Intuitively, we assess the extent to which the performance of a combination of the benchmark and a protective put option on the benchmark returns are able to predict a manager's returns. A perfect market timer would be fully exposed to the market in up-markets and out of the market in down-markets. Based on this regression, b corresponds to the down-market beta, and g corresponds to the difference between up- and down-market beta. The up-market beta is b + g. Note that for this regression up- and-down markets are defined as positive or negative benchmark returns. The results of the regression allow us to use the p-value of the t-statistic associated with the two regression parameters to assess whether up- and down-market betas differ with statistical significance.