Transcription
Yesterday, SpaceX filed to go public. This is without question the most anticipated IPO of all time. The company that lands rockets on barges in the middle of the ocean, the one behind Starlink, is finally hitting the stock market. SpaceX is targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation, but they're only raising $75 billion. So, they're selling just about 4% of the company. And yet, this is still the single largest IPO in the history of the world. Bigger than Saudi Aramco, bigger than Alibaba, bigger than anything Wall Street has ever seen.
Now, it will trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker SPCX. And the date to circle on your calendar is June 12th. But here's the most exciting part and the one that directly benefits you. Buried inside that filing, between page after page of dense legal language, there is one paragraph. One paragraph that changes everything for regular investors like you and me.
Now, normally an IPO like this is a private party. The big institutions, the hedge funds, the Wall Street insiders, they get the shares at the IPO price. You and I, we get to buy it after it opens, after it's already up, after the easy money has been made. But not this time. Today, I'm going to show you exactly how to buy shares of SpaceX at the IPO price, the same price institutions pay, and at the same time they buy it. I'm going to walk you through the five brokerage platforms that will be selling these shares and I'll go step by step on each one. And then I'm going to tell you the catch because there is one and not everybody is being straight with you about it.
Now, make sure to subscribe to the channel. This is, as I said, the biggest IPO in history, and I'm going to keep you up to date from now until the day it trades. Let me break this down now. Let's start with the facts. On May 20th, SpaceX filed its S1 with the SEC. The S1 is the official registration document. It's the company raising its hand and saying, "We're going public." It all starts with this. And the headline numbers are staggering. A $1.75 trillion valuation, a raise of $75 billion. SpaceX did roughly 19 billion in revenue last year and Starlink, the satellite internet business, just crossed 10 million subscribers.
Now, here's the timeline you need to know, and it is tight. The road show starts June 4th. That's when SpaceX and its bankers go out and pitch the deal to big investors. Pricing happens June 11th. That's the night they set the official IPO price. And the stock starts trading the very next day, June 12th, on the NASDAQ under the ticker SPCX. Three weeks away. That's it. And to put the sheer size of this thing in perspective, the previous record holder for the biggest IPO was Saudi Aramco, the big state oil giant. They raised about $29 billion back in 2019. SpaceX is targeting more than double that. So, this isn't just a big IPO. It is quite literally the biggest financial event the market has ever seen.
Now, let's get back to that paragraph in the filing. Here's how an IPO normally works and why you never get to profit off them. When a company goes public, the shares get handed out by the underwriters. That's the big investment banks running the deal. And who do they hand them to? Their best clients, the pension funds, the hedge funds, institutions writing nine-figure checks. So, the stock prices at say $30 bucks and it opens at $45. Well, that $15 pop that went to the insiders. The only people who made that big out-of-the-gate profit were the ones who got pre-IPO shares. By the time you can buy, the easy money's already gone. And Wall Street has run that exact play for decades.
But SpaceX, at its own request, and this is right there in black and white in the filing, is doing something different. They have asked the underwriters to set aside a chunk of shares to be sold directly to retail investors, regular people, through five brokerage platforms you very likely already have an account with. And here's the line that matters most. I'm going to quote the filing directly. "Any purchase through these platforms," quote, "will be at the same initial public offering price and at the same time as any other purchases in this offering, including purchases by institutions and other large investors." Same price, same time. The institutional advantage on this one is zero. And it's not a token gesture. According to reporting around the deal, SpaceX may set aside as much as 30% of the entire offering for retail investors. In a typical IPO, retail is lucky to get 10%. And those shares are extremely hard to come by if you don't have a seven-figure account.
So why is SpaceX doing this? Well, it's simple. Elon Musk has tens of millions of fans and customers. He's got Starlink users, Tesla owners, people who have watched these rockets land themselves and wanted a piece of it for years. And the company wants those people as shareholders. Loyal, long-term, loud. It is good business. Plus, this is Elon Musk. He does not play by the rules. Never has, never will. For you, it means the door is actually open. Now, let me show you how to walk through it.
And by the way, if you like content like this and you want the trades I'm taking, you need to join my Black Ops trading service for just $5. You get an entire year of access. Live one-hour mentoring sessions with me every single Monday. These are real trades with real money. I'll walk you through the actual positions, my buy rules, my sell rules, all of it. You'll also get my weekly newsletter, indicators, bonus reports, a ton of other stuff. It is $5 for the whole year. Just click the link in the description, scan the QR code, or go to tradewithross.com to get signed up.
All right, SpaceX IPO. There are five doors. The filing names them specifically: Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robin Hood, SoFi, and E*TRADE, which is now owned by Morgan Stanley. They've got five platforms, and each one works a little differently. Let me walk through them one at a time.
First, Robin Hood. This is the most open door of the five. Robin Hood has a feature called IPO Access built right into the app. There is no minimum account balance. You can literally open an account with a couple hundred bucks and request shares. So, the way it works is you go into IPO Access, scroll down and find SpaceX, and submit what's called a conditional offer to buy. You're telling Robin Hood, "I want this many shares at the IPO price." Now, one thing to know, IPO Access does not work in retirement accounts or custodial accounts. So, it has to be a standard individual brokerage account.
Second, SoFi. Same idea. SoFi has something they call IPO Investing inside its Active Invest accounts. So, you just go in, select a SpaceX offering, you answer a few suitability questions, basically just confirming you understand what you're buying, and you submit an indication of interest. An indication of interest is just a reservation. It's you saying, "Put me down for this many shares." And we'll come right back to what that does and does not do because I want to be clear about this.
All right. Third is Fidelity. Fidelity is a bigger gate. They get access to a lot of IPOs, but they tend to reserve them for their better customers. To be eligible, you generally need either $100,000 or $500,000 in household assets at Fidelity. And the exact threshold kind of varies from deal to deal, but it's either that or you need to be a Premium or a Private Client customer. And that cuts a whole lot of regular investors out. If you've got a decent nest egg parked at Fidelity, you're probably in. If not, this probably isn't your door.
Fourth, Charles Schwab. Schwab is named in the filing again as a selling group member, which means they will get an allocation of these SPCX shares to offer their clients. Schwab also has an IPO portal where eligible clients can place an order. And like Fidelity, Schwab generally gates IPO access behind a household relationship. It's an asset minimum or an active trading history. So if you are a Schwab client, log in, check the IPO section, and just see whether SpaceX shows up as available to you.
And then finally, E*TRADE, which is now technically E*TRADE for Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley. They were one of the underwriters on this deal. So to participate there, you open and fund a qualified E*TRADE account, complete an investor profile questionnaire so they can again confirm you're eligible. But here's the thing about E*TRADE you need to know. Morgan Stanley's private bank and its ultra-wealthy clients get first priority on that allocation. The retail shares that flow down to regular E*TRADE customers are kind of whatever's left after the big money clients have been taken care of.
So, there are five doors. Robin Hood and SoFi, both wide open, no minimums. And then Fidelity, Schwab, and E*TRADE. They're open, but slightly gated. But before you go racing off to open these accounts tonight, you need to hear the catch. And here it is. And I want you to really hear this part because the hype machine out there is not going to tell you. Requesting shares is not the same as getting shares. That conditional offer to buy on Robin Hood, that indication of interest on SoFi, those are not orders. They're not guarantees. They are you raising your hand saying, "I'd like some, please." Whether you actually get any and how many gets decided after pricing on June 11th.
Here's kind of the math problem. This is the most anticipated IPO of all time. Demand is going to be astronomical. Even with 30% set aside for retail, there is not enough stock to go around. It's not even close. So, what happens? Well, allocations get cut down. For some brokers, way down. You might ask for 100 shares and get five. You might ask for 100 and get zero. And I'm not being a pessimist. This is just how oversubscribed IPOs work. You might not get an allocation at all. Even if you're eligible, the gated platforms, the Fidelity, Schwab, E*TRADE are going to take care of their biggest clients first. If that's you, great. If not, try one of the others. So, the deeper your pockets with these brokers, the better your odds. And in that sense, it is the same old game, but there is a side door cracked open.
And then there's the flipping penalties. Now, brokers do not want you grabbing IPO shares and dumping them on day one. SoFi will charge you a $50 fee if you sell your allocated shares within 120 days. Robin Hood tracks flipping, too. If you sell too fast, they can cut off your access to future IPOs. So, if you do get shares, plan on holding them, at least if you want access to more IPOs in the future.
Now, what if you don't get an allocation? What if you strike out completely? Well, you can still buy SPCX the moment it starts trading on June 12th. On that day, anyone with a brokerage account can buy it in the open market just like any other stock. But, and this is the whole point, you would be buying at the market price. So, if SpaceX prices at say $40 and opens at $60, you'd be paying $60. You'd be the one buying the pop instead of getting it. And maybe it goes higher still. Maybe it falls by 50%. But that is the difference between getting an allocation and not. The allocation is the edge. The open market is the consolation prize.
So here is your action plan. You've got three weeks. The clock's running. First, pick your door. If you don't already have an account, the realistic options for most regular investors are going to be Robin Hood and SoFi. No minimums, simple process. If you've got serious assets sitting at Fidelity or Schwab, absolutely check those, too. And if you're already a Schwab or E*TRADE client, log in and look for SpaceX as an offering.
Second, open and fund the account today, not June 4th, today. The road show starts June 4th. The request window opens right around then. And an account that is empty or still verifying your identity is an account that cannot request shares. So, go ahead and get the money in early.
Third, when the request window opens, put your indication in and try to be realistic about size. Asking for 10,000 shares doesn't make you more likely to get them. And if you request more stock than you have money in the account to buy, you're not going to get it.
And fourth, if you do get an allocation, treat it like the rare thing it is. Resist the urge to flip it for a quick buck and eat the fee unless it's worth it. And that's a decision only you can make. Look, I'll be honest. If I get a $100,000 allocation, the stock doubles in a week, I'm selling. Period. Find me. Restrict me for future IPOs. I don't care. And if you don't get an allocation, don't panic buy at the open on June 12th. Don't chase the thing. IPOs go through a price discovery period in the first couple of months. Most of them fall by at least 50% from peak to trough in their first year. This thing's being valued at $1.75 trillion on day one. This is not going to 10x, at least not anytime soon. But that's the deal. Open the account, fund it, request the shares, and understand that a request is a lottery ticket, not a receipt.
Now, here's my take on the whole thing. For the first time in a very long time, Wall Street has actually cracked the door open. Well, I guess Elon's forced them to for regular investors on a deal of this size. And that in itself is rare. It is worth paying attention to. Whether SpaceX ultimately belongs in your portfolio is your call to make. But at least this time, you get to make that call at the same price the big money pays. Do not let a three-week window close on you just because you didn't get an account opened and funded.
Now, I'm going to be covering SPCX every step of the way through the road show, through pricing night, and right onto its first day of trading. So, if you haven't already, subscribe to the channel. I don't want you to miss it. And remember, you can still click that link in the description to sign up for my Black Ops trading service. It is just $5 for the whole year, not monthly. $5 gets you 365 days. You'll get live one-plus-hour mentoring sessions with me and other members every single week for the year. My weekly newsletter every Friday for the year, bonus reports, indicators, everything else is yours to keep. So, click the link, scan the QR code, or go to tradewithross.com to get signed up. And I'll see you in the next.