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by MichaelGG 3883 days ago
Oh, interesting. I looked up recent IPOs on Nasdaq and ones from last month have options now. First Data (FDC) has been trading only 3 weeks and has options. But really low volume and ridiculous spreads. RACE has been trading only 3 weeks for less time and has more options. Perhaps they are exceptional due to their size?

Not that this would help with FB a whole lot since it'd have dropped a fair amount by the time you could buy options.
1 comments
jonknee 3883 days ago
The rules aren't based on time, but basically on diversity of shareholders (there need to be a lot of shareholders and a lot of shares outstanding) which makes sense.

You need 7m publicly held shares outstanding (many IPOs don't do this, a lot of shares are controlled by underwriters and insiders who can't sell at the IPO) at least 2,000 shareholders and some minimum trade volume. There's a minimum share price too, but that doesn't effect IPOs.

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MichaelGG 3882 days ago
Do you know where I can get the official docs on how options are controlled?
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jonknee 3882 days ago
CBOE probably has them, or possibly through your broker, but they handle compliance so the nuance of the rules isn't terribly important (if you can buy or sell options for a security through your broker they have already met the standard).

The numbers I mentioned are in the Federal Register, but quite a while ago. The numbers are still current, though other parts may have changed:

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1994-02-07/html/94-2716.htm

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