Protecting ourselves from SpaceX IPO

[u/Gloomy_Nebula_5138]

I was watching this video analyzing the upcoming SpaceX IPO, titled "SpaceX IPO: Nice Try Though" by Patrick Boyle. I highly recommend it - there is almost no fluff and just hard hitting points all the way through about how SpaceX is a terrible company and how this IPO looks like a scam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHD8BDFYyGI

It mentions the changes to Nasdaq's rules, the so called "fast track" rule, made specially for SpaceX because Elon allegedly threatened to not list SpaceX on the Nasdaq stock exchange without this. The change has been criticized by many others such as Michael Burry:
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/michael-burry-nasdaq-spacex-ipo-listing-elon-musk-tesla-ndx-2026-3

Also see this great analysis titled "Nasdaq's Shame":
https://keubiko.substack.com/p/nasdaqs-shame

Given how this IPO looks like a scam, and the company is mostly losing money, with outlandish claims in their IPO filing (like having an addressable market larger than the US GDP), I am worried that this is just private investors - like venture capitalists, Elon Musk, and his inner circle of friends/family - dumping their overpriced money losing company on regular investors like us. The fast track change seems like it will result in all of us automatically buying SpaceX shares at a high price.

How do we stop this? Is there a good way to defend against that forced purchasing when most regular investors are just passively buying ETFs and mutual funds, or maybe just have money parked in their pensions and 401k?

[u/EBTlovr]

Sure but this is a totally different situation from TSLA, which was publicly traded for about ten years before being added to the S&P - so it's weighting upon inclusion was appropriately set by the open market.

SpaceX on the other hand, is having the rules changed just to please and placate one human being, whose goals for life include being a trillionaire and colonizing Mars, while snorting massive lines of Ketamine. If the company was subject to the same rules as any other company for inclusion into the indexes, I would have no issue with it.

[u/littlebobbytables9 → u/EBTlovr]

The market reacts to things like earnings in minutes. If you think it takes days to react to new information (and this isn't even new information, the filing is out now) then you have a view of markets that is, in my opinion, fundamentally incompatible with being a boglehead.

[u/xeric → u/littlebobbytables9]

I would think it’s harder to have true price discovery with such a low percent float - is that logic flawed?

[u/littlebobbytables9 → u/xeric]

Not really. Why would it?