Hedge Against a Crash Now

The market's down 12%, and a recession looms. The outlook hasn't been this uncertain for years. It might seem like a good time to sell and wait out the volatility, but then you'd miss the big bounces.

Instead of running away, you should consider hedging your portfolio. A good hedge can reduce your downside risk while keeping most of the upside.

One hedging option
One way to hedge is using put stock options. Suppose you like Baidu.com, but you're worried about short-term risks. Baidu had a big run-up, but it faltered, and you don't want to lose your gains. You also don't want to sell the shares, because you still believe Baidu can go even higher.

To hedge, you could buy puts. The owner of the put has the right to sell the stock at a predetermined price for a period of time. On April 24, with Baidu at $349, you could buy the June $350 put for $37. Then, if the stock's trading at less than $350 anytime between now and the third week of June, you could exercise the put to sell the stock for $350. If, instead, Baidu appreciates, you would elect not to exercise the put (why sell for $350 if the stock's trading for more?).

The great thing about hedging with puts is that you limit your downside risk but keep the huge potential upside.

Of course, the $37 you pay for the put will come out of your profits. What's more, the more volatile the stock -- and the more you need insurance -- the more you'll pay for the option:

So right now, the market thinks homebuilders and mortgage companies are riskier than beverage companies and pharmaceutical companies. No kidding.

Avoiding expiry
The big problem with puts is that they're like term life insurance. You pay a premium to be insured for a few months, but when that time period expires, your insurance and premium are gone. However, there is a way to hedge without worrying about it expiring.

You may have heard of SPDRs (AMEX: SPY), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that mimics the performance of the S&P 500 index. Well, there are short ETFs, too, whose performance is the inverse of the corresponding index. 

Even better, there are the UltraShort ETFs, which return twice the inverse performance of the underlying index. If the S&P 500 falls 1%, the UltraShort S&P 500 ProShares (SDS) gains 2%. So UltraShort ETFs give you twice the protection for your hedging dollar.

These funds are great at guarding against a decline in the general market or a specific sector. But there are two downsides. First, if the market goes up instead of down, your hedge will lose money. Second, these ETFs maintain constant leverage. Mathematically, that means that if the underlying index goes up 10 points, and then down 10 points, the UltraShort fund won't break even. It will lose money.

The hedge-less hedge
Perhaps the best way to hedge is to not hedge at all. The reasoning is simple: Whenever you buy a stock, you should pay less for it than it's worth. Otherwise, why bother? But when you pay less than a stock's worth, it provides you with a margin of safety -- over the long term, stocks generally return to their fair value. So if you buy a stock that's 50% undervalued, then even if its fair value plummets by 50% as the business weakens during a recession, you'll still probably break even over the long term.

Even better, undervalued stocks can give you excellent returns without any improvements to the business. If a 50% undervalued stock just returns to fair value, you have a 100% return.

For example, in the February issue of Inside Value, lead advisor Philip Durell recommended a "truly remarkable franchise." He believes the stock will double in three years, partly because of its superior growth opportunities, but mainly because the shares are extremely undervalued right now.

The Foolish bottom line
So if your portfolio consists of cheap stocks and you have the stomach to stick with those stocks even if they fall further, it may be better not to hedge at all. The strategy you already employ offers an excellent combination of low risk and high reward.

If you're looking for bargains, the Motley Fool Inside Value newsletter service focuses exclusively on such opportunities. You can read all of our recommendations with a 30-day free trial.

This article was first published March 5, 2008. It has been updated.

Fool contributor Richard Gibbons loves to have his cake and eat it, too. He owns June puts on the SPDRs. The Motley Fool owns shares of SPDRs. Baidu.com is a Rule Breakers recommendation. Coca-Cola is an Inside Value pick. J&J is a selection of the Income Investor newsletter. The Fool's disclosure policy dreams of one day being a real boy.