I started to do research on which ETFs kept or increased their value over a recession in 2008-2009.
I saw a lot of articles which says "invest in X, because X is always in demand (even in crisis)." X could be water, utilities, food or anything like that. I checked some tickers for 2008 and 2009 and lo and behold, they fell 50% (pretty much the same way as S&P).
I read about some ETF which is specifically designed to be stable (as an example short term corporate bonds). I checked them and found that a lot of them were created at 2010-2011. Great, it actually never went through a full-blown recession to prove that it's stable.
Gold. Just checked SPDR and it went the same way as S&P (crashed 50%).
The only thing which I found that behaved the way you expect (kept they value or increased it were Proshare Short ETFs.
I am curious what other ETFs kept their value in the last recession?
p.s. I am not looking for a investment advice. This is for research purposes only.