Facebook's Epic Fail

seavixen32 said:

The whole edifice is about to come crashing down with dire consequences for the world economy, I fear.

Money is the root of all evil, but as to what the alternative is, I haven't got a clue.

Bartering?

....green exchange of goods and services - I do

The Sepoys

[QUOTE=sassofalco;1935510]

seavixen32 said:

The whole edifice is about to come crashing down with dire consequences for the world economy, I fear.

Money is the root of all evil, but as to what the alternative is, I haven't got a clue.

Once and for all... the real quote is:

"THE LOVE OF MONEY is the root of all evil"

NOT money... money is NOT evil. the LOVE OF MONEY is the root of all evil.

I have been told that I should "get into Facebook." But I have never figured it out, and I don't use something I can't figure out.

I am told that if I don't use Facebook, I am "anti-social" or a "loner."

And I am told that if I use it, I am "narcissistic" or an "extrovert."

Go figure. One extreme or the other.

Hi there
Any stock investment is a risk -- I don't see what the lawyers have got to do with it. If you made a bad call and the investment goes down the tubes --tough-- you didn't HAVE TO BUY the stock in the first place.

In a way that's why I am heartily sick of the Banks --they played "Casino" lost trillons of dollars nd got bailed out. If I do the same I would have to take the consequencies for my own actions.

Stock Markets operate on "Fear and Greed" -- nothing per se wrong with that but you have to understand it if you play around on the markets. The main rule is "Avoid the Herd instinct" and trust your own judgement.

Anybody with a brain slightly larger than a pea could have reasoned out that Facebook's current and projected business model made the price of this stock at IPO time totally and utterly absurd in the extreme.

..... "Here endeth lesson 101 in investing ....." !!!

Cheers
jimbo

What I cannot fathom out is we're constantly being told that while we batten down the hatches we must carry on paying bankers and their ilk shedloads of money because "to get the best we must pay the best".

Hang on, who caused this mess in the first place?

If the financial contagion rapidly spreading throughout the eurozone is their best, I'd hate to see their worst.

As ever Jimbo, you speak a lot of sense. It's a pity our financiers don't do the same.

Many things went wrong with facebook IPO but I think there is still much upside to this stock in the future -- given that the poo doesn't hit the fan in Europe and/or the slowdown in China isn't as bad as some say it is.

FB got slammed this week because the FB board and guys at morgan stanley got too cocky with the price @ $38. It should have been priced at what they were saying a couple of months ago, 28-32. Also there were gliches in the nasdaq that caused investor confusion which lead to uncertainty which as well all know is like kryptonite to the boys on wall street. And I also think that GM cutting their contract deal with FB about a week b4 the IPO had to have some negative impact on the IPO, even if it was a little bit.

And lest we forget all the inside information that is floating around that no one but the "masters of the universe" are privy to. I'm sure that led to lots of wealth destruction.

mavigozler said:

I have been told that I should "get into Facebook." But I have never figured it out, and I don't use something I can't figure out.

I am told that if I don't use Facebook, I am "anti-social" or a "loner."

And I am told that if I use it, I am "narcissistic" or an "extrovert."

Go figure. One extreme or the other.

Who needs facebook when you got the sevenforums

Hi there
stock can rise as well as fall too -- if you think the long term is UP then buy it -- but again had you waited a day or two you would have got the stock a LOT cheaper.

A better way of "Hedging your bets" on this stuff would have been to SELL a PUT option on this. What this means is that per contract (100 shares) you guarantee to BUY the shares at a price under the IPO price for which you get paid IMMEDIATELY a premium of say 60 Cents a share (or 60 dollars per contract).

If the share price doesn't fall to the PUT price you've agreed (known as the STRIKE PRICE) then that's it and you've still made 60 dollars per contract.

If the shares are "Put to you" it means they fell but then you got the shares much cheaper than the people who bought them at IPO time. AND you keep the 60 cents premium per share as well.

When they are PUT to you you then immediately do the reverse and sell a CALL option -- this means that you agree to PROVIDE the shares at your "strike price" for again say a premium of 60 cents a share or 60 dollars a contract.

say you write your CALL at 30 dollars and the shares are 29.45 . you write 5 contracts so that's 300 dollars immediately. If the shares say go up to 31 you still have to sell at 30 --but so what you've made ANOTHER 55 cents a share -- 5 contracts 500 shares so another 0.55 * 100 * 5 = 275 dollars

so in 2 weeks (assuming you are exercising WEEKLY options) you've made 575 dollars for doing essentially NOTHING - on 5 contracts --- that's nearly 1% A WEEK -- try that at a Bank.

Had you bought at the IPO price you'd be sitting on a loss.

I know which scenario I prefer.

BTW the trades illustrated here are for AMERICAN type options, traded on CBOE (Chicago Board Optione Exchange through people like OptionsXpress or e*trade etc) not European style ones.

As in all matters dealing with investing even if things look like they are going "South" quickly there's always room to jump in and pick up some of the pieces after "The Herd" has done its business and come unstuck. !!!

Cheers
jimbo