of the asset classes.
Bull and Bear are the 2 sides of the same coin. If you don't like bears, you don't like bulls either. Without bears, there is no bulls. You only get bulls once you had bears.
It's a tongue in cheek comment; I'd like bears if I was good at shorting. I like holding overnight and don't know options yet, and would rather not hold short positions during the gap
I hate the markets right now. I bet on the indices "directly" rather than via equities and I do not like shorting them, they have an inherent buoyancy that is always about to re-assert itself and the big players are naturally bullish on US stocks - what else could they be? For a long-term trader the difference between the Dow in bullish mode against bearish mode is very clear. See the Dow 1 year daily chart - November-January: steep, narrow smooth uptrend: narrow range channel, limited daily ranges: no breaches of 50EMA, no closes below February-June: shallow, wide downtrend: wide trend channel, massive daily ranges: repeated breaches of 50EMA, multiple closes above July-October: steep, narrow smooth uptrend: narrow range channel, limited daily ranges: in intra-day test of 50EMA, no closes below October-November: shallow, wide downtrend: wide trend channel, massive daily ranges: repeated tests and breaches of 50EMA, several closes above I'm sure the volatility in the "bearish" periods has been rewarding for daytraders but it isn't worth the risk for me.
Shorting is the same as longing, just in the opposite direction. If you are good at longing, you should also be good at shorting. There is no such thing as "not good at shorting". And you don't need options to short unless shorting of the instrument that you want to short is forbidden by some brokers (which is absolutely ridiculous and detrimental to an efficient market). People are all scared of being "short-squeezed" in that somehow it's more dangerous but being "long-squeezed" is just as dangerous. If you were holding long, when the price gaps down all of sudden, you are screwed just the same.