last weeks more than 4 drop in the s  p 500 wasnt unusual in the current quarter alone the largecap index has moved by a similar amount on seven occasions how are professional investors trading amid such volatility and what are they buying hedging bets speaking to cnbc pro talks investment director neil veitch of svm asset management said he manages risk by being open to any strategy that offers the best return one option on a very very short term basis according to veitch is an inverse volatility etf exchangetraded fund these etfs such as the proshares short vix shortterm futures etf and short vix futures etf  allow investors to bet on a stable market in times of volatility this is done by effectively shorting the vix a measure of volatility expectation based on s  p 500 index options some etfs even use leverage or debt to amplify returns veitch who manages about £200 million 213 million across three funds also suggests another option to hedge against equities over the medium term us treasury bonds historically bond prices have tended to rise when stocks fall they are considered safer than owning stocks owning twoyear us treasurys on 4 is as good a place as any for your cash at this particular juncture he added rampant inflation has driven the interest rate or yield on shortterm us government debt to 413 from 076 at the start of the year veitch believes the market is currently reacting to the increasingly hawkish rhetoric of the federal reserve and other central banks as they try to tame inflation the path of inflation and how central banks respond to it determine the path of markets over the short and short and medium term he said finding value if thats the environment how is veitch finding value in stocks and what is he buying the investment director pointed to a handful of equities that have been hammered by concerns over consumer confidence with stocks down and in many instances by 50 said veitch who also manages the svm world equity fund they are beginning to get more attractive micron veitch disclosed that he sold off shares of chip maker micron technology earlier this year shares of the semiconductor firm have fallen by 48 to 50 since january the fund manager said the stock would be interesting if it falls to about 40 a share in the future i suspect the next earnings update from micron will be poor he said itll be very interesting to see how the market responds if the shares fell off aggressively id expect that selloff to be bought jd sports veitch said londonlisted jd sports  a global sports apparel retailer had a very interesting mediumterm story as the company was expanding to the united states and europe by targeting the premium segment the manchester england headquartered company which operates over 2000 stores across 19 countries has seen its stock fall by more than 50 since its recent peak in november last year svms uk growth fund has allocated 28 of its portfolio to jd sports the fund manager said that select retail stocks would likely rise next year if inflation fell meaningfully its no point just selecting retailers across the board we have to try and understand what the mediumterm dynamic is what their longterm earnings potential is he added