How to Buy Facebook at IPO?

I have accounts in Fidelity and Schwab. Can I buy Facebook common shares at its IPO on Thursday 17th market opening? For example, can I setup a limit-order Tuesday/Wedneday so automatically my order get filled at IPO on Thursday? What is the ticker?

Thanks,
Tintin

Due to Facebook's support of CISPA, I wont be investing in the IPO. Sorry I couldnt be of more help.

is Google search that hard to do?

You need $500k in assets to buy IPOs with Fidelity. Schwab hasn't decided yet.

Reading the article it sounds like you could get in with E-Trade without needing 500k

That said, I'm sure demand will far exceed supply.

qcumber98 said:   is Google search that hard to do?

You need $500k in assets to buy IPOs with Fidelity. Schwab hasn't decided yet.

bandyopa said:   Thanks everyone. Looks like this is pretty hard for individuals. VERY SAD!
Why is it sad?

ticker is FB

SCSURFER said:   Without knowing the price (i.e valuation of the company) why would you want to? I think those that immediately buy shares in the open market will get their heads kicked in, as those that did with the recent tech IPO's. Some have recovered (LinkedIn, for example) but you could have bought them later much cheaper.

Agree, but if you can get at IPO price then you can a 100%+ return in short term trade. People are franatic for these stock. Price will double or triple or go to 10 times in the next few days. Sell and be rich!

Tintin

bandyopa said:   Agree, but if you can get at IPO price then you can a 100%+ return in short term trade. People are franatic for these stock. Price will double or triple or go to 10 times in the next few days. Sell and be rich!

TintinQFF

How to buy Facebook at IPO:
1. Click the 'Like' button at the top of this Facebook page.
2. Forward this page to all of your Facebook friends.
3. Copy and paste this JavaScript code into the URL field of your browser.
4. PROFIT!!

SCSURFER said:   Without knowing the price (i.e valuation of the company) why would you want to? I think those that immediately buy shares in the open market will get their heads kicked in, as those that did with the recent tech IPO's. Some have recovered (LinkedIn, for example) but you could have bought them later much cheaper.This won't be the case with FB. Getting placed into FB and dumping it at the open is a license to print money as the number of fools that would buy on the open market would outstrip supply of the shares.

neal126 said:   I just submitted my limit order on the ETrade platform. I when through a few questions to determine my investment style and the relevant disclosure questions. It took me less than 5 minutes. I put in a limit price of $35 (300 shares). fingers crossed. Her is the link to the ETrade IPO center IPO

Consider that $35 may not be filled unless the price declines from a higher open.

lokimoki said:   Consider that $35 may not be filled unless the price declines from a higher open.

Actually your price (and number of shares) will have to be reconfirmed before the open. If your price is too low, the order will be cancelled.

FW contrarian indicator says short Facebook IPO.

Yankees said:   neal126 said:   I just submitted my limit order on the ETrade platform. I when through a few questions to determine my investment style and the relevant disclosure questions. It took me less than 5 minutes. I put in a limit price of $35 (300 shares). fingers crossed. Her is the link to the ETrade IPO center IPO

i may be getting confused, but i believe that if you put in a limit order, it may be for an order in the secondary market.

ipo shares should be allocated (i.e. no limit prices) as it should be the same price per class for the entire offering

You have to "reconfirm" price and number of shares pre-market, and then hope to get allocated shares (also pre-market). If you are not allocated shares, the order cancels as unfilled.

BrianGa said:   FW contrarian indicator says short Facebook IPO.Hope you have enough to cover the short. It's gonna be a wild roller coaster ride and the shorts are going to get their clocks cleaned. It may dip (crash?) here & there but who knows what time frame it will be til that happens.

BTW - open an ETrade acct to get in on the IPO.

what is facebook?

AL369 said:   IPO - Initial PUBLIC Offering
What part of PUBLIC gets these share...banks and rich investors
Load of BS facilitated by law

Let me start off by saying that I'm no fan of the finance industry and the way it screws the rest of us, but it depends on how you look at it. An IPO makes the shares available to the public. It means that the company has disclosed enough information to the public so that the public is at least minimally informed of material that might be necessary to make an investment decision.

In order to have an IPO, what you typically do is get investment banks to underwrite the shares in order to sell them to the public. Underwriting necessarily involves taking risk, and the specific risks depend on the underwriting agreement. Because of the risk, it's not completely unfair for the investment banks to make some profit from it, which they do, by taking a fee -- usually a percentage of the transaction. Because they are underwriting these shares, they offer the shares to their good customers, which usually happen to be more well-off customers.

During the dotcom boom, even less well-off customers could participate in IPOs. I know several that did. The underwriters and brokers often bullied these customers into holding the stock for X period of time and not dumping the shares immediately, or else they wouldn't get a chance to participate in other IPOs. Of course we all know what happened with all of that.

The entity who actually could get screwed by an IPO is the company itself. If the investment bank advises the company to grossly underprice the shares, someone other than the company gets the profit, and the company gets less money than it should have gotten. Yes, the company still raises the money it intended to raise, but it could have gotten more.

I would also point out that IPOs are a core traditional investment banking function, unlike some of the practices that occurred during the most recent boom/bust cycle.

bandyopa said:   I have accounts in Fidelity and Schwab. Can I buy Facebook common shares at its IPO on Thursday 17th market opening? For example, can I setup a limit-order Tuesday/Wedneday so automatically my order get filled at IPO on Thursday? What is the ticker?

Thanks,
Tintin

Doesnt look like you know a much about the stock market. Forget your limit order. LOL. It will blow by that you wont execute a single share. How in the world do you figure a limit order on IPO day? Wait a bit and you will be able to buy all you want. All the sharks will be traing the hell out of it on IPO day and the first week of release should be a roller coaster. Everyone is going to get rich on that one

Rob

What's a good answere for this to get an allotment. I know they didn't like flippers:

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/ipo/iposteps

A. Are you being advised by a professional not affiliated with E*Trade regarding participating in the offering?
Yes
No

C. What time period will you use in evaluating the performance of your public offering investments?
5 - 10 years
3 - 5 years
1 - 3 years
More than 30 days
Less than 30 days

mistycoupon said:   Don't worry it will be less in 2 weeks and then you can buy it.

too late for short term flippers

peas said:   mwa423 said:   fish777 said:   If I remember correctly, PALM IPO was highly anticipated. But since IPO, their price never got much higher?

I still remember the good old day of ICQ. Facebook is like ICQ/Groupon/etc which got many users since they were one of the first. Now ICQ is just one of the MANY instant messaging program. Right now FB offer nothing that can't be easily replace. Once Google, Microsoft, etc, introduced something similar and integrated them to Android/Gmail/Windows/hotmail/etc, people likely switch to use those instead.

Remember xanga, live journal, friendster and myspace? They're just waiting in the gutter for Facebook to join them when the next big thing catches.I don't really care where FB ends up, but I think you're oversimplifying the outcome. FB has managed to dig its claws deep into the internet by providing social infrastructure. See all those "Like" links on various news sites? Even the commenting infrastructure is provided by FB for many sites now. They have much more momentum and greater depth than the MySpaces of past. Where it'll all end up is anyone's guess.
Agreed.

The real issue with FB isn't whether they'll be dead and forgotten in a year (they won't), but whether they'll figure out how to monetize all the eyeballs. Sticking ads next to every "Like" button or "Talkback" comments section is not going to work. Not to mention mobile. They've opened all their APIs to be accessible to myriad applications but it also makes it tough to control the ad experience, and hence the revenue.