Inverting the pyramid

MARKETS feel shaky and have felt so for most of the year. Positive news from the United States, in the form of monetary authorities finally shrinking the monetary base after years of expansion, does not come with much of a feel-good factor.

And there is plenty of bad news around, from Argentina's debt woes to mounting trade tariffs and tortuous Brexit negotiations. It is unsurprising that investors are tempted to move to the sidelines.

To do so would be to misunderstand the central narrative on which the current market is founded. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, which rests on one point. It's a delicate equilibrium, and when this point weakens, the stability of the entire pyramid is lost.