Not to quibble, but I would say that using SRS and SKF doesn't really qualify as using "complex derivatives" to bet against the market. For most investors ther

Not to quibble, but I would say that using SRS and SKF doesn't really qualify as using "complex derivatives" to bet against the market. For most investors there really wasn't an optimal way to do this, using ultra-short ETFs carried a lot of drawbacks. The best way (which I found and put 50% of my PA into) was to go long a Canadian insurer which had a ton of credit default swaps on most of the levered investment banks. The other thing I would say is that, unless you are somehow exacerbating a problem (e.g.: somehow creating rumors to cause bank runs) then picking up cheap insurance isn't the same as being the guy controlling the predator drone in a strike. You'd instead be simply offsetting someone else's risk.