No, This Isn’t a Repeat of the Dot-Com Bubble

Stocks are sky-high, but this isn’t 1999. Here’s why.

Nick Maggiulli
Marker

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A generic illustration of stock market bar graphs and financial market data.
Image: MR.Cole_Photographer/Moment/Getty Images

When it comes to the stock market, there seems to be just one question on everyone’s mind lately: Is this another dot-com bubble in the making?

Whether it’s IPOs hitting 1999-like levels, retail investors flooding the markets, or the tech bubble bursting again, there’s no shortage of headlines suggesting that we are experiencing a dot-com déjà vu. And a periphery glance at current market conditions — culminating in last week’s largest software IPO debut of Snowflake — would seem to confirm the alarm bells of those who are pattern matching today’s sequence of events with those from the internet bubble craze.

Half a year into Covid-19, there has been an ongoing rally of tech stocks, rising equity valuations, and a recent surge in retail trading activity, leaving many investors wondering just how much higher stocks can climb. However, despite some similarities between today’s market and the market of the late 1990s, this is where the resemblance ends.

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