The Nasdaq Changed Its Rules Weeks Before the Biggest IPO in History

Investor summaryBearish

Nasdaq cut index inclusion to 15 days, forcing passive funds to buy SpaceX at a 94x sales valuation despite heavy losses.

Bear points

Nasdaq changed rules to force passive funds to buy new IPOs regardless of valuation.
SpaceX is priced at an absurd 94x annual sales while losing $4.9 billion last year.
The market is rigged as rule-makers benefit from the forced mechanical buying by index funds.

SPACEX

Post body

Nasdaq changed its rules in March 2026. New stocks used to need three months of trading history before entering the Nasdaq-100. They cut it to 15 trading days. SpaceX filed its IPO weeks later and listed today at $135 a share.

The consequence is automatic. Every fund tracking the Nasdaq-100 becomes a forced buyer within two weeks of listing regardless of valuation. That includes most 401k index funds. Estimated forced purchases for SpaceX alone are $22-27 billion. The company lost $4.9 billion last year and is priced at 94x annual sales.

OpenAI and Anthropic file later this year under the same rules. The rule change is public record. The timing is public record. The forced buying is mechanical, not optional. When the institutions that set the rules are the same ones that benefit from them, the market stops being a market.

Discussion · top comments26 selected

u/szakee 17· 1d ago

do we really need 10 posts about this?

u/max8700 4· 1d ago

10? How about 1,000?

u/Iwubinvesting 2· 1d ago

Yes

u/Bitter_Proof_9288 9· 1d ago

That includes most 401k index funds

401k is an account type, not an index fund.

u/brute-forced 5· 1d ago

Look, I’m not defending whatever this post is saying, but clearly the intent there means the index funds available in a 401(k), not an actual 401(k) index fund… I have no idea why you and several other people are making these stupid comments like it’s anything other than that

u/Bitter_Proof_9288 2· 1d ago

Ma'am, this is reddit. If someone is wrong, we have to tell them.

Aside from that, considering this is a purely text-based medium of exchange, I would argue that the words we use matter even more so.

u/brute-forced 1· 1d ago

401K index funds are extremely common though… In larger corporations this is a thing where they have unique, 401(k) index funds specifically for their employees that they’ve negotiated lower cost fees for due to scale. That’s what these are. It’s an actual thing and just because you don’t know that doesn’t mean the person who posted this is incorrect.

u/wandererarkhamknight 7· 1d ago

WTH is 401k index funds!!

u/Bred_Slippy 6· 1d ago

Track the average performance of everyone's 401k 🥁

u/wandererarkhamknight 1· 1d ago

OP already edited the post 4-5 times at least, if not more!

u/ML-A 5· 1d ago

Slop

u/unverified-email1 4· 1d ago

Thank you ChatGPT.

u/monkeymuscle1974 3· 1d ago

We all know ffs

u/the_humeister 2· 1d ago

Mom said it was my turn to post about this

u/wandererarkhamknight 2· 1d ago

That's the best way to engage with AI slops for me.

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