[candiddevmike]

IPOs are probably one of the worst gambles retail investors can make. Almost all of the financials are juiced, and more often than not the stock tanks in the near term post-IPO. You can't really make an informed buying decision, best to let the dust settle.

[downrightmike]

All value has been extracted by VC before the IPO. All the IPO does is dump the stock on institutions and retail investors.

[el_nahual]

This is trivially proven false, at least as a generalization. Looking at recent-ish IPOs:

Spotify: up 380% since IPO

Service Now: 4,000%

Shopify: 685%

Meta: 1,600%

[candiddevmike]

There are at least 150-250 IPOs every year, good luck picking winners like those four.

[FreakLegion]

If https://site.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/files/IPOs-VC-backed.... is right, the last time there were 150+ tech IPOs in a year was 2000 (1992-2000 were all anomalously high). 2021 is the only year to break 100 since then, and only three other years cracked 50.

[asah]

um, perhaps it's worth reviewing the stock charts for MAANG whose early investors extracted a tiny % of the their total marketcaps.

The subtlety is that you can buy shares on the open market post-IPO, so when you buy "pre-IPO" you're just getting the one-time "pop."