Key insights
- The author reflects on recent IPO performance, noting that most fail to beat the market, citing Alibaba's modest gains and Figma's significant losses. CRWV's strong performance is attributed to aligning with current market trends, while RIVN's post-IPO decline highlights the inherent risk. The author concludes that IPOs are generally poor investments, vowing to avoid them in the future, suggesting a cautious sentiment towards new market entrants.
Until today (presumably) Alibaba was the largest U.S. IPO. In the 12 years since, it is up roughly 19% (excluding dividends).
Figma IPO'd at the end of July last year and is now down 85% (which, quite frankly, is hard to do considering the way the market has moved in that time.
CRWV also IPO'd last year and is up 150%, which makes sense (to me) because they align with what's been hot the last 18-24 months. Its also one of the very few I can think of that didn't immediately dip prior to running, although it has come down quite a bit from its all-time high.
My bag of RIVN is down about 90% post-IPO. (I thought it was as sure of a bet as anything at that time.)
History says most IPOs don't beat the market, but the ones that do often do so quite handsomely.
As stated above, I only own RIVN out of the ones listed, and do not plan on ever buying an IPO again.