State of the Themes: June 2026

Since it’s been a bit over three years since the inception of the Citrindex, we think it’s a good opportunity to zoom out and take stock of the thematic universes we track – or as we call it, a State of The Themes.

Our last State of the Themes was in August 2025. You can read it here. In it, we called Google the most asymmetric large cap AI winner (GOOG doubled over the next 9 months), we published our bullish thesis on Korea (KOSPI tripled since) and called for Taiwan to outperform the US (TWSE Index has outperformed QQQ by more than 60%).

If you’re a new reader, our thematic equity coverage spans hundreds of securities organized by basket. These baskets represent securities with convexity to themes we feel are enduring in the market. However, while the themes stay consistent the companies that benefit from them are constantly in flux. For example, Fiscal Primacy, the idea that government spending is a growing determinant of market performance, may look very different from one year to the next depending on who is in the White House. Dynamic AI might shift between hardware, software, construction, and engineering. The beneficiaries will change, but the underlying driver remains.

We manage our exposure to these themes in a model portfolio we call the Citrindex. All of our holdings and real time changes can be found at Citrindex.com and are updated weekly on Substack.

Four out of the six thematic baskets have outperformed the broader US market so far this year. It’s no surprise that AI and Robotics are leading, but we are also wary of the aggressive price action since early April. We’ve been participants in the upside for the most part, even if we’ve been too cautious at points — like cutting memory exposure early in the year. Other themes like NatGas & Energy and Fiscal Primacy helped balance the portfolio through the Iran sell-off and give us upside to the commodity cycle.

But enough with past performance. The purpose of this State of The Themes is both to pro…