Bear Market Strategies Workshop: On-Demand Video Course

Master bear market trading with our comprehensive Bear Market Strategies course. Learn to identify and define bear markets, understand their psychology, and benefit from first-hand trading experiences from past downturns. Gain insights into options and hedging strategies, prepare to trade effectively, develop a systems plan, and create objective-driven position sizing strategies. Prepare for the next bear market with confidence.

Bear Market Strategies Course Overview

This course will equip you with the knowledge and strategies needed to navigate and prosper in bear markets. To learn more, watch the 12-minute video where Kirk Cooper explains the objectives and advantages of the workshop followed by a brief Q&A.

Bear Market Strategies Testimonials

One or our students discusses the advantage he has gained in his trading through our Bear Market Strategies Workshop.

The Bear Market Strategies course will help you:

• Outline a big picture view of bear markets and where we may be now.
• Identify and define bear markets using various methodologies.
• Understand the psychology of bear markets and the personal psychology required for you to benefit from them.
• Study first-hand trading experiences of bear markets from 1987;1998; 2000; 2008; Japan’s lost decade in the 90s, Oil, 2014-2015.
• Understand basic options strategies useful in bear markets.
• Understand some basic hedging strategies.
• Understand how to be prepared to trade bear markets.
• Create a Systems development process plan.
• Outline your objectives for bear markets.
• Create Position Sizing Strategies for bear markets.

Course Objectives

The objectives of this course are to ensure you are prepared to prosper in the next bear market. Specifically, you will:

• Study the concept of a bear market in-depth.
• Learn several ways to define and measure a bear market.
• Identify when a bear market might start and end.
• Learn trading strategies suited for bear market conditions.
• Understand the psychology of bear markets and the personal psychology required to benefit from them.

Dr. Tharp’s Perspective on Bear Markets

Dr. Tharp has always been convinced that people should be better prepared for bear market types, and this concern has grown in recent years. Super Trader instructor Kirk Cooper, who has managed money professionally through several bear markets, draws on his years of trading experience and research to deliver great value as you move through this home study course.

Fear of Market Crashes

Do you fear another market crash like the one in 2008-2009? Could we be in a similar situation right now in 2020? If so, you are not alone. Many people view such conditions as a crisis. However, for those who are prepared, another bear market presents opportunities. This home study helps you learn how to think about trading broad bear markets or specific asset classes, sectors, or even single symbols in bear mode.

Trading Bear Markets

Major bear markets come only once in a while, but “lesser” down moves can be found almost anytime, even during bull markets. Start using the information from this course and be prepared for the next bear market move.

Preparing for Bear Markets

Are you prepared for the next bear market? Bear markets can present some of the best trading conditions for prepared traders. The unprepared get hammered or sit on the sidelines. While waiting through bulls and sideways markets, prepared traders can benefit from sectors, segments, or individual instruments in a down market of their own. Dr. Tharp believes people should be better prepared for bear markets, a concern that has grown in recent years.

Key Questions for Bear Market Readiness

Consider these questions:

• If a bear market decline started tomorrow, how prepared would you be?
• Have you defined your objectives for trading during a bear market?
• Do you have strategies or systems ready to perform well in a bear market?
• How will you manage your longer-term positions? Will you move them to cash or hedge them?

Importance of Preparation

If you aren’t well prepared, you might consider moving to cash, which is a safe strategy. However, identifying the timing for such a move is challenging. For knowledgeable traders, bear markets present some of the best trading conditions, both during the bear and at the bottom as the recovery process begins.

Trading Strategies for Bear Markets

If you are open to considering trading in a bear market, this course will help you learn how to define a bear market, develop trading objectives, and create strategies that perform well in bear markets. You will also learn about options and hedging strategies useful for bear markets.

What Kirk Cooper Will Present

For the longer-term trader or investor, Kirk will review the big picture options when the bear market arrives. You could move to cash, hedge, actively trade, or combine these strategies to suit your objectives. Understanding the benefits and costs of each phase will help attendees make informed choices. Kirk will also cover how to pursue each strategy and some additional factors to consider.

Kirk will teach short-term trading systems and strategies that he actively trades right now, in addition to those that have been developed by other Van Tharp Institute staff and Super Traders.

The idea of shorting tends to be an anathema for the general investing public. For the trader, though, it’s a requirement to understand and execute short trades during down markets.

Kirk will review several strategies utilizing options. Because of the swiftness and degree of bear markets, options offer especially attractive reward-to-risk ratios for the prepared trader. This course will introduce options but will not be a complete course in options. Strategies presented may not appeal to traders unfamiliar with options. However, for traders who understand options concepts, bear markets present an attractive opportunity. Kirk keeps his strategies simple because even simple ones hold significant potential under the right conditions.

Kirk has worked with Van on the psychological component of bear market types. Psychology plays a more dramatic role in bear markets than any other market type. Successful traders have an edge in understanding the drama and using it to trade better. Planning is crucial.

Baby Bears in Bull or Sideways Markets? Plus a BOGO

When the overall market is moving sideways or up, knowing how to short stocks or buy out options for symbols in their own “baby” bear market would be a great addition to every trader’s toolkit. Being able to trade that way on a consistent basis would be like running your own long/short hedge fund. Kirk will cover how to create a market type process for yourself.

In addition, the strategies that Kirk teaches could be reversed to have an opposing set of rules to be used in bull markets. This approach offers attendees a BOGO (buy one get one free) deal on this eLearning course.

About Your Instructor, Kirk Cooper

Kirk is registered in Canada as a Portfolio Manager and a Commodity Trading Manager (CTA equivalent). He has been a Chartered Financial Analyst Charter holder since September 1996. He has a Degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Psychology with a focus on behavioral finance, risk management, and market psychology. Kirk has over 25 years of experience in the financial markets including commodity futures trading, financial analysis, equity and equity derivatives, risk and portfolio management.

In December 2007, Kirk was a founding partner of a hedge fund in Toronto, Canada where he was in charge of Quantitative Investing. The firm grew assets under management to 900 million dollars. He was there until he started his own trading operation in May 2015. Prior to that, Kirk researched, developed, and implemented a systematic trading strategy that he successfully managed over an 18-month period earning over 30% p.a. In the 1990s, Kirk was a proprietary trader at Deutsche Bank Canada within the bank’s North American proprietary trading group. He jointly managed over $1.2 billion in assets. Prior to that, he was Vice President & Co-Head, Canadian Equity Derivatives at Citibank Canada. He was in charge of managing the portfolio of the Canadian equity derivative book, which was among the largest and most active in the Canadian market at the time, with assets over $750 million. In 1992, Kirk co-founded a fund that was issued to eligible investors. The fund achieved an annualized return of over 18% during the four-year period.

This is a video-on-demand course with a recording of the live presentation and PDF slides. You are purchasing access to the workshop recording with all available study materials. Note that some bonus materials or resources mentioned in the course may no longer be available.

Frequently Ask Questions