virginCFAhooker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There’s no free lunch in any of that stuff… you > can play with beta and hedges all you want. IF > you hedge your doubling your risk if your analysis > is wrong. Beta is not your enemy when the market > is already down 35%… beta is your friend! Virgin, I get your point about “beta and the bounce.” My hedging strategy was more about how my initial position should have been hedged and wasn’t, so time to correct that mistake (and eat the loss). The protective put is the alternative strategy if one wants to try to catch a bounce; although I guess it could also be implemented by hedging the portfolio and buying a call on the index. The latter is probably a better strategy because 1) it has better alpha-beta separation, and 2) calls may be underpriced relative to puts of similar “moneyness” in this panic.