How can I take advantage of bear market trading an IRA account? Obviously I can sell puts deep out the money with the intent to be called in a desirable price or sell covered call. Is it allowed to be long on a reverse ETF? Any other ideas?
You can be long puts and ETFs in an IRA, so long as you are approved for options. But I don't know of any broker that will permit you to short options in an IRA.
I believe that Ameritrade allows selling puts if the funds to purchase the underlying are in the account
You can sell cash-secured puts in an IRA. Been selling a few of them OOM near the close time and grabbing a few pennies.
Note that the bear ETFs are meant for intra-day trading. Not for holding. They reset each day. If you hold for longer than a day, with the wrong sequence of ups and downs, you can lose money even you correctly predicted the downtrend.