Jon,

I'm interested as well to hear people's thoughts - not only on shorts, bur other investment strategies/ideas as well. Here are my initial thoughts, although I'm not sure how helpful they are -

for instance, I think the car companies are in for a very bad time because 1. Who (at this point) wants to test drive a car that 12 other people have been in that day?; and 2. With as many unemployed people as we have, who feels rich enough to plunk down $50k+ for a Ford F-150? (Now, all that may be offset by a. I believe there was or will be govt. relief for the auto co's, 2. From what I see locally as well as in the news, people are acting downright stupid in terms of distancing - so they might not think twice about taking a test drive, and 3. The American childish appetite for debt never ceases to amaze me - meaning buying things they can't afford. So, at 0% down, 0% (or whatever) at closing, why not buy an F-150 - you'll worry about how to pay the note later. and 4. I just don't know what the kind of liquidity that's being pumped into the system will have in terms of effect - people can buy stuff for free? Inflation may finally make it's long-delayed appearance? I dunno.

What I do know is this - one can play the volitility. For the reasons above, I got rid of 2/3rds of my stake in Ford at $5. Then, I realized by looking at the options that there's money to be made there. So I sold the remaining 1/3 out as calls stk May 08 @$5 for .50 premium. (The stock itself was around $5 when I did that.) A 10% premium? Are you kidding. The problem and the promise are the same - the price gets pushed and pulled according to the news of the day. It's been up as high as around $5.40 or so, and today it ended in the $4.90's.  So, I may pull a 'Jon' and buy them back or let them expire, and sell them out again if that's viable. I'm sure you can find a lot of stocks with some ridiculous premiums if you're wiling to take the risk. Jester is much better and more sophisticated at playing volatility, so he might chime in.

The banks, and related financial institutions (Manulilfe, Metlife, etc.) have been crushed, and are now bobbing around with the volatility -up 3% one day, down 3% the next. I know the banks are in a black hole because while people can not pay their mortgages, the bank still has to pay the institutions that hold those mortgages, or if they own them, they're not getting paid for what are, essentially 'delayed income' from the mortgage payments they should be receiving. I wonder if, like Canada, the govt. will pay banks to loan money. I haven't quite looked into or figured out why the insurance companies have been kicked to the curb. I'm guess it's 1. If they're life insurance companies, the fact that the death rate has been knocked out of predicted ranges may cost them. And if they're insuring other things, people may not be paying their premiums to the extent that they can either get away with it, or simply can't afford it. But if you look at the dividends for MFC and MET, they're pretty enticing, if they can hold them. And at lower prices they become more so. Metlife has strong analyst support. MFC has more of a 'neutral' rating.

Ok, so none of that is critically helpful in terms of shorts. But if the market crashes again, I know some names I believe in that I'm either not selling or will accumulate more of: CIEN (I think 5g was going to be delayed before Corona, stretching over years through 2025, when I think it becomes ubiquitous. But their balance sheet looks good, and they've consistently beaten estimates. They've had a number of downgrades to 'neutral' and PT's from $47-$51 or so based on price appreciation. I'd love to buy some more MSFT at lower prices. I believe in ISRG, but they may suffer short-term, as their business is hospital based - I'd take it as a buying opportunity. They were as low as $390 during the March crash. Ah, retrospect. NVDA may be pricey in this market, but long-term, I like them a lot. I own some Apple - the street absolutely loves them - I have doubts about how many people will drop $$$ on pricey iphones, but the SE model should help.

That's about all that's in my head at the moment. I probably didnt' help a whole lot, but perhaps others can contribute.