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MP3.com goes public: Public goes Crazy
mykey2k writes "Anyone remember this story back in March? Well, MP3.com went public Wednesday. There's a story here, which seems to have some details. "
It opened at $28, and went over $100 a share before leveling
out the in the $60s.
I was going to buy some MP3.COM stock myself, but that was back when they were going to have a price of around $14. When I saw this double, I could tell that my limit order wouldn't go through (I set it at 40), and the day it comes out, I see a downward slope that makes me hapy I didn't take that risk. On the other hand, I got BeOS shares at 6 3/4 and it has been going up slowly, but stable. I figure when the iToaster and other vendors start shipping PC's with BeOS it should go up in value a good deal. For now, its nice to have to brag to friends about. :)
What the 'freedom' advocates here seem to be missing is that the whole MP3.com venture is geared at creating a market into which they can
_sell_ mp3 files. There is no altruism here, and I strongly believe that while they probably do have a political agenda to attack the existing music biz, it's more so they can get a piece of the pie, rather than to further the betterment of mankind or even musical art.
I think you're right - it might use a different distribution channel, but in order to survive MP3.com will basically have to become another record label.
Despite all the talk of how the burgeoning MP3 'market' will give exposure to unknown artists, the 'exposure' problem might actually get worse - how the @#$@#$ are you supposed to filter through the millions (or whatever) of songs/artists that are out there. This is why I don't see it as particularly revolutionary - if anyone actually takes the time to look at the indie scene, there is already _way_ _way_ more material out there than any one person can deal with - you NEED things like reviews by reviewers you trust, or a radio-like feedback mechanism to filter out the crap (most of it) from the good-but-undiscovered (very little of it). Couple this with the fact that (in my experience) anything even half-decent takes several listenings over the course of a few weeks to really get a handle on, and I guess I fail to see the massive, huge new market that online music distribution is supposed to open up.
Let's be honest - 99.9% of mp3's that are currently downloaded are probably pirated or promos - ie people are going after those artists they already know. Simply having the technology to reach an audience doesn't even begin to address the challenge of convincing them you have something to offer.......
..actually, your situation is exactly where options are a benefit. In a nutshell, options allow you to sell stock you don't actually own - this way you get the upside (appreciation) without the downside (risk, and/or money commitment). The only 'cost' is that the proceeds are taxed as income rather than long-term gains, but that's true of many stock purchases anyway.
If you are given 1000 options at a strike price of $1, it will cost you $1000 to exercise those options. However, if the stock is trading at $10, what happens is that you sell the 1000 shares for $10, the company then takes their $1/share cut [strike price], and then the gov't taxes you on the $9/share profit you made. You get what's left, without ever having to shell out even a penny.
mp3.com did something really cool wiht their ipo, they offered 9 million shares to artists who participated in the site before a certain date(last may I think) of which I got 500(down to 300 after some first day profit taking).
it was a really nice gesture to all the people who basically created the content for the site. I heard red hat is going to do the same with their ipo.
bravo mp3.com!
(currently about 17g richer) jimmy
http://www.mp3.com/artists/6/jimmy_fountain.html
How the heck did you get in on this IPO?
MP3.com sent an e-mail on July 7 or 8 to everyone who'd posted music or bought a CD from them before May 15, referring them to Schwab, which offerred no-fee accounts for the first year to those wanting to participate, providing the application was to them by the next Wednesday and you got through on the phone line by COB Friday. I spent 45 minutes on hold Thursday, called again Friday morning at 9:30, and by noon had placed my offer to buy (fortunately my phone had redial and I hadn't used it since, since the phone number was no longer on Schwab's Website and I stupidly hadn't saved a copy of the page).
Now, it does look like an inspired move on MP3.com's part to cut its public in on the stock. Creates a sense of loyalty, and may even have helped feed a few hungry musicians. But there was no way to get in on it if you hadn't gotten into their database before May 15 (at least so they claimed).
Actually Mp3.com has other revenue streams. They also get a cut when any of their artists sell a CD through them (dam cd's) it in effect makes them a full fledged music promotion and distribution company which could reap major rewards in the future.
but note, major rewards MAY come in the FUTURE. pricing this stock at even $60 now is kinda nuts.
I shudder to think what you think 'good music' is. The point of MP3.com is that it gives artists an easy way to not just get samples out, but to actually sell CD's - without even paying for pressing - and with a 50% cut. And they don't have to sign themselves into slavery to a record label.
MP3.com is the online equivalent of Seattle 12 years ago - a venue offerring major opportunities for independent musicians to develop their craft - expect to see major acts breaking and staying there (that 50% per CD is just better than the majors can ever match), and the stock moving sharply upward when that happens.
Maybe radio will actually become listenable again?
While I agree in principle with your point (I don't really want to see market news here either) I think that the kind of critical analysis I've seen on Slashdot under this article shows that traditional media is doomed.
Consider the kind of coverage MP3.com's debut got on trading news sites. "MP3 had a high of 105, a low of 60" is about the sum of it. If I got my news from news sites I might think that IPO's were a really good thing to invest in, and would get burned badly.
I think many 'journalists' (read: 'professional repackagers of popular opinion') are starting to wise up to the existence of Slashdot, and they may try to copy some of the less subversive commentary here, but if you want truly critical thinking you'll have to wade in to the story and start sharing opinions and analyses. There's a lot of crap here, but the value of the good analysis outweighs the crap.
A red tulip
>do you people really want to listen to music created in order to make money, or music created for beauty's sake?
Give me a break. Abig one. It's exactly this kind of rhetoric that strains the credibility of the entire MP3 "movement" (and probably the OS movement as well, since you drew the parallel)
Sorry, Charlie, but people have been making music because they want to for quite a while now - MP3 isn't going to change that. Anyone with any talent and (more importantly) the character to believe in themselves and drive towards their vision is already out there making music, and the lack of a mega-$$$ contract isn't stopping them. Some get lucky, some wallow in obscurity, but I seriously doubt that the ability to now post MP3 versions of their work is going to be a revolutionary capability for most. This is even leaving aside the fact that something like MP3.com is really just going to turn into another record label - exposure is everything when there are 10 zillion people posting their music, and MP3.com has the name brand at the moment, and will have the influence to make/break artists just like the major labels.
This argument is _exactly_ the same one that was advanced in the context of writing in the early days of the Web when HTML was hot - "Just imagine - anyone can just post their writing to the web without a publishing deal - it'll revolutionize journalism and literature".
And guess what happened.....all those closet writers that were'nt getting exposure turned out to be no-talent hacks, and were unpublished for a reason. This isn't to say that things didn't change in the mechanism of their delivery, but when was the last time you heard of any significant work of literature being published on the Net because the author couldn't get a publishing deal.....
Anyway, I certainly hold no love for large corporate conglomerates and would love to see this democratize the music biz and relegate Mariah Carey, Back Street Boys, Rickey Martin etc etc to a parallel universe far, far away, but I guess I'm just not that optimistic about human nature. At the moment, people use mp3 primarily to get stuff for free, legitimately or otherwise. As soon as they have to pay for it, it will lose its lustre and become just another business.
Rob, MPPP did _not_ open at $28. It IPO'd at $28. A few privileged folks (insiders, friends, bigwigs) could buy at that price. MPP opened at $92. That's the first price at which any normal person could buy. It closed at $61. If you thought you could "get rich quick" by buying at the open and selling at the close, you lost %30. Oops.
I intern at MP3.COM and I didn't get any options. I love the company, but maybe I should have asked instead of keeping my mouth shut...
Seriously though, the stock will settle down to the 30's I think and then pick up. Right now, their revenue is 85% advertising based, on just a few advertisers, so they really need to do some conventional advertising to pick up artists.
If MP3.COM would say, hand out cards and stickers at concerts, they would reach a crowd that:
a) obviously likes music, and
b) probably makes music.
For MP3.COM to really take off and make a profit, they will need to get some bands that get real airplay. They need to converge the digital medium with say radio. Get some stations to play MP3.COM bands for example. That would help bring awareness to the site and the artists.
Just my $.02,
# Hack the planet, it's important.
Exactly HOW do you find out about IPO launches in time to take advantage of them! I always hear about them after the fact! (I knew this one was COMING... but where was the announcement that said, "mm-dd-yy is the date"?!?)
--synaptik
HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
NO CARRIER
I *tried* to put in an order before it started trading (even after the market openned) and it wouldn't let me do it until it started trading. I use Datek. Did anyone else manage to put in an order before trading started (about noon EDT)?
:-(
And yes, I lost money. Quite a bit in fact.
Mental note to self: Next time, if it opens at exorbitant prices, WAIT BEFORE BUYING...
It will rollercoaster up and down for a while. If you bought it in the $80s (like me) a few minutes after market open, don't panic. I think it will hit that level again.
They do have several money making possibilities, and with these kinds of stocks they can make an announcement that will send the shares through the roof.
Well, they also sell what they call "DAM" CDs, which are CDs that have both the audio tracks (to play in a normal CD player) an the mp3s (so you can transfer to your computer without having to do the ripping/encoding yourself). They keep 50% of the profits from these sales, and give 50% to the artist.
However, they haven't made a profit yet.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
>They released about 12 million shares to the public..
Yes, but they don't sell the whole company -- just a fraction, actually. That's how Jeff Bezos of Amazon and the Yahoo boys became billionaires overnight; each of them owns a significant fraction of their company's stock. Microsoft stock is the vast majority of Bill Gates fortune. If they sold off all the shares in the IPO, they'd also lose control of the company.
Most stock sources will give you the market capitalization, which is the total number of shares times the current stock price. I think I got my numbers via excite.com.
It's a weird system. People generally buy stock not for the dividends (with a few exceptions, like utilities, that have pretty consistent earnings), but for the expectation that someone else will want to pay more for it later, and that later person is buying it for that same reason. Generally the only time stock valuation really has direct meaning is when one company buys another.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
In case you're wondering, the only way you could have made money off of this is if you were one of the original IPO share purchasers, not buying the stock on the open market. (It does say they set aside shares for bands that have songs on their site.) The rest of us would have just lost money on it.
Sheesh, ~$4 billion market-cap for that company.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Methinks yesterday's high shares were investors wanting to milk the shares for all they were worth, before selling.
On the other IPO, BeOS seems to be doing ok-ish. Their shares seem to roller-coaster, but not by very much. Certainly, nobody's made any spectacular profit, there.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
1) It isn't, now.
2) They aren't.
3) No.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
At one point MP3.com was worth 6.9 billion, larger than the 6.3 billion value of EMI. It is kind of ironic that they could become larger than one of the big five music companies. It definately makes me feel good to see people making a fortune on the internet. Maybe one day my little mp3 site http://www.astrojams.com will make me a few bucks but until then, I think I'll stick with my day job at Compaq.
I can't buy food with ideas.
I can't pay my rent with ideas.
I can't retire on ideas.
Sooner or later it has to come down to money. Somebody's got to come up with a way to make money off of all of these ideas, and so far the batting average of internet-based companies is pretty low.
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))
...unless all you want is for it to construct a copy of itself and evaluate it in an infinite loop. For a Quine that returns a copy of itself, try this (though I've seen Scheme interpreters that handled quotes differently so you might have to play with it a bit):
((lambda (x)
(list (list 'lambda '(x) x) (list 'quote x)))
'(list (list 'lambda '(x) x) (list 'quote x)))
I also have one that makes an infinite loop:
((lambda (x)
(eval (list (list 'lambda '(x) x) (list 'quote x))))
'(eval (list (list 'lambda '(x) x) (list 'quote x))))
Don't try this one unless you're quick on the interrupt key -- on MacGambit at least, yours runs forever in constant space, but mine eats the entire heap, almost before I can reach the button to stop it.
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
MP3's business is centered around getting people interested in the unsigned bands, and selling you CDs that the band put out. MP3 gets a certain percentage of the CD sales, and the artist gets mo money. It isn't just a free download site. Notice that no band (at least that I am aware of) has released all the songs on their records as freely downloadable MP3s. They release some free (much like the music industry releases singles) to get you interested in buying the album. Kinda kool, huh?
-------------------------------------------------
They released about 12 million shares to the public.. Even at $100/share (not a current price) that would be $1.2Billion total capitalization.
Is there somethign I'm missing here?
where is the $4B number from?
Thanks,
Brian
I would very much like to filter out this IPO junk.
This sig is false.
In one of those "strange coincidence" things, Doonesbury is doing a series of strips on MP3s (or at least, it was 2 weeks ago, and it's now releasing the strips on the online site):
http://www.doonesbury.com/dailydose/
Wired news had an interesting blurb on this, pointing out that 80+% of MP3.COM's revenues come from on-site advertising, and they lost a few mil last year, but due to the current MP3 hype, and the fact that apparently a lot of people think they own the MP3 technology (!) the company got bid up into the billions.
Greater fool theory, indeed!
I will probably catch some flames for this, but I'm not happy with the number of stock-related posts over the last few weeks. So-and-so is IPOing, so-and-so might be IPOing, so-and-so's shares went way up and levelled off, etc. As an anymous poster said earlier, this is getting to be "news for daytraders, stocks that matter."
I don't really care about any of this. I'm not so egotistical as to think that my opinions should change slashdot, but I would greatly appreciate it if a new "market" catagory could be created so I could have an easier time filtering this stuff out.
Thanks,
-OT
I really don't understand this. Why is MP3.com's stock selling so high? Don't get me wrong, I like MP3.com, very much. (Besides, they have Sister Machine Gun). But how are they going to make any money? Are ad revenues that good for them?
Pope Felix the Scurrilous.
Computer Geek by day, religious Icon by night.
As I see we're in the dawn of a crazy IPO-mania.
With all hype today about internet, people think they can make money of it easily.
(I will not be surprised if the same people are the people that answer "make $$$ quick" scams).
Some hype has gone over MP3, and *bang* MP3.com sales like hotcakes.
Linux hype? Slashdot is allover that redhat IPO, and soon Caldera and SuSE.
Anti-Microsoft? BeOS IPO sells!
Portals and "Web"? See how much Yahoo and amazon makes!
Basicly all of these (except for BeOS and Amazon) give away their products for nothing,
but "they will make tons of cash" since they are buzzword related.
At the end these companies will fall down like pyramid scams,
this can hurt economy quite much when it does.
(my bet would be this december, just before "Y2K" hype).
Investors today don't care about the product, but the name.
I recall story of a model-boat company changing their name to boat.com -
they trippled their value within a day before the investors knew they only sell models of boats.
And this company may have revenues much higher than mp3.com
(again, how will they make money?)
This is also the case for the cybersquatters thinking "suckmypole" will sell for $1000s,
and wondering why noone buys from them.
Except for mp3.com and cnet, I havn't seen a website that's most of it's value is it's domain(s).
---
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck,
---
I'm going to live forever, or die in the attempt.
While I don't think the .mp3 craze'll last forever, I find flaw in your statement that they "just don't make any money." It's apples and oranges here. Amazon.com has to provide physical GOODS on all purchases. eBay, on the other hand, deals in commision. Thus, they MAKE money(forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm about 200% sure that's true). Similarly, mp3.com only provides electronic goods, mp3s for download. Sure, they sell Rios and CDs as well, but mostly out of other distributors. I find it hard to believe that they're losing TOO much money with sites like Yahoo! raking it in. Anyway...I say ride that "bubble" while ya can.
I believe Michael Robertson's holding of over a billion in stock makes him worth more than all senior executives of all music companies combined. Great! Someone who believes in freedom... with the resources to fight back. Let's hope it doesn't corrupt him too soon.
A note for anyone valuing this company (or any other Net stock) by obsolete metrics like revenues: those billions are built on the concept, not the company. Concepts in the end are more powerful than earnings. After all, a little concept called "money" was powerful enough to survive losing the only thing that gave it value - being backed by gold.
I'd bet people were saying the same thing about paper money then as they say about Net stocks now.
- Read fiction at www.espressostories.com
It opened at around $80 on the open market, and
shot above $100. Day traders would have made 25%.
-WW
--
Why are there so many Unix-using Star Trek fans?
When was the last time Picard said, "Computer, bring
E*TRADE makes IPO's open to individual investors.
Not all of them, but a lot... (it's common for them to get 5 or 6 a week).
-WW
--
Why are there so many Unix-using Star Trek fans?
When was the last time Picard said, "Computer, bring
That's not true. As I said in another post, you
can get in on a lot of good IPO's through E*TRADE.
You don't have to be anyone special; just willing
to hold the IPO for at least 30 days (otherwise
you won't get any more IPO's... they want
stability).
I could have gotten in on the Hoover IPO, which
increased from $14 to almost $30 yesterday...
-WW
--
Why are there so many Unix-using Star Trek fans?
When was the last time Picard said, "Computer, bring
The reason it rose and declined was because the
daytraders put in bids before the market opened.
The sooner the better. Then the market makers took
those orders on a priority basis, first come,
first served (best price of course). This
continued until it hit 105, at which point the
daytraders began their profit-taking, which
continued on down to ~$60.
The only way you lost money on it was if you
bought it higher than you sold it. If you didn't
sell it yet, you didn't lose any money. (You just
missed out on MAKING money for the timebeing.)
-WW
--
Why are there so many Unix-using Star Trek fans?
When was the last time Picard said, "Computer, bring
Buying at the open and selling at the close is not what "daytrading" is about. Daytrading is about buying and selling during the course of the day, taking advantage of small (or not so small) fluctations in price.
For example, day trader T notices stock RHAT is on an upward trend, so he buys. Some time later, when the trend is no longer upward, he dumps RHAT. Similarly, if stock BEOS is on a downward trend, he sells, and picks it up later when the price bottoms out. Doing this a few ticks (price levels) at a time is known as scalping. Note that T doesn't have to own BEOS to sell it -- this is known as a short sell. Things are a bit more complicated in real-life, because of weird trading rules like no shorts on a down tick.
So the long and short (heh) of it is this: daytraders probably had a ball (and made a killing) on MP3.com because there was huge volatility. More likely, the unsophisticated traders without real-time market information and execution systems got killed. But that is how the stock market works.
Are you sure they really are options?
Stock options and employee stock purchase plans are two different things. An option means you have the option (imagine that!) of buying shares sometime in the future for a given price. For example, if you have 1000 options for $0.01, and the stock price goes to $2.00, when you excercise it you pay $10 and receive $2000 in one transaction.
When you just get a special price on your shares, thats known as a employee stock purchase plan. Quite different. If that is what you have, make sure you check out any restrictions on the shares, particularly if the company is not publicly traded. For example, they might sipulate that if you quit, the company can buy them back at $0.01, or whatever. Lots of companys do this to encourage loyalty.
Incidentally, options are usually better. There is zero risk, because you have the choice of not excercising. With any other stock purchase, the price could go down. Also, it doesn't require the upfront capital, which can be hard to come by, as you point out.
Does MP3.com have a reasonable buisness plan? How do they plan on making money? It seems like a very good site, but I do not believe that selling ad space alone justifies the market's response to their IPO. I may be missing something, but this seems to be a case of people jumping blindly at a .com stock.
I'm a software engineer, and love all news related to technology. Slashdot's announcements of tech. firms going public is key to showing the big picture of how the industry is growing and changing.
Since BeOS and MP3.COM went public, they are going to be viewed in a new light by investors which may adversely or positively influence their products and services.
Side note on mp3.com:
- Only certain people (such as artists on MP3.COM, employees, and big time investors) were allowed to buy mp3.com at the IPO (Initial Public Offering) price
- The IPO was initially around $12
- The IPO jumped to $18, $24, and finished on $28
- When the stock was available for the "everyday stock buyer" the price opened at 92!
- The stock hit a high of 103, and is now slowly slumping back to it's real worth. (At this writing it is 55.
For more information try going to
Datek Online which is a free site for stock info and quotes.
heh, they posted a repeat story, and then 2 minutes later they try to cover it up by removing it.
What has rob been smoking?
MP3.com's stock is so high because people are
buying into the idea of MP3s with
MP3.com, not any profitability, etc.
You make a bet with MP3.com that it will become
the dissemination spot for MP3s in the
next few years, and that owning the online
MP3 market is worth something.
That's the reason it's bid into the billions;
people are buying a chance at ownership of
all online MP3 distribution.
If this doesn't make sense to you, then amazon.com
stock prices probably don't either, for the
same reason -- people are buying the risky
chance that amazon.com will become the online
clearing house for many goods.
Note that amazon.com is down today on their
earnings reports, which are not substantially
lower than analysts expected. What's lower
is the volume growth in revenue -- the market
is upset that amazon is not growing quickly.
They're perfectly happy to fund a cash-loss
business scheme at this point, as evidenced
by amazon.com's market-cap. They're not pleased
that amazon.com's growth is slowing.
It will be the same story with RedHat --
the market will be buying "Linux" by buying
redhat. Expect it to be huge.
Incidentally, I did get in on the MP3 IPO.
Tripled my money in 2 hours. I will do the
same for RedHat if I can get any shares.
The stock really opened at around 92 and went to
105 within minutes of opening. Check out yahoo to see down to the minute numbers. The reality is unless you were preallocated shares before the market opened you took a beating on the stock. It basically declined from 10 minutes after it opened until the market closed. I would venture to say that almost everyone who bought it on the market lost money on it yesterday.
Most of the comments expressing amazement at the range in price seem to be based on the implicit belief that it's possible for Joe eTrader to take advantage of those price swings from his/her PC.
I've never traded a stock in my life (just have mutual funds) so you can take this with a grain of salt, but it sure seems unlikely that with the resources of an amateur one could keep up with this kind of market. My take on trying to make money at it is that you'd better (a) have solid brass balls/ovaries, (b) have deep pockets, (c) not be distracted by your real job while you monitor the wild price swings, and (d) have a very low latency betweeen when you decide you want to buy/sell and when the trade actually takes place. In other words, you'd be best off if it was your full-time job.
The percentage gains per unit time are seductive; I think regular folks don't have great chances to take advantage of them.
Try something easy like two dice superimposed on a dollar sign.
Will in Seattle
money, money, money
should be funny
in a rich man's world
Will in Seattle
You can always check out Edgar-Online's IPO Express for upcoming offerings. Right now they have offering notices up through the end of August. Of course, all of these are tentative, but it gives you a great idea who is coming out soon. (Also, a company can withdraw or be added at anytime. Check it daily :-) )
You can't buy through here, it's only there to inform and educate....
--m
Even if they aren't real options (which you don't need any cash to exercise), if it's, for example, an employee purchase plan which just allows you to buy stock itself at a discount you can raise the money by selling the stock short...
Sell 100 shares of stock at $20 on the open market. Take $1500 of the $2000 in cash you have from the short-sale, give to company in exchange for 100 shares at the discount price of, say $15.
Now you owe someone 100 shares in one account, but in some other account you have these shares you owe, plus you have $500 in cash.
Make $5/share without putting out ANY serious cash.
The only problem with this is if the stock shoots through the roof and you have a fixed "waiting period" before you can actually take delivery of the shares you purchased at the discount price... Because the broker will require you to keep a "margin" (basically some percentage of the amount that the stock you owe is worth)
If your company were large, you could buy open-market call options which would cover your risk, but eat into your profits.
But don't pass up an opportunity to make GUARANTEED MONEY because you don't have the cash. If it's really guaranteed the way this sort of thing is, there's no risk to someone who lends you money and they get a cut. Banks will do this for you, so at the very least, you could borrow money from a bank to cover the margin.
((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x))) http://www.endpointcomputing.com a scientific approach to custom computing.
has anyone heard the MP3.com radio commercials??
i heard "mp3.com, where the world goes for music" no more than 30 minutes after i read this story,
i almost threw up.
public goes crazy, along with marketing..
Check out IPO Central, part of Hoover's Online. Lots of good info on one page concerning the relevant IPO. Another good source is Yahoo! Finance. But beware that not everybody gets to purchase initial IPO stock before it hits the big boards.
"Classic UFO's
I wholeheartedly agree.
Wah!
barring any new comptetion and that mp3.ocom stays in the lead, does anyone think that maybe the riaa woould be intrested in the purchasing of many shares,m being that they are afraid of the low costs for artsist making music, so they could make some of the money at least to avoid having lost most of the industry?
-DAVEO
I work at a place that will eventually go public, probably after y2k rolls through, just to hang until most of the stupid shit gets worked out.
;) you're out of luck.
Now, I'll be getting "options" to buy at a greatly reduced price, but what good is that if you don't have the money up front to buy the bloody stock? From what I have read you have to buy stock in certain sized chunks, so if you don't have the kind of bread needed (no pun intended
Killing spammers is too good for them.
I am sure that the owners of these companies are ecstatic but this company and their ilk - amazon, barnes&noble online, ebay ,etcetera, etcetera - just don't make any money. Yes they do have "exposure" but I cannot see them ever actually making money. If you are a serious longterm investor I would be "very careful" about where I put my money.
Great for a short-term flutter but the bubble WILL burst.
Historically, IPO's have only had a 5% average annual return for the next ten years after their initial price surge. These are not good investments to "buy and hold".
As soon as we see this bull market lose its steam, you are going to see a lot of shit hit the fan. Over the past 9 years, you could have thrown money at virtually anything and made money at it. This will not be the case forever.
And you are correct, day traders that use internet brokers are getting ripped off because they will often receive very poor execution. Because of this, they will often lose more money than they are thinking they have saved from the commision of a broker.
You're pretty much right on the money (no pun intended).
Day trading (not addressing IPO's here) is getting a lot of press lately, but is is fiendishly hard to make any money at it. About the only ones making money are the ones that run Day Trading advice sites, and even then it's only because they manipulate the market to make the $$$. [okay, overgeneralization, but not too far from the truth] It is, absolutely, a 'full time job' any time you're doing it- seconds can make the difference, forget minutes. For the most part, it is a purely technical operation - it is based on market dynamics by looking at the bid/ask spread and market depth and placing trades based on that - which is why in general Day Traders use brokers that are targeted specifically at them. The generic ETrade site, for example, doesn't have the facilities to support Day Traders (though they have a 3rd party agreement for Power users, which takes it part way).
I detest Mp3.com. No good music....lousy website interface...It's a scandal that such a shitty enterprise should be making it big time.