Late last year, we had a wholesaler from a major exchange-traded-fund firm visit our office. At the time, the chatter was all about the planned Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. initial public offering. It was going to be, in his words, "huge, disruptive, incredibly powerful -- and you cannot get any."
Never mind that IPO returns are on average mediocre or worse, or that chasing hot syndicate deals isn't in our wheelhouse. This guy had a great story to tell, and to the uninitiated, it was enthralling.
