I think options are the best way to hedge your long position. It took me awhile to get comfortable with puts and calls myself but I eventually learned the ropes.
The CBOE website is a great tool that I learned a lot from. They allow you to open up a "fake" trading account where you can test your strategy without risking any money. A lot of my questions were answered there as well. http://www.cboe.com/default.aspx