Short-selling http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/course/Shorting-shares.html (profiting from a fall in a share) is an essential part of any spread trader's weaponry, and these days it's really no more difficult than normal buying of shares, thanks to spread betting. Some basic statistics based from my own experience: markets really only trend 10% of the time; these trends can be down as well as up; stocks spend about two thirds of the time moving higher and one third of the time moving lower, also markets fall three times faster than they rally, so the profit potential is greater.