The Mattress ‘Sell’ Indicator...or What is the Stock Market ‘Sleep Number’

If you are looking for a reason to be nervous, I have the best leading indicator of the last 15 years. No one is writing about it.

It’s mattresses.

Select Comfort $SCSS makes great comebacks (check out the lifetime price chart) and popular mattresses. The stock is back near all-time highs.

I don’t use their product, but their marketing is genius. They don’t sell mattresses on their website. They sell ‘sleep’, ‘beds’ and ‘pillows’. I can’t finance my ‘sleep’ if I use ambien, but I can finance my ‘sleep’ if I use their mattress. I totally want my Select Comfort sleep number now and would like to add it to my ‘Klout‘ score.

If I was their marketing and investor relations department I would only change one thing. I would add the word ‘cloud’ and brand it the hottest cloud stock of 2011.

Obviously the word mattress is not awesome for SEO. It could be the fact that most of America can’t spell mattress. It could be that the aging, web surfing, mobile addicted world will pay anything for a good night’s sleep.

But, if history is any guide, the stock and the market will crash hard in the next few years.

The ticker has my attention.