so i was checking my portfolio the other day and had a weird thought. why are we all stuck tradin͏g the same public stocks while the real money gets made before companies even go public? you can trade crypto, meme stocks, whatever. but pre-IPO names like OpenAI or SpaceX-level stuff? nah, unless youve got the right connections or a seven-figure account somewhere. it's not about being smart. it's about having acces͏s.
and the lever͏age gap makes it worse. institutional guys can take leveraged positions on basically anything. retail gets crypto and maybe some ETFs if they're lucky. been looking around for something that actually addresses both.
stumbled across liq͏uid the other day, apparently you can short pre-IPO names like OpenAI from your phone at 3am. crypto, equities, commodities, all in one place too. let that sink in for a second.
not saying its a replacement for the real thing, but the access gap is finally starting to close a little.
anyone here actually managed to get exposure to pre-IPO names on the retail side? what did you use, was it worth it?
pre-IPO investing is still a rich man's game and it's bullshit
byu/Silent_gryphon ininvesting
Posted by Silent_gryphon
4 Comments
I don’t recommend it. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can end up getting heavily diluted in subsequent funding rounds, there’s generally no guarantee the company will ever IPO (look at people trying to palm off their zocdoc stock for example), and don’t forget the lockup period, which is often 90 days—enough time for you to watch the stock hit its IPO highs, then come down before you’re allowed to sell.
Sorry friend.. all of Wall Street stacked against you.
At least black jack in Vegas you know the house odds. Seeing how well the billionaires are doing leads me to believe you may have better odds in Vegas.
Equityzen.com
If you want pre-IPO exposure, just trade SPACs. It’s basically an IPO in reverse: instead of a company looking for money, the money is looking for a company. You get access to the exact same type of experimental, pre-revenue startups that shouldn’t normally be public yet.
Sure, you aren’t going to find giants like OpenAI or SpaceX in a SPAC, but you’re missing the entire point of early-stage investing. The goal is to buy a small company and make a 10x return. If OpenAI IPOs at a $1 Trillion valuation, how exactly are you planning to 10x that? It’s simply impossible.
If you want massive upside, stop whining about not having access to overvalued mega-unicorns and start doing the research to find smaller, under-the-radar companies before they pop.