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The Marketing Automation market is swelling at an incredible pace. Thanks to its affordability and key features of being an enabler and accelerator, now more and more start-ups and small businesses are signing up to its benefits.Need more reasons?Run through these quick FAQs to know just why Marketing Automation is the undisputed armour in a start-up’s kitty.Q. As a start-up founder, I am willing to go for the free-trial, but why would I want to use it thereafter?A. More than two-thirds of the companies that sign up for a free trial of Marketing Automation, end up realizing they should continue using it.Q. How long does it take to see the initial ROI after automating my marketing system?A. Of all the businesses that use marketing automation, nearly 3.75% witness a progressive ROI within the first year. For a start-up, this is insane!Moreover, start-ups can boost their ROI by using marketing automation and stand to gain from prominent features like zigihub’s micro-segmentation which can enhance campaign efficacy by 40-50%.Q. What is the biggest benefit of using marketing automation for my start-up?A. The biggest benefit is “saved time” as reported by most marketers. Marketers have expressed their delight for the amount of time they have been able to save with marketing automation. It is tremendous time… time that can be efficiently utilized in performing other equally important tasks.Q. What would my lead management be like after using it?A. Marketing Automation (MA) automatically captures twice as many leads as companies generate with a basic email system.Q. How does marketing automation help scale up my small business?A. Small businesses using MA outgrow their competitors by 63%, according to a finding by Lenskold Group.And what’s more?A whopping 451% surge in qualified leads have been reported by companies using MA system, as per a Wishpond study.To top it all, start-ups have seen their sales increase by 220% after using Marketing Automation.That for one, is quite a number!In a nutshell, your start-up or business journey can be best viewed through this flowchart… which points out the role and significance of marketing automation and what it can do for the success of your business.Voila! That is some challenging job!
Yes, but there are trusted experts like zigihub who can do this job for you effortlessly with its in-built intelligent algorithms.zigihub is a marketing automation platform for businesses and sales and marketing professionals to integrate all their marketing efforts under one umbrella. Using data science and machine learning algorithms, this CRM platform eases the job of marketers and makes the entire process of marketing a cakewalk. For small businesses, MA is full of advantages, as it literally sweeps away a large chunk of time-consuming efforts allowing businesses to scale up faster.The Enablers of Marketing AutomationCampaign ManagementCreate, run and evaluate campaigns across various channels; micro-segmentation of customers based on behaviour, buying patterns, demographics, etc. for executing targeted campaigns.Event Driven MarketingTriggered responses are generated based on customer-specific personal events like birthday or after payments, subscriptions, signing up for free trials, website visits, etc.Website MonitoringIntegrated website monitoring system uses intelligent analytics to increase website traffic and lead conversion rate.Social Media IntegrationIntegrates various social media channels into your marketing strategy by engaging customers in the digital world, thereby identifying and obtaining a holistic view of your existing customers.zigihub’s social media integration efficiently works towards 360? understanding of customer’s social behaviour. It uses fuzzy logic algorithms to match active social media users in the customer base.Email MarketingOn-the-fly segmentation of customers and leads to send personalized marketing messages through templates for increasing open rates.The Accelerators of Marketing AutomationPersonalized CommunicationFor engaging customers, segmented lists are created on the basis of their behaviour, interests and activities for sending personalized messages.Customer ProfilingSummarizing your customers and creating individual profiles from their specific purchasing patterns, demographics, etc. is known as customer profiling.Reference EngineThe Marketing Automation and CRM platform zigihub uses more than 60 algorithms through predictive analytics and machine learning to identify most promising deals and leads.Customers are increasingly looking forward to receiving product recommendations that match their preferences, buying history and likes.Campaign EffectivenessMonitoring and evaluating campaigns closely to improve its effectiveness is crucial to the success of any campaign. It includes detailed insights into analytics like opened, read, deleted, etc.MA platforms are retaining existing customer base with strategic development of their tools in line with the customer’s tastes and preferences. This helps in offering novelty, safeguarding the interests of customers and making them feel valued.These attributes of MA work in perfect harmony to drive a start-up engine and help small businesses scale up.So, if you are planning to start your own business or already have a start-up or SMB, you will find all your marketing related synergies being taken care of by Marketing Automation.As most marketers using it say, it is a silver bullet for start-ups and SMBs.

Outsourcing SEO offshore is becoming increasingly popular as a practical option for retrenching businesses. SEO companies in India and the Philippines, among developing countries, are the favorite choice from where SEO is outsourced. This is no surprise considering the fact that both countries have abundant supply of skilled laborers in the field of information technology.Naturally, projects offered to western SEO companies have significantly declined crippling their operations. Western SEO companies go out of business while the opposite happens in the east. Unfortunately, some western SEO companies responded by maligning the quality of SEO services provided by offshore companies. To some extent, their sentiments are understandable but if you pay a close attention to their logic, you will realize just how self-serving it is.Offshore SEO Service Equals Poor in QualityThis is the first attack you will commonly hear from western SEO companies. Somehow this is true, in the same manner that it is also true in the west. What I’m trying to say is, not all offshore SEO companies deliver crappy services and not all SEO companies in the west are reputable.On the contrary, offshore SEO companies are in fact better than their western counterparts. In the west, SEO is mostly done as a part-time, home-based job. In India and the Philippines, SEOs work full-time in an office where SEO is their core business. They are not just housewives with minimal SEO training but they are highly skilled professionals with in-depth knowledge of SEO that has been acquired from intensive trainings.In the Philippines, SEO professionals need to stay on top of their games. They go through a lot of trainings, seminars and workshops to have an edge over their peers, which explains why most of them have other skills like web design, graphic design, programming etc. This is a must if they want to keep their job. Why? Because competition is fierce. There are a lot of skilled SEOs but there’s a few position to fill. In essence, when you work with SEO businesses in India and the Philippines, you are working with the bests.Language BarrierOne of the biggest challenges that SEO companies in the Philippines and India face is language. As most of their clients are coming from the US, UK, Canada and Australia, they need to use English in their SEO campaign. Since English is not their first language, you would expect problems with their grammar. Fortunately, this is not the case for all offshore companies. A considerable number of SEO organizations in India and the Philippines employ professional writers for their content needs. Some western companies resort to providing their own content to SEO companies to ensure correctness in grammar.And to assume that these companies in the Philippines and India don’t know your objectives and don’t understand your priorities, simply because English is not their first language, is too much of an assumption. You don’t need to be an English speaker to understand that businesses operate for the same reason – to make profit. Proper realignment of your SEO strategies to achieve your client’s goals and objectives do not depend on your comprehension of the English language.ExploitationThe main selling proposition of SEO outsourcing companies offshore is cost-cutting. This is made possible because offshore companies in general operate at a much cheaper cost. Employees are paid a meager salary, almost a third of what an American SEO is paid. Or is it really meager?To compare two professionals from two countries based on their salary without taking into account their country’s standard of living is not fair. Similarly, saying that SEOs in India are exploited because they receive just a quarter of the salary paid to an American SEO, is moronic. The cost of living in India is much cheaper compared to the US, which means even if their salary is smaller, their purchasing power compensates for the difference.ConclusionClearly, there are a lot of misconceptions about offshore SEO companies. Problems have been identified which are mutually exclusive to western SEO companies. Results from your SEO campaign is not correlated to whether you outsourced your SEO offshore or not. It’s more of how you chose your SEO company. Hence, we conclude that outsourcing your SEO offshore is not a bad decision, in fact, it can provide lots of benefits to your company.

What is key in any business success story is an adequate networking plan–a plan that can help launch your small business from the ground up.Generally, it is hard for a new business to become noticed, and even harder to gain your first few clients without any success stories to back up your claims. Your formal marketing plan should therefore project the right networking mix. The right networking mix is about being proactive-in a sense that you leverage your business and personal connections to bring you regular supply of new customers. The whole idea about business networking involves relationship building-and it must be strategic and focused on networking for business growth.Professional Network ServicesWith business networking, you step up to the challenge to find avenues of opportunity that you may have otherwise never discovered. You really do not want to start your business to fail due to the decisions that you the owner makes. In other words, for your enterprise to grow, you have to be prepared to work hard, make decisions, and spend money where it matters. For instance, you may consider using a few prominent networking organizations who have successfully created models of business networking activity. A few notable examples of professional network services include LinkedIn, Viadeo, XING, and WiseStep. Using these professional network services can, in fact, be most effective in terms of generating business opportunities than advertising or public relations efforts.Online business networking can also be a cost effective method of launching your small business. Businesses are today increasingly using social networks as a means of growing their circle of contacts and promoting themselves and their business online. And with the global expansion of businesses, social networks make it easier to keep in touch with other business contacts around the world.Small Business AwardsFurther, face-to-face networking through referral business clubs also have the potential for higher quality business relationships. There are also a vast majority of awards given to businesses locally, countrywide, and globally. The different type of these awards, such as, but not limited to, small business awards, innovation awards, new business awards, local and entrepreneurial awards, are a great way to project your business accomplishments to a wide range of community of prospects. For instance, for more than 50 years, National Small Business Week has recognized the outstanding achievements of America’s small businesses for their contribution in their local communities and to the nation’s economy. The range of National Small Business Week award categories include:· Small Business Person of the Year Award· Small Business Exports of the Year Award· Small Business Development Centre Excellence and Innovation Award· Veterans Business Outreach Center Excellence in Service Award· Women’s Business Center of Excellence AwardThe US Chamber of Commerce also hosts the Dream Big Small Business of the Year Awards Program sponsored by Sam’s Club. The other National Small Business Awards you can win cash for, gain national recognition and valuable networking opportunities include:· The SCORE Awards· The American Business Awards· Inc. 500/5000 Awards· Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Women Awards· Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award· The Better Business Bureau Torch Awards for Marketplace Trust· The SVN Innovation AwardsApplying for some of these awards is crucial when it comes to recognition. Research is vital when trying to find awards you fit into. Researching far ahead of time and making a list is probably the best way to enter into as many awards as possible. Even though some awards have fees, enter any way, because the reward for your business would be huge. And when you get any awards, you get to put the award on your website and social sites as show of early accomplishments.

With party season now in full swing and frazzled parents starting to wonder what hit them, it is high time someone reminded them why childrens entertainers are a much better idea for a childrens party. So – here we go.First up: your kids, and your kids’ guests, do not know the entertainer. They have never seen him or her before in their lives. Children tend to act up much more in front of adults they know: and they act up even worse when they can see that an adult they know is trying to pretend to be someone else. An entertainer tends to dress up in silly clothes and do silly things. If kids see an adult they know doing that, they will go in for the kill. When they see an adult they do not know doing it, they do not know how to react – and so they tend to be better behaved.Two – your childrens entertainers are not supposed to be authority figures. This leads on from point one. The parents of kids, and the parents of other kids, are supposed to have some clout in authority terms. No child will ever listen to an order, a request or a command ever again, if it is delivered by an adult that he or she has seen trying to do failed magic tricks in a daft costume. The entertainers can get away with this for two reasons – one, because they are actually capable of pulling off the tricks, and two, because they are not going to be telling the kids when it is time to go to bed.Again following from a previous point, we have three: childrens entertainers can actually do the tricks and the shows they are performing. When you try and entertain your own kids’ parties, the shine quickly wears off your performance, and that is when all the kids start to act up. It is not your fault. You have never been trained as a side show magician or entertainer. You do not know how to do magic or tell jokes. An entertainer does. So why put yourself through all that stress, only to lose everyone’s attention after five minutes and have to watch the party disintegrate around you?Four: childrens entertainers know when to play up and when to play down. They are trained to read the mood of their audience and act accordingly. The ultimate goal of a kids entertainment is to leave the audience tired, but not too tired; happy, but not over excited. Clearly, that means doing different things depending on the current mood of the audience. The kids’ entertainer is trained to feel that mood and do the right things to get it into that desired end state – the satisfied and tired, but not over worked stage.Five: childrens entertainers mean you can spend more time policing the party: making sure no one over eats, or fights, or feels left out. Effectively, the entertainment is there to leave you free to concentrate on safety and cleaning. That means less stress for you. And less stressed parents’ means kids who are not disposed to act up as much.

It’s always good to have at least a basic foundation of fundamental investment knowledge whether you’re a beginner to investing or working with a professional financial advisor. The reason is simple: You are likely to be more comfortable in investing your money if you understand the lingo and basic principles of investing. Combining the basics with what you want to get out of your investment strategy, you will be empowered to make financial decisions yourself more confidently and also be more engaged and interactive with your financial advisor.Below are a few basic principles that you should be able to understand and apply when you are looking to potentially invest your money or evaluate an investment opportunity. You’ll find that the most important points pertaining to investing are quite logical and require just good common sense. The first step is to make the decision to start investing. If you’ve never invested your money, you’re probably not comfortable with make any investment decisions or moves in the market because you have little or no experience. It’s always difficult to find somewhere to begin. Even if you find a trusted financial advisor, it is still worth your time to educate yourself, so you can participate in the process of investing your money and so that you may be able to ask good questions. The more you understand the reasons behind the advice you’re getting, the more comfortable you will be with the direction you’ve chosen.Don’t Be Intimidated by the Financial Lingo If you turn on the TV to some financial network, don’t worry that you can’t understand the financial professionals right away. A lot of what they say can actually boil down to simple financial concepts. Make sure you ask your financial advisor the questions that concern you so you become more comfortable when investing.IRAs Are Containers to Hold Investments-They Aren’t Investments Themselves The first area of confusions that most new investors get confused about is around their retirement vehicles and plans that they may have. If an investor has an individual retirement accounts (IRA), a 401(k) plan from work, or any other retirement-type plan at work, you should understand the differences between all the accounts you have and the actual investments you have within those accounts. Your IRA or 401(k) is just a container that houses your investments that brings with it some tax-advantages.Understand Stocks and Bonds Almost every portfolio contains these kinds of asset classes. If you buy a stock in a company, you are buying a share of the company’s earnings. You become a shareholder and an owner at the same time of the company. This simply means that you have equity in the company and the company’s future – ready to go up and down with the company’s ups and downs. If the company is doing well, then your shares will be doing well and increase in value. If the company is not doing well or fails, then you can lose value in your investment.If you buy bonds, you become a creditor of the company. You are simply lending money to the company. So you don’t become a shareholder or owner of the company/bond-issuer. If the company fails, then you will lose the amount of your loan to the company. However, the risk of losing your investment to bondholder is less then the risk to owners/shareholders. The reasoning behind this is that to stay in business and have access to funds to finance future expansion or growth, the company must have a good credit rating. Furthermore, the law protects a company’s bondholders over its shareholders if the company goes bankrupt.Stocks are considered to be equity investments, because they give the investor an equity stake in the company, while bonds are referred to as fixed-income investments or debt instruments. A mutual fund, for instance, can invest in any number or combination of stocks and bonds.Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket An important investment principle of all is not to invest all or most of your money into one investment.Include multiple and varying types of investments in your portfolio. There are many asset classes such as stocks, bonds, precious metals, commodities, art, real estate, and so on. Cash, in fact, is also an asset class. It includes currency, cash alternatives, and money-market instruments. Individual asset classes are also broken down into more precise investments such as small company stocks, large company stocks, or bonds issued by municipalities, or bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury.The various asset classes go up and down at different times and at different speeds. The purpose of a diversified portfolio is to mitigate the ups and downs by smoothing out the volatility in a portfolio. If some investments are losing value at some particular period, others will be increasing in value at the same time. So the overarching objective is to make sure that the gainers offset the losers, which may minimize the impact of overall losses in your portfolio from any single investment. The goal that you will have with your financial advisor is to help find the right balance between the asset classes in your portfolio given your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and investment time horizon. This process is commonly referred to as asset allocation.As mentioned earlier, each asset class can be internally diversified further with investment options within that class. For example, if you decide to invest in a financial company, but are worried that you may lose your money by putting everything into one single company, consider making investments into other companies ( Company A, Company B, and Company C) rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Even though diversification alone doesn’t guarantee that you will make a profit or ensure that you won’t lose value in your portfolio, it can still help you manage the amount of risk you are taking or are willing to take. Recognize the Tradeoff Between an Investment’s Risk and Return Risk is generally looked at as the possibility of losing money from your investments. Return is looked at as the reward you receive for making the investment. Returns can be found by measuring the increase in value of your investment from your original investment principal.There is a relationship between risk and reward in finance. If you have a low risk-tolerance, then you will take on less risk when investing, which will result in a lower possible return at any given time, relatively. The highest risk investment will offer the chance to make high returns.Between taking on the highest risk and the lowest risk, most investors seek to find the right balance of risk and returns that he/she feels comfortable with. So, if someone advises you to get in on an investment that has a high return and it is risk-free, then it may be too good to be true.Understand the Difference Between Investing for Growth and Investing for Income Once you make the decision to invest, you may want to consider whether the objective of your portfolio is have it increase in value by growing overtime, or is it to produce a fixed income stream for you to supplement your current income, or is it maybe a combination of the two?Based on your decision, you will either target growth oriented investments or income oriented ones. U.S. Treasury bills, for instance, provide a regular income stream for investors through regular interest payments, and the value of your initial principal tends to be more stable and secure as opposed to a bond issued by a new software company. Likewise, an equity investment in a larger company such as an IBM is generally less risky than a new company. Furthermore, IBM may provide dividends every quarter to their investors which can be used as an income stream as well. Typically, newer companies reinvest any income back into the business to make it grow. However, if a new company becomes successful, then the value of your equities in that company may grow at a much higher rate than an established company. This increase is typically referred to as capital appreciation.Whether you are looking for growth, income, or both, your decision will fully depend on your individual financial and investment objectives and needs. And, each type may play its own part in your portfolio.Understand the Power of Compounding on Your Investment Returns Compounding is an important investment principle. When you reinvest any dividends or other investment returns, you begin to earn returns on your past returns.Consider a simple example of a plain bank certificate of deposit (CD) that is rolled over to a new CD including its past returns each time it matures. Interest that is earned over the lifetime of the CD becomes part of the next period’s sum on which interest is assessed on. At the beginning, when you initially invest your money compounding may seem like only a little snowball; however, as time goes by, that little snowball gets larger because of interest compounding upon interest. This helps your portfolio grow much faster. You Don’t Have to Go at It Alone Your Financial Advisor can give you the investment guidance that you need so that you don’t have to stop yourself from investing in the market because you feel like you don’t know enough yet. Knowing the basic financial principles, having good common sense, and having your Financial Advisor guide you along the way can help you start evaluating investment opportunities for your portfolio and help get you closer toward achieving your financial goals.

It seems that the more discussion there is in regard to health care reform, the more discussion there is in regard to health care reform cons. Undoubtedly, there has been a need for some type of health care over haul. Now that health care reform is a reality many Americans are faced with determining the pros and cons and how they will be affected beyond simple access to health care. In this article, we’ll discuss different cons or concerns by those opposing and supporting health care reform and focus on the “biggest con of all”.Pros typically go hand in hand with cons. However, based on numerous emails and request we’ll focus on the biggest con associated with health care reform and provide a follow up article addressing pros (aside from the following couple of pros/reasons for a reform).1) As of 2008 there were more than forty million Americans who were uninsured.2) A 2009 American journal of medicine study revealed that sixty two percent of 2007 bankruptcies were the related to medical expenses.Obviously with so many being uninsured and filing bankruptcy, one would say that there is definitely a need for health care reform. However, when we take a closer look, we see different ways that the change will affect us as well as shed a light on deeper issues. First, the forty plus million uninsured individuals could be somewhat tainted in that these figures likely include undocumented immigrants. Second, of the 2007 bankruptcies (sixty two percent of which were related to medical expenses) over sixty percent of the individuals had medical insurance!That leads us to one of the biggest cons and one that should be reviewed very closely. That is insurance ignorance (being insured without the knowledge of how your plan works). Sixty percent of 2007 bankruptcies were medical related and sixty percent of those had medical insurance. The problem here is quite simple in that individuals securing health coverage are doing so without truly knowing what their coverage means. Does that sound familiar? How about the recent housing implosion? The housing crisis stemmed from many different contributors.However, it is a widely held view that many new homeowners simply had little knowledge of the terms of their loans and/or those who held the knowledge (lenders, appraisers, originators etc) failed to do an appropriate job in educating or even attempting to educate potential new homeowners. Many times an individual may be “covered” by an insurance carrier. However, in an attempt to have low monthly premiums, the individual may choose to have a high deductible.A monthly premium of $100 or less sounds fantastic until a major health issue or accident arises and the individual must come up with thousands in order to meet a deductible. Bear in mind that a car accident causing the need for major medical work can cost $3,000-$5,000 per day in hospital stay alone (this does not include the actual surgery to repair the damage). In most cases individuals have no idea how much a hospital stay will run them nor do they have any idea of the bankruptcy statistics.There are certainly other cons associated with health care reform. Some include longer wait times for individuals to receive diagnosis due to an increased number of insured individuals. However, the “pro” ponents of health care reform would say that this opens the door for more jobs. Other cons include the growth of the federal deficit and increase in taxes we pay. As well as it being difficult to administer because it is too hard to determine what type of coverage should be the minimum guaranteed.There are many more cons to reform. However, the one that we find most troubling is the knowledge of what an individual will receive in their newly gained policy. Let’s not walk down the path of mandating insurance for all individuals without mandating certain information that must be shared with the end consumer. The statistics speak for themselves. More than half of the bankruptcies of 2007 were medical related and more than half of those individuals had coverage. It may be possible to help individuals find credit relief prior to their downfall. However, it will start with the “reformers” implementing health plans and health education based on the statistics that we currently have at our fingertips.

Are you interested in health care careers, but you simply just don’t want to be a doctor? You’re not alone. Getting a PhD can take a very long time and it can be extremely expensive. Besides this, not everyone wants to become a doctor. The good news is that there are a lot of other health care careers that will allow you to make a very good living, help other people, and they will also be very satisfying. Before you begin a health care career, you should take some time and go over all your options and try to find the best fit for you.Probably one of the most popular health care careers out there is nursing. As populous nursing is, there always seems to be a shortage of good nurses. Most people go into nursing because they will be directly caring for patients and they can see the results for themselves. The two types of nurses are either licensed practical nurses or registered nurses. Becoming an LPN only takes about one year of schooling and this is usually the most popular option. To become an RN you will need as much as three years of school, but you also earn more money.Another option for health care careers is to become a certified nurse aide. These nurse aides are commonly referred to as a CNA. As a CNA, you will not earn as much money as a nurse but you will still earn a decent wage. Also, you will not do as much work as a nurse. Instead, you will be assisting the nurse by helping them care for the patients. Many nurses start out as certified nurse aides to help them pay for their education.If nursing doesn’t appeal to you, then maybe you should consider a career in the field of radiology. Radiology is one of the few health care careers that has a decent work schedule. Many radiologists have a set schedule and work very few weekends. You’ll see most radiologists performing tests like a CT scan, MRI, and an x-ray. As long as you have the proper training and a good work history, you should have no trouble finding work in this health care field.Some people like to travel, and if you are one of these people then there are health care careers for you as well. Probably the most popular option is the traveling nurse. This career path can take you just about anywhere in the entire world. Many of these traveling nurses work for private companies, while others work for larger nonprofit companies like the Red Cross. Traveling nurses make very good money and they get to see the whole world at the same time. If your goal is to make a little bit of difference in this world, then this is one way you could go about doing it.

#EANF#

Summary
SPDN is not the largest or oldest way to short the S&P 500, but it’s a solid choice.
This ETF uses a variety of financial instruments to target a return opposite that of the S&P 500 Index.
SPDN’s 0.49% Expense Ratio is nearly half that of the larger, longer-tenured -1x Inverse S&P 500 ETF.
Details aside, the potential continuation of the equity bear market makes single-inverse ETFs an investment segment investor should be familiar with.
We rate SPDN a Strong Buy because we believe the risks of a continued bear market greatly outweigh the possibility of a quick return to a bull market.
Put a gear stick into R position, (Reverse).
Birdlkportfolio

By Rob Isbitts

Summary
The S&P 500 is in a bear market, and we don’t see a quick-fix. Many investors assume the only way to navigate a potentially long-term bear market is to hide in cash, day-trade or “just hang in there” while the bear takes their retirement nest egg.

The Direxion Daily S&P 500® Bear 1X ETF (NYSEARCA:SPDN) is one of a class of single-inverse ETFs that allow investors to profit from down moves in the stock market.

SPDN is an unleveraged, liquid, low-cost way to either try to hedge an equity portfolio, profit from a decline in the S&P 500, or both. We rate it a Strong Buy, given our concern about the intermediate-term outlook for the global equity market.

Strategy
SPDN keeps it simple. If the S&P 500 goes up by X%, it should go down by X%. The opposite is also expected.

Proprietary ETF Grades
Offense/Defense: Defense

Segment: Inverse Equity

Sub-Segment: Inverse S&P 500

Correlation (vs. S&P 500): Very High (inverse)

Expected Volatility (vs. S&P 500): Similar (but opposite)

Holding Analysis
SPDN does not rely on shorting individual stocks in the S&P 500. Instead, the managers typically use a combination of futures, swaps and other derivative instruments to create a portfolio that consistently aims to deliver the opposite of what the S&P 500 does.

Strengths
SPDN is a fairly “no-frills” way to do what many investors probably wished they could do during the first 9 months of 2022 and in past bear markets: find something that goes up when the “market” goes down. After all, bonds are not the answer they used to be, commodities like gold have, shall we say, lost their luster. And moving to cash creates the issue of making two correct timing decisions, when to get in and when to get out. SPDN and its single-inverse ETF brethren offer a liquid tool to use in a variety of ways, depending on what a particular investor wants to achieve.

Weaknesses
The weakness of any inverse ETF is that it does the opposite of what the market does, when the market goes up. So, even in bear markets when the broader market trend is down, sharp bear market rallies (or any rallies for that matter) in the S&P 500 will cause SPDN to drop as much as the market goes up.

Opportunities
While inverse ETFs have a reputation in some circles as nothing more than day-trading vehicles, our own experience with them is, pardon the pun, exactly the opposite! We encourage investors to try to better-understand single inverse ETFs like SPDN. While traders tend to gravitate to leveraged inverse ETFs (which actually are day-trading tools), we believe that in an extended bear market, SPDN and its ilk could be a game-saver for many portfolios.

Threats
SPDN and most other single inverse ETFs are vulnerable to a sustained rise in the price of the index it aims to deliver the inverse of. But that threat of loss in a rising market means that when an investor considers SPDN, they should also have a game plan for how and when they will deploy this unique portfolio weapon.

Proprietary Technical Ratings
Short-Term Rating (next 3 months): Strong Buy

Long-Term Rating (next 12 months): Buy

Conclusions
ETF Quality Opinion
SPDN does what it aims to do, and has done so for over 6 years now. For a while, it was largely-ignored, given the existence of a similar ETF that has been around much longer. But the more tenured SPDN has become, the more attractive it looks as an alternative.

ETF Investment Opinion

SPDN is rated Strong Buy because the S&P 500 continues to look as vulnerable to further decline. And, while the market bottomed in mid-June, rallied, then waffled since that time, our proprietary macro market indicators all point to much greater risk of a major decline from this level than a fast return to bull market glory. Thus, SPDN is at best a way to exploit and attack the bear, and at worst a hedge on an otherwise equity-laden portfolio.