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An echo of 1990s-style dotcom euphoria reverberated around Wall Street as shares in LinkedIn soared on their debut, at one point valuing the business-focused social network at $11.6bn.

The strong reception pointed to pent-up demand for the Facebook generation of young internet companies and is expected to be followed by a spate of initial public offers from other companies linked to the online social networking revolution.

But it also drew warnings that a new internet bubble might be in the making, with investors rushing to pay prices far higher than a level that was considered extravagant only days before.

At their high on Thursday LinkedIn’s shares were trading at $122.69, up 173 per cent on the $45 IPO price. At that price, it was valued at some $11.6bn, nearly quadruple its value at the beginning of the week when bankers put a price tag of $32-$35 on the shares.

By the close of trading the share price stood at $94.25, valuing LinkedIn at $8.9bn, or 36 times last year’s sales. Facebook is valued on private markets at about 32 times estimated sales.

“This is a very rich valuation which is reminiscent of the year 2000 exuberance,” said Michael Yoshikami, chief investment strategist at YCMNET Advisors, a wealth management firm.

The first-day rise of 109 per cent was the biggest for a US company since 2006, when Nymex Holdings jumped 125 per cent, according to Dealogic. But it fell well short of record pops of more than 600 per cent seen in 1999, the peak of the dotcom era.

“To some extent, investors are buying LinkedIn because they cannot get into Facebook. People are just really desperate to get into social media,” he said.

“It’s hard to justify, based on [LinkedIn’s] current performance,” added Ryan Jacob of the Jacob Internet Fund.

The excitement was thick in the air on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A crowd gathered at the station of Bank of America Merrill Lynch – the designated market maker which ran the opening auction – in one of the rare moments in the electronic age when the NYSE floor still buzzes with energy.

Scott Cutler, head of listings at NYSE, said it was the biggest opening since General Motors’ debut last November. “This is a big crowd. There’s just huge interest in this new phase of the internet’s growth,” he said.

LinkedIn is both a business-focused social network and provider of recruitment services. Its sales doubled last year to $243m.

It is the first such US group to go public, with the larger social network Facebook and game designer Zynga still waiting in the wings. Renren, among China’s largest social networks, went public earlier this month. Yandex, Russia’s most popular website, is set to trade on the Nasdaq next week.

Even so, LinkedIn’s rise in value has been extraordinarily rapid. Larry Allen, chief executive of private share network Nyppex, said that investors who had bought LinkedIn’s shares privately earned unusually large returns – as much as a multiple of 5.4 if they had bought the shares a year ago on private markets, when prices were $17.74 a share.

That compares with vintage 2003 venture capital funds, the year LinkedIn was founded, whose estimated median multiple is 1.05, according to Preqin, which gathers private equity data.

“Secondary buyers in LinkedIn have benefited from highly motivated investment bankers seeking to establish a track record to win future social media company IPOs,” said Mr Allen. “The LinkedIn IPO valuation thus far is a good omen for buyers in certain other privately held social media companies,” he added.

Jeffrey Weiner, LinkedIn’s chief executive, told the Financial Times: “Today is exciting and fun, but now we’ve got to be focused on our long-term goal of remaining independent and taking advantage of this huge opportunity ahead of us. We’re still in the early innings.”

Mr Weiner said that while LinkedIn may not have the frequency of usage that Facebook does – in its prospectus, LinkedIn said the majority of its users updated their profiles monthly – it believes it can create move value per user.

The group is valued at more per user – nearly $100 – than Skype, acquired by Microsoft last week for $8.5bn, which is valued at just $13 per user.

“We are not focused on time spent on the site. We want users to engage with the site in a way that creates more value for all of our customers,” Mr Weiner said.

Analysts at Trefis, an independent research group, said in a note on Thursday that to justify its valuation, LinkedIn must “grow its corporate and business customer base significantly from a few thousand customers today to tens of thousands over the next few years”.

The underwriters on the offering, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase may now be in pole position to nab top roles on future social networking IPOs.

Shares in Renren, the Chinese network that went public earlier in May, saw shares rise as high as $14.75 in trading on Thursday, but fell back by the close to $13.75, a gain of 0.4 per cent on the day. Renren made a similar splash on its debut, rising as much as 71 per cent, but is shares have since languished under $14, its initial IPO price.

Additional reporting by Michael Stothard and Johanna Kassel

But yeah just jumped on this recently, who else here uses/ wants to join network?

Has it helped you in any capacity?

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Yeah I am on there.

Hardly use it and get loads of random indians messaging me trying to sell scrap copper.

I also get the odd message from someone I've done business with and people who I've worked with in the past which can be decent but so far has not born any fruit.

/

i think the IPO is closed now but if its still open I'd wait a while for the price to become more realistic.

A better investment if you are interested in securities would be Glencore but I think that iPO is closed also and was massively over subscribed anyway. My boss got some shares in Gcore as he's a big dog and they were only dealing with "preferred" investors as far as I know. As I trade metals my compliance officer is trying to say I'm not allowed to invest in any mining companies but f*ck that. Glencore and Xstrata and other base metals companies are a sure bet; as the economy recovers so more resources/commidities are needed. As the world expands and industry grows so more commodity is needed. As more commodity is needed and resources are finite, so prices rise. As prices of the underlying rise, so prices of the stock rise..

Anyway, if theres another .com bubble as some people are expecting i'll wait for prices to come down a little and for more competitors before I make my move. I definitely want to be involved but not at these prices.

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Yeah I am on there.

Hardly use it and get loads of random indians messaging me trying to sell scrap copper.

I also get the odd message from someone I've done business with and people who I've worked with in the past which can be decent but so far has not born any fruit.

/

i think the IPO is closed now but if its still open I'd wait a while for the price to become more realistic.

A better investment if you are interested in securities would be Glencore but I think that iPO is closed also and was massively over subscribed anyway. My boss got some shares in Gcore as he's a big dog and they were only dealing with "preferred" investors as far as I know. As I trade metals my compliance officer is trying to say I'm not allowed to invest in any mining companies but f*ck that. Glencore and Xstrata and other base metals companies are a sure bet; as the economy recovers so more resources/commidities are needed. As the world expands and industry grows so more commodity is needed. As more commodity is needed and resources are finite, so prices rise. As prices of the underlying rise, so prices of the stock rise..

Anyway, if theres another .com bubble as some people are expecting i'll wait for prices to come down a little and for more competitors before I make my move. I definitely want to be involved but not at these prices.

o this is you

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Hardly use it and get loads of random indians messaging me trying to sell scrap copper.

Hahaha

What?

Short version:

If you trade metals you can trade futures or physical

Futures are generally traded on an exchange, i.e. London Metal Exchange, COMEX, NYMEX. These are documented/regulated exchanges for buyers and sellers to meet and find a price/make a trade.

The other side is the physical market. I.E. Physical copper as opposed to a 3-month in the future contract, which contracts you to make/take delivery of the copper in 3 months time.

The physical is underpinned by scrap copper and as it does not need to meet a certain "grade", its low quality and generally you would not touch it unless you had refining capabilities.. futures contract copper must meet a minimum grade as specified by an exchange/and you can also buy this as "cash" price which is often interchanged with the physichal price as when you pay cash delivery is instant rather than in the future. Your copper cannot make it into a bonded warehouse and onto an exchange for traders/speculators to trade if it does not meet this minimum grade.

Reason so many indians are trying to sell scrap or as they say "scwab coppah" is because their copper is not A-Grade and therefore cannot make it into a bonded warehose and therefore onto exchange similarly it is of no use to physical traders as no one would take delivery of copper which is not LME/NYMEX/COMEX graded... its MUCH cheaper than 3mth/cash.

Example:

the 3mth contract for 1 tonne of Copper is 9035USD

the CASH price for 1 tonne of Copper is 9006USD

The minimum you can purchase on exchange is 1 lot, 1 lot = 25 tonnes.

Basically, the minumum position you can hold in the copper market will cost you 228,750 usd. and you'd usually by more than 1 lot if you are speculating, I trade in clips of 5.

SO

Cash price is cheaper than 3 month price as 3 month price includes the cost of storing your copper in a warehouse and financing it (known as a cotango, the opposite is known as a backwardation)

BUT

1 tonne scrap copper = NO IDEA.

but its WAY cheaper than CASH/3 MNTH

SO

Hypothetically, if you could obtain 25 tonnes of scrap copper and find a refining facility which could turn your scrap into A GRADE you could make a KILLING.

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Guest TimeBomb

Yea im on there, made some pretty good connections in the ice hockey world, NHL people etc... im putting things in place then im gonna get at them with some algerian ice hockey projects, see if i can get some investment/support

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LinkedIn is serious.

^^ this

Been on it for a long while now...got ex/current colleauges, industry heads/experts that I communicate or meet with on certain occasions as contacts

Plus if you have been working in your industry for quite some time, you will get a few recruitment agencies/consults contacting you who are always handy to have on your contact list offering you positions (which is always a bonus as you can always go back to them if you want a new position or career change)

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