A few words about diversification

I know it is the classic planning idea. I have to buy into to (well act like it anyways) every time I get by the government. The idea is that you will put some money in bonds and stocks and money markets and growth and income stocks etc. the amount or percentage that you place in each will depend on your risk tolerance and how close you are to retirement etc.
This in my opinion has always been a mistake. More so now as you see each and every asset class dropping (with the exception of commodities that is until this past month or so)
As I meet to plan individuals goals, the single most important factor IMHO (in my humble opinion) is being on the right side of the mega trends. Period. It does not matter how well diversified your portfolio is if you are on the wrong side of these tremendous trends. the entire world was caught up with equities for the mega bull we just came through. so much so that you cannot talk to any so called financial planner that does not include some portion of stocks in their recommendations. Well to be honest, where have stocks gone for the last decade?
Real Estate was always the thing to do. Until now. Once the advisors catch up to commodities, that gig should be well on its way to being a thing of the past.
My point is, when stocks are good run with them. when R.E. is good run with that. Now that commodities have come off there 20 year bear, look to them.
As we try to use leverage when we trade it is a bit different. If we were concerned about our retirement we would buy outright gold like GLD or oil like USD or something to that effect and let it run until it will become obvious the trend is over then look for the next trend. But since we enjoy the gains that come from leverage, we want to be able to stay in the game come the corrections that always show up. For that we like options. We can own or control for a fraction what it would take to own or control regular shares. But then we get the time decay that is a problem, a constant never ending problem each and every day. By using spreads, we nullify the time factor allowing us to participate in the leverage with out the other usual consequences. We will let the other hot shots buy our short side and tell us all about how much they make on the short term. We will smile and know to ourselves that the next trade he/she will give it all back.