Another Voice Joins the Dotcom Chorus

For most of the year, we’ve compared the market action to the dotcom bubble.

Specifically, 2025 has been analogous to 1998 – a year after Alan Greenspan warned about “irrational exuberance” in the market, but years before the final blow-off top.

Jurrien Timmer, the Director of Global Macro at Fidelity, has run his own analysis and has a more nuanced view:

Turn Your Images On

The AI bubble’s resemblance to the dot-com bubble continues. (Source: Fidelity)

Timmer looks at the 2022 market low – which coincided with the launch of ChatGPT, as a low point for stock valuations following a rise in interest rates.

That’s similar to where the market stood in 1994 after a series of interest rate hikes by the Fed.

This year’s Liberation Day selloff, which really started with the launch of Chinese AI Deepseek, is similar to the market meltdown amid the LTCM collapse.

However, the AI bubble is moving a bit faster, as Timmer’s data shows a gap in valuation that doesn’t match the price action of the 1990s.

If things play out similarly from here, 2026 could mark a multi-year peak for markets as a slowdown in AI spending starts to appear and stocks sell off.

Until then, trends are still bullish, with a blow-off top, or as we’ve been calling it, a “terrifying bull market” ahead.

~ Andrew

P.S. Our latest research with Ian King regarding Dollar 2.0, which Addison filmed last Tuesday, will be released tomorrow, October 16, in a special edition of Grey Swan Live!

The next regulatory environment for stablecoins favors three companies. We expect they will dominate the new monetary system as Trump guides digital assets into the mainstream.

Our estimate? $20 trillion will migrate to these platforms. That’s a positive Grey Swan event, if there ever was one.

Get ready – this latest research comes out tomorrow.

For an email reminder to receive our Dollar 2.0 research, please add your info here.

For most of the year, we’ve compared the market action to the dotcom bubble.

Specifically, 2025 has been analogous to 1998 – a year after Alan Greenspan warned about “irrational exuberance” in the market, but years before the final blow-off top.

Jurrien Timmer, the Director of Global Macro at Fidelity, has run his own analysis and has a more nuanced view:

Turn Your Images On

The AI bubble’s resemblance to the dot-com bubble continues. (Source: Fidelity)

Timmer looks at the 2022 market low – which coincided with the launch of ChatGPT, as a low point for stock valuations following a rise in interest rates.

That’s similar to where the market stood in 1994 after a series of interest rate hikes by the Fed.

This year’s Liberation Day selloff, which really started with the launch of Chinese AI Deepseek, is similar to the market meltdown amid the LTCM collapse.

However, the AI bubble is moving a bit faster, as Timmer’s data shows a gap in valuation that doesn’t match the price action of the 1990s.

If things play out similarly from here, 2026 could mark a multi-year peak for markets as a slowdown in AI spending starts to appear and stocks sell off.

Until then, trends are still bullish, with a blow-off top, or as we’ve been calling it, a “terrifying bull market” ahead.

~ Andrew

P.S. Our latest research with Ian King regarding Dollar 2.0, which Addison filmed last Tuesday, will be released tomorrow, October 16, in a special edition of Grey Swan Live!

The next regulatory environment for stablecoins favors three companies. We expect they will dominate the new monetary system as Trump guides digital assets into the mainstream.

Our estimate? $20 trillion will migrate to these platforms. That’s a positive Grey Swan event, if there ever was one.

Get ready – this latest research comes out tomorrow.

For an email reminder to receive our Dollar 2.0 research, please add your info here.

Copper and resources are sending us a cleaner market signal than AI stocks.

Channeling Ludwig von Mises, we observe this morning that price is not just a number; it’s information. Price reflects what buyers and sellers collectively believe: demand, scarcity, fear, speculation, disappointment, future expectations and available supply.

When prices rise, and inventories fall at the same time, the message is usually straightforward: buyers need the stuff, and there is not enough of it.

A low VIX does not predict disaster. It measures complacency. A serial skeptic will read it as the calm before a storm. We shook off that feeling this morning and opted to pursue an opportunity instead.

Here goes:

A VIX reading below 15 means the market is not pricing in much near-term trouble, even though there are obvious risks still sitting in the room: Iran, oil prices, memory chip speculation, circular financing, high valuations, epic high concentrations, spiking long-term interest rates, a regime change at the Fed, a meltdown in Japan and a historic deficit and rising national debt.

Money is not flowing in a clean, straight line from outside investors to productive businesses. The firms at the top are investing in and buying from each other.

Microsoft and OpenAI are the easiest examples to follow.

Microsoft says OpenAI has contracted to purchase an additional $250 billion in Azure services, while Microsoft continues to account for $13 billion in funding commitments to OpenAI as an investment.

At this stage, it’s a stock picker’s market.