How to make money in the next stock market crash.

Akshat Vashistha
10 min readOct 16, 2020

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An investor constantly lives with the fear of a stock market crash in mind. We are bombarded with data and small pieces of information incessantly over the social media and the TV. It gives one an additional reason to start trading from one’s brokerage or retirement account.

One such scenario is the recent coronavirus outbreak. The resulting lockdown made the markets lucrative in particular for long term investors.

Market experts believe that when an investor sticks to his areas of competence, he is better placed to succeed in the stock markets. Similarly, a disciplined routine, cost control and focus over the areas that are right for long term investment help.

Investing calls for patience on the behalf of an investor. Expecting fast results may not always work for one’s cause.

Let us take a look at a few of the top tips for making money during a stock market crash:

  • Invest in a good business

It is a fine idea to buy shares of only a business that generates real profits. A few of the other top traits to look out for including high returns on equity, shareholder-friendly management, high gross profit margins, and low or moderate debt to equity ratios.

The advantage that comes with investing in good business is that it will be resilient and keep its performance high under stress. Even in scenarios wherein share prices decline by 75% of their value, the odds of making a recovery are higher.

  • Short selling

When the market declines, short selling is the most commonly used way of profiting. There are numerous ways in which one can short sell. This is dependent on the market in which one wants to trade and the product that one trades.

The traditional way of short-selling involves borrowing an asset or a share from one’s broker and selling it at the prevailing market price. In case you come to see that the market has a persistent downward movement, one can buy the shares back later and returns them to his lender. The difference in the prices is what one takes home as a profit.

But in the case wherein one makes a wrong assumption and the market suddenly begins to rise again, one would be required to buy the shares again, at a higher market price. Short selling could be profitable, but also withholds within it the potential of unlimited losses, because there are no caps over how much a market rises.

One alternately has a choice at conducting short selling using derivatives. In derivative trading, the products are merely speculative. The prices are taken from the underlying market prices.

Derivatives do not call for a trader to own the concerned assets or shares. Upon trading spread bet and CFDs, one has a choice at going long or short. Correspondingly, one derives advantages from markets that rise, and the one’s that fall as well.

Spread bet implies a bet over the direction in which the pricing for an asset is headed. So when one opens a short spread bet position, the profits are dependent on the prices going down. The advantages are similar to the traditional short-selling position.

Similarly upon trading CFDs, one purchases a contract for exchanging the difference between the opening and closing price of an asset. In this particular case, the asset will be a stock, and an investor opens a position to sell a CFD.

  • Dealing short ETFs

Inverse ETF is another name designated for short exchange-traded funds (ETF). The purpose of inverse ETF is to deliver profits when the underlying benchmarks decline.

A range of derivative products makes inverse ETFs. They primarily include futures contracts.

Inverse ETF has similarities with shorting security. The primary point of difference is that one does not borrow an asset to sell. Instead, one buys the market.

Correspondingly, investors benefited in a downward market, owing to inverse ETFs. They are not required to sell anything short.

Inverse ETFs are not considered to be a means for long-term investments. They are bought and sold every day, at will, by the fund’s manager. Its performance is hence not guaranteed. Instead, investors use inverse ETFs to hedge their investment portfolios, versus any short term declines.

As compared to traditional short-selling, short ETFs are considered to be a less risky alternative. The maximum loss is limited to the amount that one invests in the ETF.

When we perceive the matter objectively, we come to see that living in fear of a stock market crash is nothing new. The uncertainty has been around ever since stock markets have been around.

One such scenario is the recent coronavirus outbreak. The resulting lockdown made the markets lucrative in particular for long term investors.

An investor constantly lives with the fear of a stock market crash in mind. We are bombarded with data and small pieces of information incessantly over the social media and the TV. It gives one an additional reason to start trading from one’s brokerage or retirement account.

It is difficult for a trader or an investor to be sure because a range of factors render influence over stock markets, ranging from natural disasters to global politics.

But luckily, there are still some ways to make money when the stock markets crash. An informed investor makes the best of the same to secure his financial future through turbulent times.

Market experts believe that when an investor sticks to his areas of competence, he is better placed to succeed in the stock markets. Similarly, a disciplined routine, cost control, and focus on the areas that are right for long term investment help.

Investing calls for patience on the behalf of an investor. Expecting fast results may not always work for one’s cause.

But, even when the stock market crashes, short term investment retains value when it is done prudently and meticulously. Day traders derive maximum value from stock markets using their typical and unique implements. One can expect a day trader to make several trades in a single day while attempting to play the markets right.

Let us take a look at a few of the finest short term strategies to stay profitable when the stock market is down:

  • Buy Puts

When you come to feel that an investment will fall, the put option makes one of the most popular investments.

Put option implies that one agrees to sell assets at a predefined price. He may also agree to sell assets at a predefined date.

The strategy becomes particularly valuable when stock values are falling. One can settle the contract to make a massive gain.

An important advantage that comes with the put option is that it gives liberty and flexibility to a trader. The method is called the put option. Option, over here implies that a trader has an option to sell the stocks, not an obligation.

In the case of the put option, a trader puts a responsibility over some other individual to buy a stock at a fixed price. This individual gets paid for accepting the responsibility. The amount paid, in this case, is the amount for put, minus the slippage or bid-ask spread.

  • Invest in a good business

It is a fine idea to buy shares of only a business that generates real profits. A few of the other top traits to look out for including high returns on equity, shareholder-friendly management, high gross profit margins, and low or moderate debt to equity ratios.

The advantage that comes with investing in good business is that it will be resilient and keep its performance high under stress. Even in scenarios wherein share prices decline by 75% of their value, the odds of making a recovery are higher. This tip delivers fine outcomes, irrespective of whether it is a short term or a long term investment that we refer to.

  • Trading safe-haven assets

As a financial instrument, a safe haven asset will either retain its value or increase in value when the broader market declines. A safe haven asset has a negative correlation with the economy. They hence make a feasible choice to be used as a refuge by investors and traders, when the market declines.

Theoretically, one would be taking a long position over a safe haven. This puts one in a better position to deal with market downturns.

A few of the most common examples of safe-haven assets include Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, US dollar, government bonds, and gold. But traders and investors alike should both keep in mind that even while an asset is considered to be a safe have, it does not imply that it will perform on all market downturns.

Let us consider the example of gold. When one intends to invest in this safe-haven asset, one may want to buy the asset physically, and it will be perceived as a store of value.

One may alternately choose to invest in derivatives of gold, to avoid taking delivery of the asset. This will meet the purpose of speculating over the value of the asset.

  • Short selling

When the market declines, short selling is the most commonly used way of profiting. There are numerous ways in which one can short sell. This is dependent on the market in which one wants to trade and the product that one trades.

The traditional way of short-selling involves borrowing an asset or a share from one’s broker and selling it at the prevailing market price. In case you come to see that the market has a persistent downward movement, one can buy the shares back later and returns them to his lender. The difference in the prices is what one takes home as a profit.

But in the case wherein one makes a wrong assumption and the market suddenly begins to rise again, one would be required to buy the shares again, at a higher market price. Short selling could be profitable, but also withholds within it the potential of unlimited losses, because there are no caps over how much a market rises.

One alternately has a choice at conducting short selling using derivatives. In derivative trading, the products are merely speculative. The prices are taken from the underlying market prices.

Derivatives do not call for a trader to own the concerned assets or shares. Upon trading spread bet and CFDs, one has a choice at going long or short. Correspondingly, one derives advantages from markets that rise, and the one’s that fall as well.

Spread bet implies a bet over the direction in which the pricing for an asset is headed. So when one opens a short spread bet position, the profits are dependent on the prices going down. The advantages are similar to the traditional short-selling position.

Similarly upon trading CFDs, one purchases a contract for exchanging the difference between the opening and closing price of an asset. In this particular case, the asset will be a stock, and an investor opens a position to sell a CFD.

  • Dealing short ETFs

Inverse ETF is another name designated for short exchange-traded funds (ETF). The purpose of inverse ETF is to deliver profits when the underlying benchmarks decline.

A range of derivative products makes inverse ETFs. They primarily include futures contracts.

Inverse ETF has similarities with shorting security. The primary point of difference is that one does not borrow an asset to sell. Instead, one buys the market.

Correspondingly, investors benefited in a downward market, owing to inverse ETFs. They are not required to sell anything short.

Inverse ETFs are not considered to be a means for long-term investments. They are bought and sold every day, at will, by the fund’s manager. Its performance is hence not guaranteed. Instead, investors use inverse ETFs to hedge their investment portfolios, versus any short term declines.

As compared to traditional short-selling, short ETFs are considered to be a less risky alternative. The maximum loss is limited to the amount that one invests in the ETF.

One may alternately choose to invest in derivatives of gold, to avoid taking delivery of the asset. This will meet the purpose of speculating over the value of the asset.

Thriving as a long term investor when the market crashes:

Long term investors have some major points of differences over day traders. They frequently do not exhibit the drive and energy required for day trading strategies, and seldom spare the time for the same.

One of the key metrics that long term investors keep in mind is dollar-cost averaging. Dollar-cost averaging implies that an investor takes out a set amount of money to invest in a particular stock in any given month. This is done instead of setting aside an amount for a set volume of shares.

This implies that if you have set aside $100 and the share is worth $100, you buy 1 share. But if the share is worth $50 as the prices fall, you buy 2 shares every month.

This is a feasible and lucrative strategy for long term trading because one buys more shares when the prices are low. So when one intends to sell the shares when the market resumes normalcy and bounces back, one makes more money. But for long term trading in such a way, one should have some income to spare every month. This will allow one to not just see through the market crash easily, but also lets one keep purchasing shares confidently.

Stay rational through a stock market crash.

The stock market crashes from time to time. When investing over the long term, everyone faces some occasional losses at one time or the other.

By investing logically, one can outplay the market because there’s a winner on the other side of every loss.

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Akshat Vashistha
Akshat Vashistha

Written by Akshat Vashistha

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Finance and markets enthusiast.

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