While it is of course a vast field with much complication etc etc, here's a simple one. It does rely on you being right, but that's always true. If you think

While it is of course a vast field with much complication etc etc, here's a simple one. It does rely on you being right, but that's always true. If you think company X is going to do well compared to some benchmark, you go long on X and short on the benchmark. As long as you were right (i.e. X does do better than the benchmark) you'll make money no matter how they actually do. If X drops 50% and the benchmark drops 90%, you've made money. If X rises 20% and the benchmark rises 15%, you've made money.