If mp is dining, he and many others on this thread can probably confirm that brokers on the street are fickle. They want to line up the maximum number of GEIs possible to fill their books and receive the maximum allocation of shares, if the broker's firm is part of the underwriting syndicate, and thus receive the maximum corresponding percentage of the underwriting discount paid by the issuer (or allowance, paid by the lead underwriter) or, if the sole underwriter, obtain maximum GEIs to increase the size of the offering and increase the amount of the discount. The underwriters and dealers then start drawing firm "circles" around the orders they know that they can count on, by customer account size, longevity with the broker, relationship, etc.
Once you have a "hot" offering and the deal is many times over-"subscribed", which sounds like your case, the individual (or on-line) broker has a problem--how to winnow and weed out and identify those customers who are actually going to be given a piece of the deal. That, again, goes to their heavy-hitters, the institutions, the heavy traders who generate commissions, the customers who are doin' the broker's daughter (maybe not him), etc.
It's an informal, unwritten part of the game, and not a pretty part at that.
Hope this is of some help, because absent some kind of commitment on the part of your broker to give you a piece, you probably don't have a lot of leverage.
Regards. Steven |
