
SoftBank Will Let People Invest in IPOs with Less Than $10 - notlukesky
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-22/softbank-will-let-people-invest-in-ipos-with-less-than-10
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edoceo
Somehow I feel this will lead to folks who don't have extra money will lose
that money through this vehicle and flashy marketing helping SB get out of
their deals. Direct line to the "next greater fool" if you will.

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hardwaresofton
There was a company that recently started trying to sell stocks at retail
outlets (walmart, etc) -- basically you could pay $20 for some sort of
placeholder card (much like you might buy Netflix credits or whatever) that
were good for shares in a company. This reminds me of that in a bad way.

This is right up with the amount of pushing that is done for FX trading in
japan -- it's hugely risky and really just a way to extract money from retail
investors dumb enough to go for it. The information asymmetry, relationships,
and access that institutional investors have versus the average retail
investor is so stark that this is basically a trap for smart (but naive)
people.

Nevermind how scammy IPOs can be -- your trades don't go as fast as the big
guys, and that matters. The "pop"s are made by waves of dumb money while the
smart money was basically already in (whether that means private equity or
trades that executed earlier than retail).

This is obviously not about America, but I think it's relevant (with what I
know about Japan living here for a few years):

[https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/investment_manager.ht...](https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/investment_manager.html)

Japan's economy is similarly stratified, it's just that less people
care/actually have time to do anything about it.

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mifreewil
> There was a company that recently started trying to sell stocks at retail
> outlets (walmart, etc)

Sounds like Stockpile - They sell gift cards for stocks.

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hardwaresofton
Thanks so much, I had a SUPER hard time googling for this -- kept coming up
with blogosphere articles on how to invest in Walmart...

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neilv
This seems closer to a gambling operation or scamming operation, than offering
ordinary people appropriate investment opportunies.

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cryptica
Ah yes now that it's all about to collapse is the perfect time to finally
allow regular people to participate as startup investors.

