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Participating in AirBNB IPO - best trading platform to use?

Hi all,
Am after advice on low cost investment platforms and how to use one to potentially take part in the AirBNB IPO, or to buy shares in it post IPO. 
I've read the MSE guidance on platform best buys, but as someone who will buy shares once in a blue moon, I don't want to sign up to the more expensive versions like HL or AJBell as I won't trade very often, if at all (Buy and hold only). I have used SVS in the past and given current issues with ITI am not keen to use them.
I have an account with X-O.co.uk for execution only dealing, but I read that is for UK shares only, and I'm assuming the AirBNB shares will be listed in the US only.
So getting to the point - does anyone have any suggestions on a good trading platform to use, that I can use to buy US shares in AirBNB at a reasonable price, with a one-off fee and no ongoing quarterly or annual platform charges?
Also if anyone is in the know, I'm assuming participation in AirBNB IPO will be institutional investor only rather than retail; and I would need to buy on secondary market?
Thanks for your help

Comments

  • bowlhead99
    bowlhead99 Posts: 12,295 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Post of the Month
    If they list in the US they won't offer you a chance to buy at IPO because you are not a US person. You are right that the IPO shares will be taken up by institutional investors or customers of US brokers. Once they are trading in the secondary market like any number of hundreds of other stock-market traded shares, you will be able to buy them from UK brokers that offer purchases on those markets. If it is a popular stock, in due course you would expect it could be bought as a CDI on the London exchange which you could get via x-o.co.uk. But waiting for that might take longer than going to someone else who trades on the US markets.

    HL does not charge an ongoing fee to hold shares unless you want to do it in an ISA or pension account (using an ISA attracts a percentage-based annual fee with a cap at £45 pa). £12 plus fx costs for a purchase and then nothing ongoing is hardly going to break the bank if you are making a decent size investment and/or holding for a long time in which you see good growth.  AJ Bell's Youinvest has a percentage based fee for both ISA and general investment account, but it's a lower percentage and capped lower at £30. If you've rejected both of those, you might like to try IG.com who are cheap enough with relatively lower forex fees than those two names. 

    Or you could wait until Freetrade or Trading 212 add it to their list of allowed stocks, as they allow you to trade without explicit commissions, instead hoping to make enough money from other types of customer to subsidise basic trading customers.  However if you went through the experience with SVS of losing access to your assets for a year when they went under, and didn't enjoy that, it may give you pause for thought about whether to put your 'long term buy and hold' business with someone who doesn't make any money out of you and relies on subsidising their relationship with you from revenues they make out of other people.

    Any particular reason you think Airbnb will choose to list at a price that is less than the business is inherently 'worth' (and not immediately rise in price if it is initially mispriced) so that you can make a great gain from it?
  • Thanks, that's very helpful advice, will ponder again the platforms you've mentioned. Having had a look at Trading 212 it does look quite good (and they've said they'll add it quickly - plus they offer the ability to buy fractions of Amazon), but I definitely note the SVS point you make and the potential sustainability of their business model (it actually didnt affect me that much this time round, but may not be the same in a future instance). To your last question I'm thinking pretty long-term about AirBNB, so I don't expect it to be mis-priced and I would also expect there to be an initial 'pop' for institutional investors, but I think their business model has great potential in the long-term, hence I'd be buying now and holding for a few years to see if that plays out....
  • Tolteca87
    Tolteca87 Posts: 1,394 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    T212 certainly added other recent IPOs extremenly quickly or on the same day, which was handy picking up Palantir in the low 9's.
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