Everything Up - Everything Down

From ZeroHedge:

If one correlates each of the individual stocks in the S&P 500 to the index itself over a 50 day period, the average correlation hit 86% in October and is still near 80% today.   

No other period since the inception of the index has yielded a higher correlation, not during the Great Depression, rampant inflation of the 1970s, the stock market crash of 1987 or even during the financial crisis of 2008.  

This suggests 80% of a stock’s movement can be explained by a stock market index rallying or declining. The other 20% of a stock’s movement can be explained by the unique fundamental characteristics of that company such as management, product, a strategic plan and/or financial health.  

Similar record correlations can be found between the S&P 500 and currencies (the euro), commodities (crude oil), foreign markets (emerging market and European stocks) as well as interest rates (corporate and Treasury yields).  

In the entire history of the S&P 500, there has never been a day in which all 500 stocks in the index go up or all 500 go down. There have been 11 days in which 490+ stocks all move in the same direction on a given day. Of those 11 instances, 6 have occurred since July 2011.  

Add this all up and it appears as though macro themes, such as government intervention in the marketplace, will dictate returns. For the time being, stock picking is a dead art form and diversification is a largely unattainable goal