[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)"