Alternative Ways to Participate in the Stock Market

There are more mutual funds available today than there are stocks. A tremendous industry surrounds them that provides research, facilitates meetings, sells software, hosts seminars, employs spokesmodels, and generally focuses on picking and buying the right stocks. The fundamental assumption is that the stock market goes up over time and will reward long-term investors with a return to meet their financial goals. But this view has not always been the case.

Before 1980, the stock market was considered by many to be too risky for retirement savings, and this didn’t change until the creation of 401(k) plans in 1981 and the subsequent explosion of mutual funds. Investors in the 80s and 90s then experienced a market that delivered an average annual return of 13% or more, and throwing darts at the local newspaper’s business section was as good a technique as any for picking stocks. The predominant strategy of this time was to buy stocks or mutual funds and hang on through the dips. Any other system in the ’80s and ’90s ultimately resulted in lower returns World Scoop.

If you believe strongly that the stock market will always go higher and will do so within your investment timeframe, then a “buy stocks and hold on” strategy is consistent with your beliefs, but that’s not the only strategy available. If you have doubts about what stocks will do over the next ten years (as I do), it would be prudent to understand the other available methods for being involved in the stock market. The stock market has been volatile but ultimately flat for about 13 years at the time of this writing, so we’ve already lost more than a decade of the 10% annual returns the stock market is supposed to provide, and from all indications, it would seem that volatility will be around for a long time. With interest rates at all-time lows, bonds and bond funds are not the safe havens they used to be, so I still think stocks are the best vehicle for achieving inflation-beating returns. However, making money in stocks will take more work than simply buying stocks and hanging on for the ride.

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Making Money When Stocks Go Down

If you firmly believe that the global economy is in a death spiral and you’re ready to buy bottled water and find a cave to live in, then shorting stocks is the most consistent strategy with your belief system. Shorting a stock involves selling a store you don’t own (i.e., borrowing it from your broker for a while), and intending to purchase it back later at a lower price. If you’re right, this strategy can make you look brilliant at dinner parties because you will make money while everyone else is losing. However, if you’re wrong, you must diligently avoid any financial conversations. Investment advisors who aren’t afraid of risking other people’s money will sometimes feel so strongly about the market’s direction that they will make a big bet on the short side of the market. Those who are successful end up with their radio shows. Those who are a little off on their timing end up with clients who are losing money while everyone else is making money. In a short time, these advisors ask, “Would you like fries with that.”

Limiting Losses

Warren Buffett’s famous rules of investing are “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.” Accepting unlimited losses in the hope that stocks will return violates both rules. As a general rule, limiting losses requires giving up some upside potential. One way to accomplish this is to ensure your stocks using Put options. Put options establish an absolute floor on potential losses at the expense of the premium paid for the options. Although several techniques can help recover some or all of the cost of the “Put insurance,” if the stock price does not fall before the option expires, the Put option’s cost is lost. This is similar to losing the premium on your homeowner’s insurance if your house doesn’t burn down. Most people have accepted the tradeoff and are not disappointed when they don’t use their fire insurance. The belief consistent with a “limited loss” strategy is that stocks will go up but that large losses are unacceptable.