This Sign of the Times May Say a Lot about the State of the Markets

A friend was driving me to his office last week. A flashy car pulls up beside us at a stoplight, and motions for us to roll-down the window. Without even saying hello, this well-dressed man in his late-40s starts bragging about day-trades he made recently.

He asked my friend whether he bought the bank stock they talked about, and then went on to gloat about a few of his other successes, including buying Palm just before HP bought it.

When the light turned, he said "you should have listened" and drove away.

Little things can say a lot.  What do you think this implies about the state of the markets?

I hadn't seen "that" type of behavior in several years.

It reminded me of cocktail parties in the late 90s (up until about 2001). You know, where stock-picking gurus wearing black faux-turtlenecks and blazers drank expensive wine and talked about Internet stocks.

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