Personally I blame the SEC. Emphasis mine.
Eligibility Requirements
"By their nature, investing in an IPO is a risky and speculative investment. Brokerage firms MUST consider if the IPO is appropriate for individual investors in light of their income and net worth, investment objectives, other securities holdings, risk tolerance, and other factors. A firm MAY NOT sell IPO shares to an individual investor unless it has determined the investment is suitable for that particular investor."
Modified:11/24/1999
http://www.sec.gov/answers/ipodiff.htm
Thanks, -- Hal
On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:05:33 -0500, Jeffrey Watts wrote:
I'd like to point out that E-Trade was the company that screwed over thousands of open source developers and contributors when they handled Red Hat's IPO. I personally will never do business with them.
http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/1999/07/30/redhat_shares
Jeffrey.
On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 10:29 AM, David Nicol [email protected] wrote:
I like e-trade for a bill payment clearinghouse. It seems to me that the interests of a brokerage are more aligned with their depositors than the interests of a bank, where the depositors are in fact the product, not the customer.