One Way It Isn’t 1999

Many comparisons between present market heights and 1999 have been bandied about, but allow me to offer a way that we are absolutely not like 1999: the excitement about new issues.

Back in the day, when a hot new offering came out, its price ripped around like mad (usually higher). Stocks would have daily ranges of ten, twenty, thirty dollars or more, and adept day traders could make out like bandits.

Let’s take a look at one of the most widely-anticipated IPOs of the year – Square (run by Twitter guy Jack Dorsey) and hang on to our hats while we revel in the lightning-fast action over the past week. I’ve tinted the range so you can see the many, many pennies it’s been spanning.

There are century-old light & power companies that are more dynamic than this dog. I keep beating the same drum, which is that modern-day IPOs are for the birds (or at least for those combating sleep disorders).