alt Hacker NewsFor other readers, I want to add some context here. NASDAQ is pondering whether or not to change their NASDAQ 100 index membership rules for IPOs. Currently, there is a three month waiting rule for IPOs. They are proposing (not sure if passed/agree/completed yet) to remove this waiting rule for IPOs.
Real question: What is the real impact of this rule change? To me, it seems so minor. Three months is just a blip in time for any long term investor.
> which corruptly will force us all to buy into these companies
Also, if you don't like the NASDAQ 100 rules, then you don't have to invest in securities that track it. You can trade the basket yourself minus the names that you don't like.
Finally, I would say that S&P 500 index is far more important than NASDAQ 100. To join the S&P 500 index, the name must be profitable for the most recent year. (four quarters). Recall that Uber IPO'd in 2019, but was not profitable until 2023. OpenAI probably will not be profitable when it goes public; thus, it will not join the S&P 500 immediately.
I think the bigger story is SpaceX. It will likely IPO very close to a 1T USD market cap (with a small float: ~10%). And, thanks to StarLink, I assume that SpaceX is now wildly profitable.
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The "corruption" allegation is that for, yes, SpaceX, index funds will effectively be "forced" to buy in right away at their IPO price, rather than seeing where they settle before getting the money in. Given that most people have most of their money in index funds, it's sort-of an automatic buy and raises some hackles about a fixed game.
Saying "you can trade the basket yourself minus the names you don't like" is not a real counterargument. Most of us are not going to do that, I'm not going to do that and I'm writing this post right now. John Doe is certainly not doing that.
> Also, if you don't like the NASDAQ 100 rules, then you don't have to invest in securities that track it.
Isn't the idea with the indexes that they allow you to intentionally not take an activist position in the market? The exposure is not tied to any underlying market hypothesis. In other words, if we make people form a market hypothesis in order to decide whether or not to hold this index, it has failed in its purpose.