Glossary·Written by a CPA
Float
Also called: Public float
The shares of a company that are actually available to trade, not locked up with insiders.
The float basically just means the shares that regular investors can buy and sell right now, as opposed to shares held by founders, employees and early investors who can't sell yet.
Right after an IPO, the float is often a small slice of the company, and a small float with a lot of buyers is how you get a big first-day pop.
For you, the catch is that the float grows as lock-ups end, and that extra supply can push the price back down.
Example. As an example, if an IPO sells 6% of a company, the other 94% is still out there, and every lock-up release adds more of it to the float.
The catch. The lock-up schedule in the prospectus, which tells you when and by how much the float is about to grow.
Where I talk about it
- Short Squeeze Explained for Beginners at 4:05
- Anthropic Stock (ANT) IPO at $70-$78: Buy Day 1 or Wait? at 7:14
- Don't Buy the Next Big IPO Until You Check These 7 Things at 7:38
- Anthropic IPO- Opportunity of the Year or AI Bubble? at 6:13
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This is education, not tax or investment advice. I'm a CPA, but I'm not your CPA. Full disclaimer.