Friends and Family Shares

You just know it's gonna be a hot IPO. Price talk has been 15 bucks a share, but the capital markets lady at Goldman keeps mumbling something that sounds like "twenty two bucks first print." So you're thinking that your friends and family will get an easy 7 dollar a share ride if they buy in. And you want to pay back Crazy Uncle Larry for the weird birthday presents he always bought you.

So before the IPO, the bank asks you for a list of your friends and family members, each of whom will be allowed to buy up to 500 shares after filling out a bunch of forms covering the bank's a**, such that if the IPO tanks and the first print is actually 7 bucks, then you can't sue the bank for not properly marketing the offering, and for the fact that the friends and family people were not, in fact, "big boys and girls," i.e. professionals who "shoulda known better."

The process of giving to friends and family is a regular Thing now with IPOs, so if you know someone soon going public, uh...invest in that beer night for them, and hopefully they'll remember you when it's time.