What is the best way to plan for buying Facebook stock when it is available?

[Steve D]

If you already have an account with $100K in it, reach out to your broker. If not, forget it. IPOs traditionally go to large institutional investors first and an offering such as Facebook will probably be oversubscribed, meaning that even these investors will not get all they ask for. Once these investors (banks, brokers, mutual funds) get their share, they deal it out to their best customers (large individual investors) who have asked for shares. Usually the large institutions are also oversubscribed, so these folks get less than they ask for. As noted, the large individual investors are the ones with large, frequently traded accounts - if you are just starting out with a broker, you won't be one of these people (the access to IPOs is a favor for their continued business).

The best you will do is a buy on the open market after market opening. Figure if you go this route, you will buy into the IPO bounce, meaning you will pay a substantial markup over the IPO price.