Who Has The Secret Handshake To Get In On The Google IPO?
from the not-for-average-investors-at-all dept
Last week we noted that almost all of the underwriters supposedly offering shares in the Google IPO had set up large (around $50,000) hurdles for the "average investor" Google was supposedly targeting. That article, though, noted that Ameritrade and E-Trade didn't have those hurdles. Or, maybe they do. A reporter who signed up for an Ameritrade account to invest in Google was rejected by Ameritrade for no clear reason. He answered a bunch of questions truthfully, and about the only one that seems likely to have set off some alarm bells was his net worth. Still, it wasn't in the lowest bracket, and it certainly sounds like this guy could afford $500 on a few shares -- and he made it clear he knew what he was doing. Ameritrade, though, like all the other brokers refuses to explain how they pick who is eligible and who isn't. It makes sense to set up some eligibility barriers to avoid some speculators, but it's increasingly looking like Google's IPO for the average investor isn't really for the average investor at all.
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Maybe it's just Google
The closest thing I could find to support this (page 31 of Google's prospectus): "Many companies going public have suffered from unreasonable speculation, small initial share float, and stock price volatility that hurt them and their investors in the long run. We believe that our auction-based IPO will minimize these problems, though there is no guarantee that it will."
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