50% pop, not bad. Underwriters got $0 of that pop, very nice for whoever pounced early.
The “reference price” is meaningless because it meant absolutely nothing. It wasnt the price it opened at. So why should we base the % change from that imaginary price. And this is was a direct listing so not even an underwriter got a 50% pop.
The media just wants to make things sound more impressive than it really are.
You'd have been super lucky to get some shares at where it opened at $38.88 (12:08 EST). It immediately shot up to daily high of $41.95 which is most likely where retail trades would have executed at (assuming you used a market order, which you never should). Always buy with limit orders. See the following screenshot of the graph of today[1] of $WORK for reference.
Yeah I don't get why market orders even exist. If you're doing something that usually costs thousands to millions, is it ever a meaningful benefit to saving a click or two and a few keystrokes?
If my broker had an option to remove my ability to do market orders (sell or buy) I would immediately enable that.
Have you ever needed to exit a trade in a hurry? Or been buying something on the way up?
What I care about is that it sells.
It's hold-over from the dotcom days when I saw colleagues sell options with a limit order just above the current listed price that never got fulfilled in an a constant down market.
Market order just means sell it at what it's worth right now.
The advice to generally use limit orders is good though. Rarely would a retail investor need a market order.