It seems the key rules to beating the market are these...

that is typically a better career choice.

 

Sure but shorting also means limited upside and unlimited downside.
If you're great a shorting that's perfect ! But the odds aren't in your favors.

 

No I'm not throwing money away, I'm sitting on it. I may be missing some wonderful opportunities but I'm not losing any money.

 

From Paul Tudor Jones... "The conventional wisdom is to not try to pick bottoms and tops. I've made 10 times more money trying to pick them than I ever saved trying to avoid picking them"...

IOW... Try to nail tops and bottoms... always with stops. (If you learn "Price TA", that won't scare the crap out of you. )

FWIW..

 

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LOLSoyU, has some good points about TQQQ;
SQQQ is a good way to confirm the price tends/.[NOT suitable for most investors as SCHW warns]
I've used QLD+ SPXL,SPXS,SPXU,SPYG,SPY, sds,sso also. Some times udow, sdow, not so much over long period of time....................................................................................But even a sideways slop chop trend with 3x leverage times will be very inferior to SPY,SPYG, so thats why i also keep QQQ, XLK,spy,spy,splv also on hit list

 

Then again... "You can play anything so long as you exercise stops".

 

That is what stops are for.

 

That is a very good argument for avoiding long positions as well.

 

Long my upside is unlimited; Short my downside is unlimited.
At least with longs I know the maximum I can lose.

 

Plenty of stocks have gone to zero. None have gone to infinity.