FOMOC: Fear Of Missing Out On Collapse

RISK OFF is no longer an option for this ponzi scheme. Stoned zombies never got the memo. The Pied Piper of Bitcoin has stolen the momentum from momentum, and it's not coming back...

@NorthmanTrader: "Never before has retail gotten this aggressively exposed to stocks"

It's that time of year when Wall Street breaks out their Magic 8 Balls and dart throwing chimps to make their predictions for the coming year. They made the rare and asinine mistake of being too conservative in their predictions this year, which inadvertently caused the failure of some junk IPOs. Apparently the dumb money moved to the sidelines too quickly. Suffice to say they won't make that mistake again...

"Therefore, baby boomers are joining the generations below them by piling on investment risk like never before and investment industry is happy to oblige."

"A plethora of low-cost ETFs now allow these investors to “keep up” with the market for “fear of missing out.” [FOMO] There are even levered, double-levered and triple-levered ETFs that can torque up one’s exposure in order to play catch-up. And why shouldn’t they given the U.S. equity market is setting new records for duration without a correction as every dip is almost instantaneously bought up."

Via NorthmanTrader, we are reminded that Wall Street analysts intentionally NEVER predict the end of cycle. Why would they scare their own customers away? After all, there's always a bigger shill willing to up the ante to garner more fund flows. Wild ass predictions being just another investment "service". 

Hence for 2018, the casino can only go higher:

ZH: Worshipping At The Altar Of FOMO

"For 2018, valuation and sanity lose, momentum wins"

As we see below, active managers got rinsed last week - forced back in to buy the tax cut melt-up top. Only to get sold hard earlier this week. Which is why Zerohedge trolls Gartman constantly - because he's trend-following. That said, I suggest that the rinse cycle is ending:

Just a hunch

Speaking of the rinse cycle, as expected, Skynet is trying to get the momentum back in momentum, because without it the casino is in big trouble:

Unfortunately, for Skynet, Etraders took their ball over to Bitcoin and one way or another they're not coming back. Either because it's going to infinity, or because it's going to $0. There's no way to compete with a toy that trades 24x7 and fluctuates 20% on a daily basis. 

BitCasino: The only game in town

The Bitcoin supernova is sucking money out of everywhere, including the mattress...

Meanwhile, the Trump tax bill has monkey hammered big cap tech:

Until the final tax bill gets passed, these stocks have lost their bid...

The past week year in summary:

Per my discussion on volatility yesterday, as long as the Dow never touches its 50 week moving average again, this will all be fine. 

Because if the VIX merely doubles back to its historical range, it will blow this entire ponzi scheme to kingdom come...