Thank you for the link to the search page, Sohie, and for your other explanations and input as well.  I just started shorting some stocks, buying options and looking at how Max Pain can perhaps be a telling signal.  My first short was KBH, but the whole housing sector and sub-primes are a potential landmine for economy.  I say that so that you know that I know just enough to probably get myself into trouble, and yet I really want to know how to hold my own on this investment battle field.

I am wondering, in retrospect, how I personally may have taken a short position in order to cover my huge long position... and I'll be honest, I am down over 100K in this stock because I kept averaging down all along the way.  That was my key mistake.  So shorting it would have protected some of my investment, some insulation at least.

How might one of us, the average Joe retail investor, have found a loophole so that we might have taken a protective position?  What brokerage company offers this?  Actually, I have a customer who is a broker so next time I see him I will dig into that so that I can correct what has been a huge misunderstanding.

Thanks for trying to answer my question.