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.

Remember what happened when they conjured $5 trillion out of thin air during the pandemic? Inflation ripped to 9% — the highest in forty years.

Kicking off the next money-printing cycle from $6.6 trillion instead of $4 trillion — with so much pandemic-era cash still sloshing around the system — all but guarantees double-digit inflation. We’re talking about potential currency destruction on a scale — and at a speed — America has never seen.

Position accordingly.

The Harvard Business Review warns of “workslop.” Mandated AI tools produce bad slides and reports. Workers say 15% of what hits their desks is slop. For a company of 10,000, that’s $9 million a year in lost productivity.

Progress, or just noise?

You may recall similar confusion over actual productivity in the early days of the Internet.

In the age of AI, oil isn’t just possibly made from dinosaurs — it is a dinosaur. Nobody’s running a data center on diesel, opting instead for nuclear.

As a result, oil prices have largely traded in a sideways $60-$70 range over the past few years. And relative to gold, oil is now substantially undervalued.

I’m not saying that we necessarily have to see that same pattern play out this time as we switch from Summer to Fall here in 2025, because we are in a much more solid acceleration phase of this bull market now, and the market breadth can stay bullish longer than people expect.

What I am hinting at though, is that if we saw the PM markets cool down a bit heading into October, then it wouldn’t really be a surprise; considering we’re at max bullishness on this breadth and sentiment indicator.

Remember what happened when they conjured $5 trillion out of thin air during the pandemic? Inflation ripped to 9% — the highest in forty years.

Position accordingly.

Progress, or just noise?

You may recall similar confusion over actual productivity in the early days of the Internet.

In the age of AI, oil isn’t just possibly made from dinosaurs — it is a dinosaur. Nobody’s running a data center on diesel, opting instead for nuclear.

As a result, oil prices have largely traded in a sideways $60-$70 range over the past few years. And relative to gold, oil is now substantially undervalued.