What is this Facebook IPO and is it possible for me to invest in it?

[i like turtles]

You won't have access to the IPO initially because that will only go to large clients of the underwriting brokerage firms. That's the way every hot IPO works. There will be shares on the secondary market starting probably the same day as the IPO. The consensus in the financial community is this will be the most overpriced, rip-off of an IPO in history, at least based on Facebook's current financial statements. Those people who jump in right away and hold the stock for more than a month or two will lose big money, I guarantee it. Personally I think Facebook's business model is starting to wear thin - they claim a huge number of subscribers but only about 20% are active and I know people who don't log in for months on end. Also, look at Groupon, General Motors and LinkedIn IPOs in 2011 - all of them are at least 20% lower than the IPO price.