Just because others haven't brought it up, you can buy options. Unlike shorting, purchasing an option (or spread) has limited risk. Unlike shorting, options hav

Just because others haven't brought it up, you can buy options. Unlike shorting, purchasing an option (or spread) has limited risk. Unlike shorting, options have much higher leverage, so the potential for profit is much higher. SPY, the largest S&P 500 ETF right now is at $287.51. For $2335 today, you can buy the right to sell 100 shares of SPY for $285 in December 2020. That means that if the price in December 2020 (or any date in between) is less than $261.65 ($285 minus the cost of the option itself), you can exercise your option and make $100 for every $1 the price falls below $261.65. If say, the price falls to $230, you make $3100, or 32% on your investment. If you're fairly sure the price will say above $200, you can simultaneously sell the option to sell at $200 on the same date for $505 and discount your total trade to $1835. This would become what's called a put "spread". If you purchased this spread and the price fell to $230, you'd make ($285 - $18.35 - $230) * 100 = $3665, for a 100% return. However if the price fell to $150, you'd only make ($285 - $18.35 - $200) * 100 = $6665 rather than ($285 - $18.35 - $150) * 100 = $11665, as you'd have to pay the person who bought the $200 option from you the difference. If the price goes up, all you lose is the cost of your option, which is unlike shorting, where you lose $1 for every dollar above your sell price the stock moves. If you buy an option (or spread) with a closer expiry, you'll pay a lot less but of course have a lot less time to be right. You can also sell an option much closer to your own, for example a $245 option for $1200, in which case you'd pay $1335 for your $285 option.