Educational Video Series

The Market Trend & Grotection Gauge Explained

In this short educational video, Don Vandenbord explains how the Market Trend and the Grotection Gauge help us assess the market’s current state and where risk may be building next.

Why are bear markets so dangerous?

• Historical data (14 bear markets since 1968) shows that the average loss during a bear market is -44.5%.
• With that kind of loss you would need a +80.1% gain in your portfolio just to get back to even.

Big losses are mathematically devastating, and especially dangerous for retirement portfolios. So, the real goal is to avoid major drawdowns, not just chase upside.

Every major bear market occurs below the 200-day moving average.

With our Grotection Gauge we track 6 indexes across 3 timeframes:

1. Short-Term (21-day MA)
2. Medium-Term (50-day MA)
3. Long-Term (200-day MA)

We also track leaders – stocks that perform better during any given moment.

Our core philosophy is to participate in uptrends and step aside in downtrends.

We’re not about predicting — we’re about adapting quickly.

You can now find more details about the Market Trend and Grotection Gauge in the FAQ section of our website, along with additional insights into our investment philosophy, portfolio structure, and onboarding process.

This Is How Bear Markets Begin & How We Stay Ahead of Them

Danny Stewart and Don Vandenbord discuss the core 200-day moving average principle and how Revere structures its portfolio to manage risk, adjust exposure, and navigate potential bear markets.

The foundation of the approach is simple but powerful: bear markets only occur below the 200-day moving average. There are several nuances to this and a single break below the 200-day is not a panic signal.

Revere Asset portfolios are split into two distinct systems:

1. 50% – Individual Stocks / Sector ETFs: Each position has strict sell rules and stop losses. During pullbacks, most stocks break down first, only the strongest names hold up. This portion is granular and selective, driven by individual setups.
2. 50% – Index-Based “Layered” System: This is our core innovation: a 3-layer exposure model tied to moving averages.

This system is designed to avoid trying to day trade macro moves, aggressive shorting and all-or-nothing decisions.

This is why early, layered defense matters. You want to survive a dip, but not sit through a full bear market. Resilience alone isn’t enough. You need exit discipline.

At Revere we prepare for bear markets before they accelerate.

Our Portfolio Exposure Framework In A Tough Market

In this video, Don Vandenbord discusses a challenging market environment with high volatility and explains Revere’s portfolio exposure framework for managing risk during periods like this.

Rather than committing to a single directional view, our approach emphasizes maintaining both bullish and bearish scenarios simultaneously.

The key objective is to observe how conditions evolve, specifically identifying negative factors that are improving toward positive and positive factors that are deteriorating toward negative.

Regardless of the factors our core discipline is to remove emotions and rely strictly on price and volume behavior.

To accomplish this, we use a rules-based exposure model designed to systematically adjust portfolio risk depending on the market’s technical structure.

1. Index Exposure (Beta Allocation): The goal in bullish conditions is to maintain approximately 80% market exposure (0.8 beta). This can be achieved using leveraged ETFs.
2. Individual Stock Positions: The other half of the portfolio consists of individual stocks, which are managed independently. Each stock must “earn its spot in the lineup.”

This ensures that stock-specific risks remain controlled even if broader market conditions deteriorate.

Revere’s Approach: Target Stocks That Can Deliver 2–3x the S&P 500

Don Vandenbord walks through the GROTECTION portfolio structure in detail, explaining how the strategy has evolved over time into splitting the portfolio roughly in half: index exposure (core participation) and individual growth stocks (alpha generation).

Any individual stock added must have the potential to deliver at least 2–3x the S&P’s return during its holding period. Otherwise, it’s not worth taking on single-stock volatility.

So, one of our key philosophies: don’t take individual stock risk unless the upside meaningfully exceeds what leveraged index exposure can already deliver.

Volatility does provide opportunity — but only if downside is controlled and winners are allowed to run.

This reinforces the other philosophy: ruthlessly cut losers and let winners run. This is where the edge really comes in.

Core Takeaways:

1. Win rate doesn’t matter — payoff ratio does.
2. Stock selection must justify single-stock risk.
3. Index exposure handles participation.
4. Leaders in bull markets generate disproportionate gains.
5. Discipline — not prediction — drives results.
6. Constant refinement and accountability matter.

At Revere, we put our own money where our mouth is. That’s why we focus on continuous improvement and ruthless execution, because performance directly affects us as well.

Our Systematic Approach To Shorting Weak Stocks

In this educational video, Ted Zhang breaks down how Revere Asset systematically shorts weak stocks using inverse ETFs, manages risk in volatile markets, and reads real-time feedback from both longs and shorts to stay on the right side of the trend.

We actively trade inverse single-stock ETFs to profit from downside moves in weak stocks.

Profit management is the key. The goal is not to get greedy. We aim to lock in gains and reduce risk, while still staying in the trade.

Not all short trades work. Some of our shorts are flat or barely green. When running a long/short strategy, you must constantly read various signals, such as:

• Are shorts getting stopped out?
• Are longs starting to work better?
• Is relative strength shifting?

These signals will tell you if the market is getting stronger → reduce shorts, or if the market is getting weaker → press shorts.

So, if you want to short stocks, here is our short-selling playbook:

1. Short strength, but only with confirmation (downtrend + below moving averages + weak vs market)
2. Use structure, not opinions (entries at resistance or stops at key reclaim levels)
3. Take profits aggressively (especially with leveraged products)
4. Expect chop and frustration (even good setups can go nowhere)
5. Size smaller in volatile markets (we explicitly avoid large sizing)
6. Stay adaptive (let price action guide bias, not predictions)

Revere’s Aggressive Index Re-Entry Rules

Don Vandenbord explains Revere Asset’s re-entry rules and how to systematically scale back into the market when #SPX is trading below the 200-day moving average.

These rules are designed for one situation: when the market is below the 200-day moving average (bearish regime). In this environment, you don’t rush in, you scale exposure gradually, and you let price action prove itself. Early on, the goal is simple: stay near 0 exposure until the market earns your capital back. This system is NOT bullish or bearish—it’s adaptive.

If the market fails:

• Break below 8 EMA → go net short
• Repeated failure at 21 MA → stay defensive or short

If the market improves:

• Stack exposure gradually
• Never go “all-in” early

In our approach, we manage risk in a smart way: Core (index exposure) = slow, stable allocation, while Long/short overlay = flexibility + hedging.

Key advantage:

• You can stay invested without triggering taxes
• Hedge by shorting instead of selling

How Top Advisors Protect Gains In Growth Stocks

In this short video, Connor Bates explains the “Seven Week Rule” and how it helps top advisors like Revere Asset protect profits and avoid major drawdowns in leading growth stocks.

The Seven Week Rule is a disciplined exit strategy designed to help you:

• Ride strong growth stocks during powerful uptrends
• Avoid giving back profits in major drawdowns (20–40%)

It focuses on identifying when a stock’s behavior (character) changes—not just price.

A strong stock in a power trend will:

• Stay above a key moving average (typically the 10-day MA);
• Do this consistently for at least 7 weeks;
• Use that moving average as support (bounces off it repeatedly).

This tells you institutions are supporting the stock.

Once that pattern is established…

• Method A: Sell when the stock closes below the 10-day moving average
• Method B: Wait for a close below the 10-day MA, and if the next day breaks the prior day’s low, that confirms weakness → sell

This rule is NOT about the moving average itself. If a stock behaved one way for 7+ weeks and suddenly stops — something changed. That’s your signal to get out.

According to William J. O’Neil:

• Great leaders often pull back to the 50-day MA
• If they hold → it’s often a buy opportunity, not a sell

Why is this rule so powerful? It solves a major problem: most investors either sell too early… or hold too long.

This rule:

• Keeps you in the trend during the best part of the move
• Gets you out when the trend actually breaks
• Prevents round-tripping profits

We Don’t Chase the Bottom — We Wait for Proof, Then Size Up

Dan Stewart and Don Vandenbord break down how Revere’s disciplined, risk-managed strategy navigates market cycles. They explain why our strategy intentionally lags during early recoveries, how it scales exposure using moving averages and short-term signals, and why protecting against deeper drawdowns matters more than chasing short-term upside.

We are not trying to win every week — we are trying to win the full cycle. So, our system tells us: “We’re early in the trend — don’t chase, let it develop.”

When it’s time to add exposure, we scale it using lower-timeframe signals (60-min stochastics) and confirmation from moving-average alignment. Our key idea is that we earn the right to get more aggressive, not assume it.

In this video, we share a playbook for expectations across cycles. If we are in a correction (going from a Bear market to what appears to be an early recovery cycle), then you should expect MODERATE UNDERPERFORMANCE with our portfolio strategy.

Why? Because our system:

• Waits for confirmation (4–5 days follow-through)
• Avoids chasing the first bounce

So, during early rebounds, when the market jumps fast, our system lags temporarily. But that’s intentional. If the market breaks ~10%, it often accelerates down hard. And that’s exactly what we are protecting against.

After a selloff, the first rally = untrusted as it could be a Dead Cat Bounce. So we wait 4–5 days for confirmation and only then add risk. We may miss early upside, but we avoid getting trapped in fake rallies.

Bottom line: This is not a “Beat the market every day” strategy. It’s a “Lose less in bad periods → win big when trends are clean” system.

Most traders/investors chase early rebounds and get trapped if it rolls over. Our system accepts short-term lag and avoids catastrophic mistakes. That’s why it survives long-term.