The third largest IPO in history created a whole new network of billionaires.
Facebook's IPO valued the company at about $104 billion, slightly more than Amazon.com, and well above well-known corporations such as Disney, McDonald's and Kraft.
For now, the public value of Facebook puts it at number 23 on the list of biggest U.S. companies, ranked by market capitalization.
Here are some other stats about Facebook – from The Daily.
With Facebook's IPO set to happen soon, I was thinking about some of the other big tech IPOs.
The first few weeks of trading may not be a good estimate of how successful a company will be over time. The charts below, from a Mashable post showing how nine tech giants did after going public, highlight that point.
First, here is a normalized index chart showing the initial 15 days of trading for each company.
Second, here is a chart showing growth to date. This chart illustrates how much a $100 investment, at the IPO price, would be worth today.
Some of those returns are surprising, aren't they?
A close look at trading in May shows a pretty clear negative bias. Here is a 10-minute bar chart of what's happened since May 1st on the S&P 500 Index.
May 1 marked the beginning of a 6-month period of unfavorable seasonality. Research published by Yale Hirsch in the Trader's Almanac shows that the market year is broken into two six-month seasonality periods. From May 1 through October 31, seasonality is unfavorable, and the market most often finishes lower than it was at the beginning of the period.
The period from November 1 through April 30 is seasonally favorable, and the market most often finishes the period higher.
… While the statistical average results for these two periods are quite compelling, trying to ride the market in real-time in hopes of capturing these results is not always as easy as it sounds.
Below is the one-year chart that that shows the most recent two six-month periods. It begins on May 1, 2011 and ends on April 30, 2012.
The left half of the chart shows the unfavorable May through October period, and the right half shows the favorable November through April period. The green line marks the beginning of the favorable period. The red line marks the beginning of the unfavorable period.
Historically, the seasonality expected by 'Sell in May' has provided a trading edge.
However, scale and perspective do matter. For example, here is a weekly chart of the S&P 500 Index. From this perspective, the markets are arguably in an up-trend – and sitting on top of a pretty strong support.
While the MACD is testing a move beneath the zero line, price is the primary indicator … and is in a reasonably defensible buying area.
If the bulls hope to push things higher, this is where you would expect buying to occur.
A close look at trading in May shows a pretty clear negative bias. Here is a 10-minute bar chart of what's happened since May 1st on the S&P 500 Index.
May 1 marked the beginning of a 6-month period of unfavorable seasonality. Research published by Yale Hirsch in the Trader's Almanac shows that the market year is broken into two six-month seasonality periods. From May 1 through October 31, seasonality is unfavorable, and the market most often finishes lower than it was at the beginning of the period.
The period from November 1 through April 30 is seasonally favorable, and the market most often finishes the period higher.
… While the statistical average results for these two periods are quite compelling, trying to ride the market in real-time in hopes of capturing these results is not always as easy as it sounds.
Below is the one-year chart that that shows the most recent two six-month periods. It begins on May 1, 2011 and ends on April 30, 2012.
The left half of the chart shows the unfavorable May through October period, and the right half shows the favorable November through April period. The green line marks the beginning of the favorable period. The red line marks the beginning of the unfavorable period.
Historically, the seasonality expected by 'Sell in May' has provided a trading edge.
However, scale and perspective do matter. For example, here is a weekly chart of the S&P 500 Index. From this perspective, the markets are arguably in an up-trend – and sitting on top of a pretty strong support.
While the MACD is testing a move beneath the zero line, price is the primary indicator … and is in a reasonably defensible buying area.
If the bulls hope to push things higher, this is where you would expect buying to occur.
As a trader, I'm surprised by how different the market can look on different time-frames.
Getting a sense of scale is important. Sometimes the difference is bigger than you think.
Click the picture to launch a fascinating data visualisation created by Michael and Cary Huang. It is an interactive virtual scale of our universe that allows you to zoom in and out through space comparing the size and scale of everything from the smallest particles to immense nebulae.
