My First IPO : Twitter

My First IPO : Twitter

Whenever popular companies decide to go public, the media coverage on them is over the top. When Twitter was debuting in late 2013, they were calling it the hottest IPO since Facebook. While today Facebook is the leader in the social media space and it's stock has been on an absolute tear in recent months, the 2012 IPO was an utter disaster.

Facebook's share price was originally set conservatively $28-35/share. Three days before it debuted, the underwriting banks increased the IPO float 25% as well as the range to $35-38 citing heavy demand. This change was despite consensus among large investors that FB was "overpriced and over-hyped." The IPO then flopped, and retail investors not on the inside got killed. FB actually faced many lawsuits following the offering citing the underwriters didn't report revenue cuts on their S-1 among other details.

But I digress, on to Twitter. Many believed underwriters would learn from Facebook and make it more appealing for retail investors. Twitter was a nationwide phenomenon at this point and you were just starting to see things like hashtags at the bottom of your favorite TV shows. It priced at $32 and was way oversubscribed (in the real sense, not in the Facebook sense). People were expecting a BIG pop day 1.

While being involved in the financial markets for over a decade, I started trading professionally at a firm in lower Manhattan in late 2013. I was on a demo trading account for a month in October, and finally started live trading November 4, 2013. I was like a kid in a candy store just soaking up all the knowledge I could, as it's always been my dream to be a successful trader. This was my first experience on a trading desk and it was just as wild as anticipated.

We have our morning meeting everyday at 8:45 where the head trader, we'll call him Jack commanded the room. Jack was....................................................................................................

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