This is from my brother asking Gemini AI about the IPO …
Here’s what I get from Gemini.
If you are selected for an allocation through E*Trade, you will pay the **announced IPO price** (the "offering price"), not the opening price on the stock exchange.
This is the primary reason investors fight for these slots. Getting in at the IPO price allows you to potentially capture the "pop"—the jump in value that often happens between the time the price is set at night and when the stock actually starts trading the next morning.
### How it Works mechanically:
1. **The Pricing (The Night Before):** On the evening before the stock goes public, SpaceX and its lead bankers (like Morgan Stanley) will set a final price (e.g., $110 per share).
2. **The Confirmation:** E*Trade will alert you that the price is set. You must **manually confirm** your order at that exact price within a very short window (usually a few hours).
3. **The Purchase:** If you confirm and are allocated shares, E*Trade pulls the money from your account at that **$110 price**.
4. **The Opening (Next Morning):** When the stock officially opens for trading on the Nasdaq the next day, it might open at **$140**. Because you got in through the retail allocation, you already have a "paper profit" of $30 per share before the general public could even touch it.
### Why the "30% Allocation" matters for you:
Totally confused now ,,,,, if this turns out to be correct then it’s a good deal to try it and the price ?????
The flipping of the shares part is something that appears consistent !
Typically, retail investors are fighting over a tiny 5% to 10% slice of an IPO, which is why allocations are usually so small (e.g., you ask for 100 shares and get 2).
With a **30% reserve**, your odds of getting a more substantial portion are significantly higher. This is Musk’s explicit attempt to ensure that his individual supporters—the "retail" crowd—get the "wholesale" price that is usually reserved for giant hedge funds.
### The "Flipping" Trap
One important caveat: E*Trade generally has an **"anti-flipping" policy**. If you get shares at the IPO price and sell them immediately to lock in that opening-day "pop," E*Trade may penalize you by banning you from participating in future IPOs for 60 to 180 days.