Simple SPY Hedging Strategy to Protect Your Portfolio

2026-03-05 / Bruce Marshall

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If you’ve ever asked, “Do I need to hedge… and when?” this is the simplest, most practical starting point. In Part 1 of this 4-part series, Bruce Marshall shows a SPY hedging strategy that professional money uses—then scales it down so everyday traders can apply it without needing a massive account.

You’ll learn how to think about hedging the right way: Are you protecting a portfolio (IRA, long-term holdings), or positioning for a downside opportunity? From there, Bruce walks through how he uses Thinkorswim time & sales and the Analyze tab to spot large butterfly trades—the kind of institutional options flow that often reveals where “big money” is preparing for a move. Then he shows how to build a retail-friendly version that can act like downside protection options while still offering meaningful upside if the market slides.

Join Jon McKeever and Melissa Beegle Wednesday, March 11th at 6pm CT to discover how to use “Tr3ndy Zones” to pinpoint high-probability pullback entries (without chasing or FOMO.)

You’ll learn how to spot precise buy zones on any chart, avoid early entries that get stopped out, and confidently trade volatile markets like we did during the wild swings of 2025. Sign up here.

Get access to Bruce’s trade alerts and daily live trading sessions in Bruce’s Income Accumulation System. Learn more here.

Bruce Marshall

Bruce began his career working for a Wall Street firm on a bond desk after the Crash of ’87. He spent several years trading bonds until he switched to the equity side which developed his love of trading equities and options early on. He traded IPO’s, secondaries, and preferred’s. In the early days, he actually had to hand write “tickets” to buy and sell securities.