[bluedevil2k]

No, you’re wrong. You’re not taking a bidders budget into account. If I enter 20 points on my demand curve ans they’re all above the clearing price, I’ll end up being forced to buy the quantities of all my bids. That may totally bust my budget. There are no stop limit orders in these auctions...there’s only a buy order with a quantity and a price.

[harryh]

If you are willing to by 100 shares at $100 or, say, 200 shares at $50 you can enter the following two bids:

100 shares at $100

100 shares at $50

This will satisfy your demand curve.

In a direct listing, the initially listed shares will all transact at the same price (the clearing price).

[bluedevil2k]

That’s a contrived example though. Say you put 200 shares at $50. If the clearing price is $50, you’ve won 300 shares at $50 - $15,000 total. What if you only have $10,000? I’m saying it’s difficult to a) allow bidders to enter a demand curve b) respect their budget limitations c) keep it easily understandable for bidders.

[harryh]

Why would you put 200 shares at $50 and 100 shares at $100 if you only had a $10,000 budget? That's misrepresenting your actual demand curve.

Are you saying that an auction of this kind is a bit complicated, and it's possible to make a mistake? I suppose that might be true, but that is a very different assertion from your original position:

"since people had to enter a single point on their demand curve as a price and quantity of shares (instead of their entire demand curve)"