The SpaceX IPO may look, on the surface, like another story about retail investors piling into a hot name at the top.
But to Mike Green, Chief Strategist at Simplify Asset Management, the real story is bigger than whether the stock traded down after its initial surge
In his view, the IPO revealed something far more important about the modern market: Wall Street may have found a new way to use index demand, passive flows, and speculative leverage to turn retail enthusiasm into liquidity for insiders. That, Green argues, is why the deal should not be judged only by the investors who bought near the highs and watched the price fall. It should be judged by who the transaction actually served. “If you look at the SpaceX IPO under anything other than where it traded at its peak in the immediate aftermath of the IPO, this has been an unbelievably successful IPO,” Green told Coinage in a wide-ranging interview. “I think this has actually gone spectacularly well, except of course, for the small retail investors who piled in at the extraordinary heights near $200.
And the reality is, is that — it’s a terrible way to say it — but nobody cares about them.” Maybe a bit harsh, but fair. SpaceX shares closed at $160 on the company’s first day of trading, but are now about 7% below that at $147 nearly a month later. from Coinage: Interestingly, the modern IPO machine is often discussed as a way for everyday investors to gain access to high-growth companies. But Green points out that incentives have entirely flipped.