can anyone help me please

hey my name is Butch and i could really use some help .I just funded an Ameritrade account yesterday for $40,000 and wanted to bet that the stock market will be going down for the next 6 months to a year i am 60 years old and have never played the stock market before and really do not know anything about it, but I really felt like the market is going to go down and I wanted to figure out how I would work it so that when the market went down I would make money I tried to get it in last Monday but they had a few problems with getting the money from my bank so I missed a week that it really took a hit and I should have been able to make some money I know there are different options and maybe mutual funds that sell short but I really don't know anything more than that I also know that the Fed is going to raise interest rates on Wednesday and I'd like to get my money in something before the announcement is made and maybe get your opinion on what you think is going to happen
do you have any idea on what I might be able to do that is pretty simple I can either leave the money in their short term or longer term tomorrow I was going to go on to one of the financial website and going to a forum and see if I can find somebody that could help me do you know what binary trades are I was reading a little about them and it seems like there could be some interest there from me but I read that they were very volatile and somebody who doesn't know what they're doing could get really in trouble quickly that way
I don't even know if I know what I'm talking about to be honest with you. anyway I thought I at least take a shot and see if anyone can offer any guidance . any help that you could offer would be extremely appreciated I live in Texas so if you're not adverse to calling me it would probably be a lot easier than typing everything out ,if anyone had a few minutes to talk sometime today or tomorrow. thanks very muchc

Some ETFS you may want to consider

TZA. , SPXU, DOG, UVXY. ( volatility ) Or sector funds for example, FAZ ( financials ) BIS. ( biotech )

These are just a few

Ameritrade has a search engine you can use to research your own, and screen for specific short or bearish ETFS

brucefan said:

Some ETFS you may want to consider

TZA. , SPXU, DOG, UVXY. ( volatility ) Or sector funds for example, FAZ ( financials ) BIS. ( biotech )

These are just a few

Ameritrade has a search engine you can use to research your own, and screen for specific short or bearish ETFS

Click to expand...

thanks very much for getting back to me and I'm going to ask one dumb question what are ETF or sector funds and which one would you recommend and then I'll go off and do my own research from now on thank you

ETF's stands for exchange traded funds . They trade on the NYSE like stocks

Most of the bearish ones will be be portfolios that go short with options or futures contracts, some even have double or triple leverage .

Sector ETFS will allow you to be short specific industries , as opposed to the overall s&p index, or DOW

Here is the description for SPXU , that is a very, liquid popular ETF to use for short term bearish overall market moves

I can't recommend any without knowing more about your risk tolerance

You can do a screen for bearish ETFS on ameritrade's website , the ones that are double and triple leveraged will be more "risky" as they will move up and down more

The investment seeks daily investment results that correspond to three times the inverse (-3x) of the daily performance of the S&P 500®. The fund invests in derivatives that ProShare Advisors believes, in combination, should have similar daily return characteristics as three times the inverse (-3x) of the daily return of the index. The index is a measure of large-cap U.S. stock market performance. It is a float-adjusted, market capitalization-weighted index of 500 U.S. operating companies and real estate investment trusts selected through a process. The fund is non-diversified.

thank you

I am currently the investment advisor for a private equity firm. You may have guessed right - that the markets will decline over the next year - I'm guessing the same - but only time will tell if we are right or not. When you short your shares please be sure to create a trailing stop. I would suggest 25%. A trailing stop is a "trigger" that will limit your losses if the market turns against you. Call a rep at Ameritrade to set that up.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" that's the golden rule. Never put your investments in one company, diversify your portfolio. If you don't have money start with penny stocks and start to know the market first with that. But try and find a legit broker for penny stocks as there are many out there. Also you can refer to many online sites to learn more about penny stocks. The more you study the market, the more you grow, that's the way to survive in the market.