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‘Theme Overload’.
"Littered with landmines" - that's how I've variously described the macro landscape for the duration of 2018.
On any given day, there's so much to process that divining an overarching narrative is well nigh impossible. In fact, the geopolitical risks are now so myriad, the market potholes so multitudinous, that making a comprehensive list of all the relevant variables is very nearly as difficult a task as making sense of that same list assuming you can construct it in the first place.
To
Theme #3 is the biggest dumpster fire, which I guess includes what happens when buybacks dry up.
Theme #1 (populism) is the biggest reason for theme overload: daily populist tactics of lying (“alternative facts”), crying about “fake news”, stoking “deep state” fears (can’t even trust the FBI), corruption and sex scandals, and blaming non-populists for everything.
In this environment the only way to manage huge positions is to watch what long term moving averages do. When they roll over, entangle, create a spaghetti mess, and become negatively sloped get out and sell the most you can. Until they slope positively and don’t cross one another hold the longs. This approach may seem naive and too simple, but it contains all the info and how market participants are reacting.
In other words, do the Laundry: be a trend-following moron.