4 ms·

Why can't regular folks seem to get in on an IPO? (Admittedly, I don't understand how all the stock stuff works. It just seems like only big investment firms ar

by akulbe 10y ago

Why can't regular folks seem to get in on an IPO? (Admittedly, I don't understand how all the stock stuff works. It just seems like only big investment firms are the ones that are able to do initial investments.)

acchow 10y ago
Yes, regular folks can get in on an IPO. That's kind of the point - floating the shares publicly. Sign up for IPO's through your broker.
w0m 10y ago
Why can't you?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
asafira 10y ago
I think it's somewhat the point of an IPO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering
eastbayjake 10y ago
You usually can't get in on the discounted opening price because those favorable prices are in exchange for large investment banks buying enormous blocks of shares (and thus limiting the IPO company's risk that they won't raise enough cash from the IPO), but you can certainly buy the shares from those banks at the market price. If you have $100M+ to invest you'll get lots of preferable pricing deals...
sbov 10y ago
IIRC Google's IPO did some sort of auction. But I don't know if it was available to regular folks or not, or how it turned out in the end.
- srtjstjsj 10y ago
  It was bad for Google and the investment banks, good for investors. It got an astoundingly low price, in part because banks boycotted the IPO to punish Google for the auction -- share price nearly doubled in the first 2 months, tripled in the first year, and kept growing. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/history/fi-126.1.GOOGL.NAS http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/history/fi-126.1... https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109036846726869268 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109036846726869268 https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/08/23/379378/index.htm https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archiv...
jpttsn 10y ago
It's like how regular folk can't buy food or clothes at wholesale prices.

by akulbe 10y ago

acchow 10y ago

Yes, regular folks can get in on an IPO. That's kind of the point - floating the shares publicly. Sign up for IPO's through your broker.

w0m 10y ago

Why can't you?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

asafira 10y ago

I think it's somewhat the point of an IPO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_public_offering

eastbayjake 10y ago

You usually can't get in on the discounted opening price because those favorable prices are in exchange for large investment banks buying enormous blocks of shares (and thus limiting the IPO company's risk that they won't raise enough cash from the IPO), but you can certainly buy the shares from those banks at the market price. If you have $100M+ to invest you'll get lots of preferable pricing deals...

sbov 10y ago

IIRC Google's IPO did some sort of auction. But I don't know if it was available to regular folks or not, or how it turned out in the end.

srtjstjsj 10y ago
It was bad for Google and the investment banks, good for investors. It got an astoundingly low price, in part because banks boycotted the IPO to punish Google for the auction -- share price nearly doubled in the first 2 months, tripled in the first year, and kept growing. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/history/fi-126.1.GOOGL.NAS http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockdetails/history/fi-126.1... https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109036846726869268 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB109036846726869268 https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/08/23/379378/index.htm https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archiv...

jpttsn 10y ago

It's like how regular folk can't buy food or clothes at wholesale prices.