Every trading day, Portfolio Armor ranks all of the hedgeable stocks, ETFs, and other exchange-traded products in the U.S. by its estimate of their potential return over the next six months, based on an analysis of price history and option market sentiment. Then it subtracts hedging costs, and ranks them all by potential return net of hedging costs, or net potential return. It’s a method of security selection we backtested 25,412 times over an 11-year time period during which it generated solid returns, on average.

On Thursday, the highest-ranked ETF, and the 7th-ranked security overall, was the Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares ETF (YANG), a triple-levered bet against China, with a potential return of 13.6% over the next six months.

As of Thursday’s close, you had a shot of capturing that potential return, while limiting your downside risk to 13.6% – and getting paid to hedge – by using the optimal collar below: (more…)