"In the Year 2000, Starbucks makes franchise history by opening a Starbucks inside an existing Starbucks"
— Conan O’Brian
One of my all time favorite comedy bits is Conan O’Brian’s "In the Year 2000…", in which the odd-ball comic makes absurdly funny predictions about the future (past?!?).
So here’s my not-so-funny tribute to Conan and the current rising speculation in the markets.
In the year 2000…
Will we look back at the large number of stock exchanges that have gone from private to public institutions in the past year as a classic sign of a market top? In the past year, NYSE, BOT, ISE have all followed the stunning success of CME. It’s certainly not as speculative as buying Pets.com on the IPO, since the stock exchanges actually make money, but isn’t it pretty good sign of too much speculation when you begin betting on a stock-market stock? And shouldn’t we be doubly concerned with stock-market stocks are some of the best-performing and "hottest" issues?
In the Year 2000…
Will the curse of the Time cover page once again mark the top of an overvalued market?
In the year 2000… 
Will the new found popularity of a crazy stock-picker signal excessive speculation that usually marks market tops?
