I was an engineer at HomeAway during last year's IPO, and all employees were under a 6-month lockup period (during which time you can not sell stock, or enter into any sort of agreement with a third party regarding stock options).
As an employee, therefore, the IPO event itself is not too significant. Unless you have $1 options (or already own stock at a very favourable price), you can't bank on a return due to the uncertainty of the lockup period. Also, the end of the lockup period itself (although completely anticipated by the market) will likely be unfavourable for the stock price as selling employees introduce more supply.
Are you allowed to sell the market (S&P say, using a 6 months futures contract) so that your only exposure is to the Homeway-S&P differential, not to the market in general?
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I was an engineer at HomeAway during last year's IPO, and all employees were under a 6-month lockup period (during which time you can not sell stock, or enter into any sort of agreement with a third party regarding stock options).
As an employee, therefore, the IPO event itself is not too significant. Unless you have $1 options (or already own stock at a very favourable price), you can't bank on a return due to the uncertainty of the lockup period. Also, the end of the lockup period itself (although completely anticipated by the market) will likely be unfavourable for the stock price as selling employees introduce more supply.
Are you allowed to sell the market (S&P say, using a 6 months futures contract) so that your only exposure is to the Homeway-S&P differential, not to the market in general?