But even if you look back in the past year there were only two brief periods of sustained, heavy selling. This is why shorting doesn't work well because the odds of capturing downside is small
Markets always fall faster than they rise. Fear is much stronger that greed. Shorting does work. What if you would have cashed out in Dec 07 and took a small short position. Gee I bet you would be pretty happy. But here you sit hopeing the market will rally.