Investors all over the world are panicking over a widely apprehended recession. This is especially true in the backdrop of a relentless slide in oil and persistent worries over the health of the world’s second largest economy.

Oil crashed to the lowest level not seen in more than 12 years with no sign of respite thanks to a growing supply glut and waning oil demand while China remained the major dampener of stock market returns, having reported the weakest annual growth in 25 years for 2015. Added to the woes are weak corporate earnings, slumping commodities, geopolitical tensions, a strong dollar, sluggishness in the other emerging markets like Brazil and Russia, and slowing growth in Japan and Europe (read: Market Fears Flare Up: Volatility ETFs on Edge).

Further, the U.S. economy, which was on a modest growth path, suddenly seems to have lost steam given the recent spate of weak data including sluggish manufacturing numbers, weak retail sales data, weak consumer-price data, and disappointing housing data. This indicates that the global slowdown has now started to hurt the slowly recovering U.S. economy. And, if the current headwinds persist, the decline in stock markets will aggravate into a prolonged bear market.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also warned that the global economy is on the verge of another financial meltdown and subsequently slashed the global growth forecast for the third time in less than a year. The agency now expects the global economy to grow 3.4% this year and 3.6% in the next, both down 0.2% from the previous estimates. Earlier this month, the World Bank also cut its growth forecast for the global economy to 2.9% for this year from its previous projection of 3.3%, citing that slowdown in one of the big emerging market countries and a worse-than-expected slowdown in Brazil and Russia have worsened the already bleak global economic outlook.

Given a feeble backdrop, some investors may want to tap the current bearish trend and prepare their portfolios to weather the coming storm. Fortunately, with the advent of ETFs, this is quite easy, as there are a few options available in the space that will allow investors to take guard against adversities in a basket form with lower risk.

Below, we highlighted five great ETFs that could be used in a bear market. Each applies an interesting or unique methodology to protect investors, potentially shielding at least some part of the portfolio against continued bearishness in the global economy (read: Top & Flop ETFs to Start 2016):
 
Ranger Equity Bear ETF (HDGE – ETF report)

The ETF is actively managed and seeks capital appreciation by taking short positions in a number of U.S. listed companies with low earnings quality or aggressive accounting practices. Additionally, the managers will look to identify earnings-driven events that could be a catalyst for price declines such as downward earnings revisions or reduced forward guidance – the two factors that can signal trouble for a company. These securities having potentially weak fundamentals will underperform in a crumbling market, thereby resulting in strong profits for the fund.

This approach provides HDGE a tilt toward the consumer discretionary, industrial and information technology sectors that collectively make up for 76% of the portfolio. The fund has amassed $143 million in its asset base while trades in a good volume of around 261,000 shares a day on average. However, it is a bit pricey charging 2.90% in annual fees. The ETF has gained 13.7% so far this year.

QuantShares U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund (BTAL – ETF report)