Hedge Fund Titans Warn of Market Risks as Speculation Surges

WHO:

24/7 Wall St. - Paul Singer is a billionaire hedge fund manager and the founder of Elliott Investment Management.

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott Investment Management reported managing $80.3 billion as of June 30.

CNBC - Bill Ackman is the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management.

CNBC - Ackman spoke on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

24/7 Wall St. - Jeffrey Gundlach had flagged widening spreads on riskier AI debt.

WHAT:

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott used the term “FOGO,” meaning “fear of getting obliterated,” for the risk of a market reversal after fear of missing out subsides.

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott compared speculative conditions to the years before the Great Depression and cited persistent inflation, federal deficits, and debt-financed AI infrastructure bets.

24/7 Wall St. - The S&P 500 gained nearly 13% through September; the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% and the S&P 500 slipped 0.9% in October.

24/7 Wall St. - The Nasdaq-100 fell 6.6% in October. Reuters reported that concerns about AI spending exceeding near-term cash generation helped drive the month-end sell-off.

24/7 Wall St. - Nine of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors rose in October, while the equal-weight S&P 500 gained 5%.

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott’s reported returns were flat in the third quarter and below 2% for the first nine months, roughly 11 percentage points behind the S&P 500.

CNBC - Ackman said he worries the stock market is broken and that speculative trading and leverage are causing wild price swings.

CNBC - Ackman said, “Every number of days, I feel like markets are broken,” and that stocks trade at “prices that make no sense to me.”

CNBC - Ackman said, “We’re back to the casino-type markets when there was 95% leverage,” and described the resulting moves in stocks as “massive.”

CNBC - Ackman said market dislocations had given his hedge fund opportunities to buy bargains.

WHY:

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott warned that losing confidence in returns from new data centers could lead lenders to demand more financing, constrain developers’ spending, and slow growth for suppliers.

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott said a reversal in one or two factors driving the rally could trigger a wider sell-off.

HOW:

24/7 Wall St. - Elliott said it uses hedges to protect against adverse market conditions and aims to keep cash available to buy when investors are forced to sell.

24/7 Wall St. - The article said Elliott’s reported performance figures ended in September, so its performance during October was not reported.

(UPDATED November 4, 2026 10:03 UTC)

Elliott Investment Management warns speculative markets risk a reversal, calling the danger “fear of getting obliterated.” Bill Ackman says leverage and speculative trading are driving wild swings, making markets feel broken. Elliott warns doubts about data-center returns could tighten financing and slow spending across suppliers.