No worries, Orwell. I didn't want to get all serious really. I'm just passionate about some things and also don't like paying wads of tax if I don't have to.
re: hedging; it's never been easier really with the myriad providers but I was mainly talking about the advisor space, where a client will have their assets protected by a qualified advisor, who can look at the types of assets they own and hedge appropriately. But for a simple retail investor doing it solo, if they held all Aussie shares, a simple inverse ETF over the index (200; 100; XMD, XSO, depending on the beta of the portfolio) would usually provide extremely strong coverage if the broader market was to fall heavily. You would never be looking at covering solely over DMP, unless for some reason that was your only holding. It's been well studied and publicised now that holding too many stocks can diversify-away your gains and increase transaction costs, with the other implication being that you don't need to hold half the stocks in the XJO to get reasonable correlation to it by holding a smaller basket of stocks from a mix of sectors within that index. So by the same token, an inverse index ETF usually fits the bill and is extremely cheap to use.
The other option I've used to good effect is long-dated WOOTM puts over liquid stocks like BHP, CBA etc. It's a cheap premium forfeited if things don't go pear shaped and if they do, you make a small fortune, allbeit your portfolio also goes down.
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