Insiders Ring the Cash Register

There’s an old Wall Street saying: “They don’t ring a bell at the top.”

But that’s not entirely true. Corporate executives are ringing – the cash register.

They’ve become record sellers of shares of the companies they operate:

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That sea of red isn’t the stock market – yet – it’s company insiders heading for the exit (Source: Bloomberg)

In the most recent week, there were a total of 200 insider transactions, as measured by Form 4 filings with the SEC. Only 2, or a mere 1%, were buys.

That’s a sharp contrast to just over 100 days ago, when insiders got bullish on their company’s own prospects amid the fearful fallout of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement and market crash.

“Insiders have many reasons to sell,” notes our Portfolio Director Andrew Packer, who has – literally – written the book on the subject. “They may want to pay off a mortgage, put a kid through college – or may even be financing a divorce. Insiders only buy for one reason – they find their shares a compelling value here.”

“Typically, you’d expect insiders to be sellers about 75% of the time. It’s part of their compensation. Today’s ratio is totally out of whack.”

If only 1% of corporate insiders – the CEOs, CFOs, and other high-level employees – are considering buying here, but 99% are selling, that’s at odds with retail investors, who are doing the opposite.

We’ve seen this level of insider selling before – in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom. So we’re not in uncharted territory.

With insiders ringing the cash register, it’s a sign we’re in the late stages of a bull market – and investors may be on a crash course with higher volatility.

~ Addison

P.S. from stocks to crypto: Grey Swan Live! returns Thursday at 2 p.m. ET with Ian King.

Ian’s hot on an upcoming event that he forecasts will trigger a new crypto boom, sending the market cap of the space to $8.5 trillion by 2030. We’ll be looking at his latest moves in the cryptocurrency market – including the rise of Ethereum as the rally in bitcoin takes a pause. What’s it all mean? And where do we stand regarding President Trump’s plans for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?

All that and more. Ian will also cover his list of the top token opportunities in the cryptocurrency space as this asset class continues to push higher and gain regulatory guidance.

Remember the new time!

Grey Swan Live! with Ian King will begin at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT tomorrow, Thursday, September 4, 2025.

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If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

There’s an old Wall Street saying: “They don’t ring a bell at the top.”

But that’s not entirely true. Corporate executives are ringing – the cash register.

They’ve become record sellers of shares of the companies they operate:

Turn Your Images On

That sea of red isn’t the stock market – yet – it’s company insiders heading for the exit (Source: Bloomberg)

In the most recent week, there were a total of 200 insider transactions, as measured by Form 4 filings with the SEC. Only 2, or a mere 1%, were buys.

“Typically, you’d expect insiders to be sellers about 75% of the time. It’s part of their compensation. Today’s ratio is totally out of whack.”

We’ve seen this level of insider selling before – in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom. So we’re not in uncharted territory.

With insiders ringing the cash register, it’s a sign we’re in the late stages of a bull market – and investors may be on a crash course with higher volatility.

~ Addison

P.S. from stocks to crypto: Grey Swan Live! returns Thursday at 2 p.m. ET with Ian King.

All that and more. Ian will also cover his list of the top token opportunities in the cryptocurrency space as this asset class continues to push higher and gain regulatory guidance.

Remember the new time!

Grey Swan Live! with Ian King will begin at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT tomorrow, Thursday, September 4, 2025.

Turn Your Images On

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

Real assets in general tend to hold their value during inflationary periods — because they’re not just paper promises. They’re tangible. They’re productive. They’re the raw inputs the economy is actually built on.

One of the most obvious opportunities right now — possibly the most mispriced sector in the entire market — is energy.

The world does not exist without energy. Full stop. People have been fed a ridiculous lie that oil is going to disappear and we’re all going to drive solar-powered EVs and Exxon is going to go out of business.

In the U.S., stablecoin rules remain tangled between crypto exchanges eager for new customers and small banks afraid of losing deposits.

China’s Ant Group is filing trademarks for “Antcoin” while the Party debates whether digital dollars threaten national sovereignty. And in Singapore, StraitsX cofounder Samson Leo frets about regulatory fragmentation: “If every jurisdiction requires us to split reserves across their banking systems, customer protection will diminish.”

Stablecoins today are where email was when businesses still faxed each other printouts of their inbox goes an apt analogy suggested by Bloomberg’s Andy Mukherjee.

The rails are there — the habits aren’t. But the shift is coming. And when it does, it won’t just change how we pay — it’ll change who gets paid.

Anticipating a sluggish labor market, the Fed has cut rates twice this fall.

Unfortunately, you can’t fix a reorganization with cheaper money. AI will eat the easy tasks first, so the pain you see — pink slips — is only half the story. Those jobs will likely never return.

If you’re from New York—or know anyone there—you’ll probably agree: most New Yorkers are fed up with crime, the outrageous cost of living, government incompetence and corruption—and, yes, the rats.

But the fact that a hard-core socialist like Mamdani is their favorite pick to solve those problems tells you that most voters have no idea why any of it is happening.

Their hatred of Donald Trump—and a steady diet of MSNBC—has made them blind to the obvious: it’s the Left’s policies creating these problems. You have rent control shrinking supply by forcing landlords to pull units from the market, union giveaways jacking up the cost of transportation, zero-bail laws putting criminals back on the streets, and so on and so forth.

One of the most obvious opportunities right now — possibly the most mispriced sector in the entire market — is energy.

In the U.S., stablecoin rules remain tangled between crypto exchanges eager for new customers and small banks afraid of losing deposits.

Stablecoins today are where email was when businesses still faxed each other printouts of their inbox goes an apt analogy suggested by Bloomberg’s Andy Mukherjee.

The rails are there — the habits aren’t. But the shift is coming. And when it does, it won’t just change how we pay — it’ll change who gets paid.

Anticipating a sluggish labor market, the Fed has cut rates twice this fall.

But the fact that a hard-core socialist like Mamdani is their favorite pick to solve those problems tells you that most voters have no idea why any of it is happening.