This index fund has soared in popularity amongst ASX investors in recent years, thanks to its future-facing composition and tech-heavy exposure.

As my Fool colleague Bronwyn reported late last month, NDQ is one of the most sought-after ASX ETFs on our market. It is currently the seventh-most popular fund by funds under management. We also recently covered how NDQ was the fourth most-bought fund for customers using the Stake brokerage platform over the second half of the 2025 financial year.

The Betashares Nasdaq 100 ETF is a relatively simple index fund, covering the largest non-financial stocks listed on the US' Nasdaq stock exchange. The Nasdaq is known for housing most of America's best-known tech stocks. That includes all of the famous 'Magnificent 7', as well as companies like Airbnb, Netflix, Adobe and PayPal.

It's not just a tech ETF, though. Some other names that can be found in NDQ's holdings include Starbucks, Pepsico, Monster Beverage and Cadbury-owner Mondelez International.

But let's get down to the numbers.

How much would $10,000 invested in the NDQ ETF in 2020 be worth today?

Five years ago, on 5 November 2020, NDQ's ASX units were being priced at $27.59 each. Today, at the time of writing anyway, those same units are worth $57.85 each. That's a gain worth 110%. Or approximately 15.95% per annum.

Not bad. This means investors would have more than doubled their capital investment alone, with that $10,000 turning into $20,968 or so today. Most of these gains came from simple stock price appreciation. However, some would also have come from currency returns too.

Although NDQ is an ASX-listed ETF, its portfolio is priced in US dollars. That means that its returns need to be converted from US dollars to Australian dollars before we can assess them. The Australian dollar is almost 10% lower today against the greenback than it was five years ago. As a result, his would have provided our returns with an additional (and meaningful) boost.

However, that's not where the story ends. As Betashares NASDAQ 100 ETF investors would know, this fund also pays out periodic dividend distributions.

Since late 2020 and today, investors have enjoyed around $4.32 in dividend distributions per NDQ unit. That would see our investor bank another $1,636 in returns over the five-year period.

As such, we can conclude that a $10,000 investment in the ASX's NDQ ETF would be worth a total of roughly $22,603.50 right now. Again, not bad.

The post $10,000 invested in the NDQ ETF 5 years ago is now worth… appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The fund consists of "a high-conviction portfolio of quality global listed equities from a research driven, bottom-up investment philosophy". It's looking for companies that have predictable earnings, low debt, sustainable competitive advantages, organic growth options and experienced and proven management teams. 

The September 2022 monthly update shows the fund has declined 31.8% over the past 12 months. The biggest detractors to performance were some of the largest and most popular global tech stocks.

Even for those of us who are somewhat numb to just how far these fallen heroes have tumbled, when the numbers are laid bare, you see just how brutal this market has been for a number of large-cap tech stocks.

Block (NYSE: SQ) – down 74%

Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) – down 80%

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) – down 57%

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) – down 55%

How the mighty have fallen. 

Yet Hyperion are sticking to their guns, confident in what they believe will be a low-growth inflationary environment, that such an environment is best for their investing style.

Hyperion says that while short-term performance has been unpredictable, and acknowledging it has been a difficult period for investors, the fund believes it has allocated capital to businesses that will produce superior long-term results. 

The top five holdings at the end of September were all large-cap US tech stocks, namely Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) and Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB). Combined, they made up over half the Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund portfolio.

Hyperion went on to say its "global portfolio continues to produce strong short-term financial results which are consistent with the assumptions that underpin our long-term valuations," saying it believes its portfolio "should perform relatively well in an economic downturn".

The Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund share price has fallen 31.7% over the past 12 months, in line with the underlying performance of the fund.

The post Tough year for leading global growth fund laid bare with brutal fall in tech stocks appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

That's according to Morgans associate analyst Steven Sassine, who admired the latest numbers coming out of campervan peer-to-peer sharing platform Camplify Holdings Ltd (ASX: CHL).

The revenue for the final quarter of the 2022 financial year was 104% up on a year earlier, which triggered the share price to leap more than 9% on Monday morning.

Gross transaction volumes (GTV) were up 83% from the prior comparable period.

"In our view, [the update] showed strong growth in key metrics and highlighted the underlying momentum in the business post lockdowns easing continued throughout the fourth quarter," said Sassine on the Morgans blog.

"We remain comfortable with the growth trajectory of the business and the potential to further gain share in offshore geographies."

Excellent growth all over the world

With more people getting out and about on trips in the post-lockdown era, all regions are showing promise for Camplify.

"The New Zealand market showed strong recovery post lockdowns easing, with a 146% GTV increase on pcp and has also seen future bookings increase significantly (1,146% on pcp)," said Sassine.

"Spain saw GTV growth of ~580% on pcp (off a low base). The UK appears to be tracking well and is now within its seasonal peak period, with management commentary indicating GTV growth for the quarter of 103% and revenue growth of 155% on pcp."

Future bookings are "robust", standing at about $14.8 million.

Camplify burned through about $2.2 million for the quarter, which left roughly $15 million in the kitty.

'P​rodigious opportunity' and 'structural tailwinds'

Even though the Morgans team downgraded its topline revenue forecasts by 3% to 4%, that still leaves an impressive 67% three-year compound annual growth rate.

Sassine and his colleagues rate the growth stock as a buy.

"Camplify's management team has shown an ability to build out a successful scalable platform, in our view," he said.

"Whilst still in its infancy and not without risk, we believe structural tailwinds supporting Camplify and the prodigious opportunity offshore should provide longer-term growth potential for patient investors."

The big risks to the ASX share, according to Sassine, would be natural disasters and new competition.

Wilson Asset Management senior investment analyst Shaun Weick last year compared Camplify to a now-ubiquitous global platform.

"Camplify is essentially the Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) of RVs and campervans," he said.

"We see a really strong growth trajectory, particularly as… thankfully we all get out there and take some holidays for the first time in probably two years."

The post 'Strong growth': Expert says buy this ASX company that just doubled revenue appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The competition watchdog announced it was taking legal action against the holiday letting platform, alleging it misled Australians over prices.

 Let's take a closer look at why the Nasdaq giant is being taken to the top court of Australia.

Fan favourite Nasdaq share to hit the Federal Court

Nasdaq giant Airbnb has a US$78 billion market capitalisation and a share price of US$122.90. But not even giants escape the ACCC's scrutiny.

The watchdog is taking the company to court on allegations it didn't advertise the currency of its prices.

According to the ACCC, Airbnb displayed a dollar sign on its website and app without clarifying it represented US dollars not Australian dollars.

Thousands of customers were allegedly impacted between at least January 2018 and August 2021.

In the period in question, the average exchange rate between Australian dollars and US dollars was around 72 US cents. That means for a $500 booking, an Australian customer may have ended up paying almost $700.

The watchdog says on some occasions, Airbnb only revealed the price was in US dollars on the final page of the booking process, after the platform showed numerous dollar signs and once the accomodation was 'reserved'.  

To top it off for the Nasdaq share, the ACCC claims the company continued to mislead or deceive complaining customers. It allegedly told impacted users they had opted to view US dollar values despite that often not being the case.

"Despite thousands of consumers complaining to Airbnb about the way prices were displayed, Airbnb didn't amend its booking platform until after the ACCC raised the issue," ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said, continuing:

Airbnb did not compensate many consumers who complained about this conduct …

We will be arguing that the court should order Airbnb to compensate people who were misled about the price of their accommodation.

The Airbnb share price is tumbled nearly 29% on the Nasdaq Index in 2022. For context, the Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: .IXIC) has also slumped 23%.

The Motley Fool Australia reached out to Airbnb for comment but didn't receive a reply in time for publication.

The post Australian competition watchdog goes up against Nasdaq giant. Here's why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The growth-heavy Nasdaq Composite has plunged 27% since peaking in November, and many individual stocks have fallen even further. For instance, MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) and Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) are down 59% and 46%, respectively, from their own all-time highs. Generally speaking, those declines have been fueled by concerns about high inflation and rising interest rates, not any material weakness in the businesses. 

Of course, that doesn't make the losses any less real, but it does create a buying opportunity. MercadoLibre and Airbnb are important players in massive markets, and both stocks are backed by a compelling investment thesis.

Here's what you should know.

1. MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre is an unstoppable force in Latin America. It operates the largest e-commerce marketplace in the region, both in terms of unique visitors and sales. That creates a powerful network effect: Sellers naturally gravitate toward the most popular platform, and buyers naturally pick the platform with the greatest selection.

To further accelerate that flywheel, MercadoLibre offers an ecosystem of integrated services. That includes digital payments through Mercado Pago, fulfillment and logistics through Mercado Envíos, and financing through Mercado Crédito. Those value-added products make its marketplace even stickier, and adoption is on the rise in all cases.

In the first quarter, Mercado Pago's payment volume rose 81% year over year to $25.3 billion. Mercado Envíos played a part in shipping 91% of items through its managed network, up from 80% in the prior-year period. And Mercado Crédito's credit portfolio rose 319% to $2.4 billion. That momentum translated into strong financial results. Revenue soared 65% to $2.2 billion in the first quarter, and the company generated a GAAP profit of $1.30 per diluted share, up from a loss of $0.68 in the same period last year. 

In the coming years, shareholders have good reason to believe the company can maintain that momentum. Internet penetration is growing quickly in Latin America. That should be a tailwind for MercadoLibre's commerce and fintech businesses. And with the stock trading at five times sales -- near its cheapest valuation in the past decade -- now looks like a great time to buy.

2. Airbnb

Airbnb connects potential guests with four million hosts, helping travelers find immersive lodgings around the world. And by crowdsourcing rental properties, Airbnb can offer more flexibility than traditional hotels, both in terms of lodging type and location. Guests can stay at a rustic farmhouse in the country, a log cabin in the mountains, or a trendy apartment in the city. Airbnb even lists over 170,000 unique stays -- think treehouses, windmills, and big-rig trucks.

Thanks to its differentiated business model, Airbnb is essentially printing cash. Revenue skyrocketed 93% to $6.6 billion in the past year, and the company generated $2.8 billion in free cash flow, up fivefold from $517 million.

Last year, management was laser-focused on preparing for the travel rebound. The company simplified the onboarding process for hosts and introduced flexible search parameters for guests, allowing people to receive personalized recommendations when they aren't tied to a particular date or destination. Both initiatives were wildly successful. Airbnb finished 2021 with a record six million active listings on its platform, and guests have used the flexible search option two billion times.

In the coming years, management plans to ramp up its Experiences offering, a service that connects guests with immersive activities. Experiences account for $1.4 trillion of Airbnb's $3.4 trillion addressable market. If the company can successfully scale that part of the business, it could turbocharge growth and further differentiate the company from its rivals.

Regardless, Airbnb offers more flexibility for travelers, and its business model is more agile than traditional travel options. The company can onboard new hosts in a matter of minutes without spending much money. That means it can add inventory more quickly and cost-efficiently than traditional hotels. That should make this growth stock a rewarding long-term investment. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Nasdaq bear market: Should you buy the dip on these 2 growth stocks? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), plunged 3.56%, cancelling out Wednesday's euphoric gain.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) was hit harder still. As most of Australia snored, it plummeted 4.99% in its worst session since June 2020. It's now at its lowest level since 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJX: .DJI) also suffered in Thursday's session overseas. It gave up more than 1,000 points, or 3.12%.

The US stock market's downturn could spell bad news for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) on Friday, particularly ASX 200 tech stocks, which often react to the Nasdaq's movements.

Here's what might have dinted the US stock market overnight.

US stock markets flop in Thursday's session

US stocks struggled overnight, with the nation's markets giving up Wednesday's notable gains.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average launched 2.9%, 3.2%, and 2.8% respectively on Wednesday, likely driven by positive sentiment out of the United States Federal Reserve.

The Federal Open Market Committee decided to increase interest rates by 0.5% to between 0.75% and 1% on Wednesday – its biggest increase in 22 years – in an effort to tackle inflation.

However, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell also commented that the entity wasn't "actively considering" hiking interest rates by another 0.75%.

Powell's confidence appeared to quell the market's nerves on Wednesday. However, concerns apparently reared their head once more in yesterday's (Aussie time) session.

Some US stock market favourites dragged on the NASDAQ-100 (NASDAQ: NDX) overnight.

The index slumped 5% driven by the likes of Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). The stocks were among the Nasdaq-100's worst performers, both slumping 8%.

Meanwhile, the share price of eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) tumbled 11% on the back of the company's quarterly results.  

Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) was one of only a few Nasdaq-100 stocks closing in the green on Thursday. It gained 3% on news demand for travel surged during the March quarter.

The post The US stock market just took a major dive. What's going on? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Whether you realize it or not, change is commonplace on Wall Street. It might seem like a given that today's largest companies by market cap will retain their position in the future, but history has shown that innovation and execution shake up the world's biggest companies with frequency over time.

Back in 1999, Nokia, General Electric and Intel were among the largest publicly-traded companies. Today, Microsoft is the only remaining member of the 10 largest publicly-traded companies in 1999.

Apple is the king... for now

At the moment, tech stock Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) sits at the top of the pecking order with a market cap of $2.71 trillion.

In many respects, it deserves to be No. 1. Apple produces the most popular smartphone sold in the United States, and saw its sales and profits surge to record levels after introducing 5G capability to its iPhone. The company's customer base is also extremely loyal, as evidenced by the lines that wrap around its stores anytime a new or updated product makes its debut.

Apple's push into subscription services should be a winning proposition as well. This transition, which is being led by CEO Tim Cook, can help soften the revenue lumpiness associated with Apple's product replacement cycles, as well as lift margins over time.

The company is also a cash cow. Over the trailing 12-month period, Apple generated more than $112 billion in operating cash flow. With such robust cash generation, Cook has overseen a substantial capital return program via share buybacks and dividend growth.

These could be the world's largest stocks by 2035

But history is pretty clear that change is normal among the largest publicly-traded companies. By the time 2035 rolls around, the following three companies might all be worth more than mighty Apple.

The no-brainer choice: Amazon

Although Microsoft would appear to be the most logical company to surpass Apple in market value by 2035, I'd wager that e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is the better bet to be the largest publicly-traded company in the world in 14 years' time.

As many of you probably know, Amazon's popularity stems from its dominant online marketplace. This past August, eMarketer estimated that Amazon would bring in 41.4% of all online retail spending in the US in 2021. That was nearly six times the share of Walmart, which is the No. 2 in US online retail sales.

Keep in mind that retail operating margins tend to be razor thin. Amazon accounts for this by pushing its Prime subscriptions, which were just raised $20 to $139 annually. The fees collected from the company's 200 million global Prime members provides a healthy buffer that allows Amazon to undercut its competition on price.

But as I've pointed out previously, it's not Amazon's popularity in e-commerce that would be expected to fuel its push higher. What's far more important is that the company's higher-margin operating segments haven't shown any signs of slowing. In particular, Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounts for almost a third of global cloud infrastructure spending. Last year, AWS brought in nearly three-quarters of Amazon's operating income despite accounting for around 13% of net sales. 

As long as Amazon's high-margin segments, such as AWS, subscriptions, and advertising, don't considerably slow down, Amazon could be worth more than Apple by 2035.

If everything went just right: Nvidia

Another company with all the tools and intangibles necessary to be worth more than Apple in 14 years, but which'll require a lot of things to go right for that to happen, is graphics and networking stock Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).

Right now, virtually everything is going right for Nvidia, and it would need to stay that way for more than a decade if it's going to become one of the world's most valuable companies. For fiscal 2022, the company's bread-and-butter gaming segment saw sales jump 61% on the heels of growing demand, innovation, and strong pricing power. 

Meanwhile, data center sales increased 58%, compared to fiscal 2021. In the wake of the pandemic, businesses are moving their data into the cloud at a faster pace than ever before. This has vastly improved the growth trajectory for Nvidia's data center solutions, with this higher-margin segment likely to leap gaming in annual revenue in the not-too-distant future.

But the real wildcard here is the company's professional visualization segment, which accounted for $2.11 billion of its $26.9 billion in total sales last year. This $2.11 billion in sales represents a cool 100% increase from the previous year. This segment is viewed as Nvidia's springboard into the metaverse -- i.e. the next iteration of the internet that'll allow users to interact within 3D virtual environments. Though estimates vary, most analysts believe the metaverse has multitrillion-dollar potential. Providing tools that allow users to interact in virtual spaces, supplying solutions to support data centers, and being a leader in graphics cards, gives Nvidia a pole position in the development of the metaverse.

If the metaverse matures quicker than anticipated, Nvidia could very well leapfrog Apple.

The longshot: Airbnb

Now, if you want a true longshot that could come from much further down the market cap list to surpass Apple in 14 years' time, look no further than stay-and-hosting platform Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB).

For the time being, Airbnb's marketplace has in the neighborhood of four million hosts. But this should be viewed as just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 30 times that many households in the US, and somewhere around one billion homes worldwide. Once owners realize how simple it is to generate cash flow from their home(s) by listing them on Airbnb, we should see a significant increase in marketplace listings. For what it's worth, bookings more than quintupled in the three years leading up to the pandemic.

Also of note, Airbnb's fastest-growing segment is long-term stays, which are defined as stays of at least 28 days. The pandemic completely disrupted physical workplaces and made a sizable percentage of the labor force realize they could work from anywhere, so long as they had an internet connection. With workers not tied down to any one location, the rise of the mobile worker could become a major profit driver for Airbnb.

Furthermore, the company is relying on more than just marketplace bookings to drive top-and-bottom-line growth. Airbnb wants its piece of what's estimated to be an $8 trillion travel industry. Introducing Experiences, which allows local experts to take travelers on adventures, is one way Airbnb is attempting to capture a larger percentage of travel spending. But it's likely just the beginning. Airbnb could extend branches to the transportation or restaurant industries to control a larger percentage of what travelers are spending.

If Airbnb's rapid growth trajectory picks up where it left off prior to the pandemic, Apple could well be in its sights by 2035.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post 3 stocks that could be worth more than Apple by 2035 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The stock market moved lower at midday on Monday, pulling back from some of its gains over the past week. As of 12:45 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) was down 146 points, or almost 1%.

Passive investing is a big part of what drives the stock market, and when it comes to Nasdaq stocks, the Nasdaq-100 index is among the most widely followed. Nasdaq made its announcement regarding the annual changes to the Nasdaq-100 over the weekend, and the implications for the stocks it added and the ones that it replaced are huge heading into 2022.

The Nasdaq-100's annual reconstitution is based entirely on the market capitalization of the companies involved. Therefore, with some notable exceptions, stocks that have done well tend to replace stocks that haven't been able to keep pace. Below, we'll look at what happened and what to expect from the 12 Nasdaq stocks that got affected by the changes to the index.

Who's in

As you'd expect with the Nasdaq, tech stocks were well represented among the additions. Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG), Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW), and Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) all got invitations to join the Nasdaq-100, with market caps between $40 billion and $60 billion. It was particularly interesting to see three companies so closely tied to cybersecurity and threat protection get the nod all at the same time, but that highlights just how important those services have become in light of the acceleration in digital adoption in the past year. Datadog's data monitoring and analytics have also played a key role in helping businesses adapt to the changing environment.

By far the largest of the stocks to join the index was Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), which went public right around the time last year's reconstitution happened. With a market cap above $110 billion, the disruptive accommodations provider has held up reasonably well even amid ongoing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, electric vehicle start-up Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) also made the cut. Lucid boasts a $60 billion market cap and has also gone public recently, leading a group of companies looking to stake their claim in the fast-growing EV market.

Who's out

Making room for these newcomers were six stocks that had seen mixed performance over the past year. In tech, perhaps the most surprising company headed out the door is IT services provider CDW (NASDAQ: CDW), whose stock has risen nearly 50% over the past 12 months. Nevertheless, with a market cap of just $26 billion, that just wasn't enough to keep the company in. Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP), meanwhile, had seen its stock fall 8%, failing to keep pace with its fellow cybersecurity peers.

The other four companies getting the boot were diversely spaced across industries. Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN) is technically a healthcare company, although its information management systems show its tech-heavy nature. Media giant Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA) (NASDAQ: FOX) was removed, as was online travel services provider Trip.com Group (NASDAQ: TCOM) and biotech company Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY).

What to watch

The interesting thing to consider about these 12 stocks is the extent to which the Nasdaq's decision reflects past wins rather than future promise. For instance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) is notorious for dropping companies that go on to outperform the stocks that they choose. This is often because the companies that get kicked out of the Dow tend to be solid value plays, with depressed share prices but blue-chip status to provide a foundation for a recovery. Meanwhile, companies that get added to the Dow are on high notes that leave them open for disappointment later.

In 2022, the Nasdaq-100 will look a lot different, and it'll be counting on its six new additions to outperform the stocks it left behind. Shareholders might have a different perspective, though, and that should have you watching all 12 of these stocks over the next year. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post 12 Nasdaq stocks to watch in 2022 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Since CommSec is one of the most popular share trading platforms on the ASX, this data provides some useful insights into what is piquing the wallets of ASX investors beyond our shores.

My Fool colleague James Mickleboro has already covered some of the ASX's most popular shares today. So here are the top 10 US shares that CommSec users were buying and selling last week. This week's data covers 24-28 May.

Move over Tesla, AMC's in town

1. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC) – representing 6.2% of total trades with a 58%/42% buy-to-sell ratio.
2. GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) – representing 5.2% of total trades with a 77%/23% buy-to-sell ratio.
3. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 4.6% of total trades with a 66%/34% buy-to-sell ratio.
4. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.6% of total trades with a 66%/34% buy-to-sell ratio.
5. Nio Inc – ADR (NYSE: NIO) – representing 1.3% of total trades with a 70%/30% buy-to-sell ratio.
6. Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE: PLTR) 
7. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
8. Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) 
9. Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB)
10. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPCE)

What can we learn from these trades?

Well, a major coup in last week's data. The long-time dominator of the most popular US shares for ASX investors – the electric car and battery manufacturer Tesla – has been displaced after months at the top of the pile. ASX investors pushed Tesla aside last week for the American cinema chain AMC Entertainment. AMC has been a popular share for a while now on this list. But it has never cracked the top spot before (to this writer's knowledge, anyway).

AMC was a company hard hit in the pandemic last year, falling 68% between 14 February and 23 April. But it appears to be the object of some turnaround plays ever since. This has hit the next level over the past month or so since the infamous stock-picking group WallStreetBets seems to have taken up its cause. Back on 3 May, AMC was a US$9.70 share. Today, it's a US$26.12 one, having put on an astonishing 170% or so over the past month. No wonder ASX investors have taken notice. It also seems as though many of these investors are taking profits, with 42% of AMC trades last week being sells.

A changing of the guard?

The other popular US shares last week were also the subject of above-average selling pressure too. When we looked at the most popular US shares last week, Tesla was at the top of the pile with a 79%/21% buy-to-sell ratio. This week's numbers give us a 66%/34% ratio. So clearly some investors are ducking out of Tesla, perhaps to chase AMC shares. We see a similar pattern with GameStop.

In other news, this week sees the reemergence of Airbnb and Virgin Galactic after a few months of these companies seemingly dormant in the minds of ASX investors. Airbnb shares have actually been on the back foot in the past month, losing around 17% of their value. 85% of Airbnb trades were buys though, so there are obviously at least some investors who are 'buying the dip' there. But Virgin Galactic has rocketed more than 100% since 14 May, so it's not hard to see why investors are chasing that one.

It will be interesting to see if this week's stats prove a blip, or else some kind of realignment when we check out next week's numbers! 

The post ASX investors were buying this US share over Tesla last week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The company is currently valued at more than $500 million despite achieving FY20 revenues of just $19.3 million. Its rich valuation comes with a promise of international expansion to leverage its scalable technology and perhaps bring the company closer to a reasonable valuation. 

Airtasker's Australian marketplace currently represents approximately 99% of its revenue, with the remaining 1% derived from the United Kingdom. In 2020, it established marketplaces in New Zealand, Singapore and Ireland. It also intends to commence operations in the United States in 2021. 

As it stands, a behemoth is blocking Airtasker's path to becoming a truly international platform. Should speed bumps get in the way of the company's growth story, this could impact the Airtasker share price moving forward. 

Air … bnb or tasker? 

Global accommodation marketplace, Airbnb has been in a trademark dispute with Airtasker since 2019, opposing its entry into Europe. 

Airbnb believes that Airtasker has essentially ripped off its first characteristic syllable 'Air'. It argues the average consumer might assume that Airtasker is a special service or subsidiary of Airbnb. 

On Sunday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that in Airbnb's submission to the European Union Intellectual Property Office, it argues that its mark "is among the best known and most valuable marks in the world".

Despite the potential roadblock, Airtasker has remained confident of a positive outcome. 

What's next for the Airtasker share price? 

Based on the current Airtasker share price, the company commands a market capitalisation of $536.31 million. This equates to around 28 times the company's FY20 revenue. As such, the pressure could build for Airtasker to justify its current valuation. 

Airtasker's 2-year compound annual growth rate for gross merchandise value, revenue and profit have been a respective 24.2%, 32.1% and 33.8% between FY19 and FY21 forecasts. At face value, its growth sounds mediocre when compared to tech shares such as Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) or Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) that trade at similar revenue multiples. 

Airtasker's prospectus highlights its plans to drive growth by establishing marketplaces overseas.  

The company estimates a total addressable market (TAM) for local services in Australia of approximately $52,309 million.

Looking over at other countries, Ireland's TAM for local services is estimated to be $6,393 million, with $4,890 million in New Zealand, $5,021 million in Singapore, $70,440 million in the United Kingdom and a whopping $504,058 in the United States. 

The Airtasker share price closed Monday's session flat for the day at $1.365.

The post Could Airbnb's trademark dispute threaten the Airtasker (ASX:ART) share price? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) soared on Friday after it turned its first earnings report as a publicly traded company. 

Shares of the home-sharing giant jumped 13% as fourth quarter revenue blew past Wall Street estimates. The stock is now up 43% since its closing price at $144 on its IPO day in December, but it's still the best way to play the economic recovery. Here's why.

The travel market is going to explode

Vaccines have only started rolling out around the world, but there are already signs that pent-up demand is set to lift the travel industry to unprecedented levels later this year. 

Airbnb's own survey found that leisure travel is the activity that Americans miss most during the pandemic, even more than going to bars and restaurants, and a a Trivago report found that 80% of respondents said that an inability to travel was the worst part of the pandemic. Respondents in both surveys said that thinking about travel lifts people's spirits and gives something to look forward to during a difficult time.

There's also evidence that the travel market is starting to recover. Airbnb said nights booked in North America were essentially flat in the fourth quarter, and that domestic travel on the site is up year over year as guests are traveling where the opportunity is available as cross-border trips are restricted around the world.

Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel noted that bookings in Israel, which has already vaccinated more than half of its population, were up "solid double digits" in recent weeks as people are clearly anxious to see family and friends and to travel for pleasure once it's safe to do so.

Airbnb looks to be the best-positioned company to take advantage of the coming boom as its accommodations span a wide range of options across price, locale, and style, and include long-term stays, which have been popular during the pandemic. Since the model is built on individual hosts, it can also more easily ramp up capacity than competing chains, and homeowners are more likely to start hosting once it's safe to do so, especially as many are looking for income coming out of the recession.

Remote work will be a long-term tailwind

Perhaps the most permanent effect of the pandemic is the shift to remote work. White collar workers around the world have decamped from offices, and most have been able to work from home with similar levels of productivity. A number of companies have already told their employees they can work from home permanently, and such flexible work arrangements will be normal even when it's safe to return to the office.

This has significant implications for the travel industry as many young people will take this opportunity to travel and work from remote locations. With Airbnb, they can even rent out their own home to subsidize their trip.

CEO Brian Chesky had some thoughts about remote work, saying on the call:

A world with Zoom is a world where more people can work from home. In a world where more people have the flexibility to work from home, we're seeing more people say they can work from any home on Airbnb. And so we've seen a number of new use cases. People are living more nomadically. Some people are taking longer-term stays, one or two months at a time in Airbnb. People are taking extended three-, four-day weekends, like many weekends in a row because they don't have to be in the physical office.

Assuming the remote work trend sticks, Airbnb will be one of the biggest winners as the home-sharing platform again benefits from attributes, like having kitchens and accommodating long-term stays, that hotel chains can't offer.

The business is turning into a profit machine

Even as revenue fell 30% in 2020, Airbnb dramatically improved its bottom line, posting adjusted EBITDA of nearly $500 million in the second half of the year, compared to just $38 million in the same period of 2019. The company laid off about a quarter of its staff last May during the height of the lockdowns and has worked to trim expenses in other areas like marketing, focusing on becoming more efficient.

In its shareholder letter, management said, "We undertook an internal review of our cost structure and rapidly made changes, including material reductions to discretionary spending, suspension of performance marketing, and a reduction in our workforce."

The company expects to become more efficient in 2021, saying it plans "to improve our variable costs,
materially increase our marketing efficiency and tightly manage our fixed expenses," as it expands its adjusted EBITDA margin.

Considering the cost cuts and the jolt to revenue it's set to get from the reopening, Airbnb is likely to be significantly more profitable a year from now with run-rate EBITDA potentially in the billions.

The company is the clear leader in the home-sharing market and its business model, operating an e-commerce marketplace, affords wide margins at scale as well as competitive advantages like network effects and switching costs for hosts. As the first mover, Airbnb also has the biggest brand by far in the industry. 

While the stock is pricey, Airbnb is disrupting a massive market, worth more than $1 trillion, and the company has demonstrated its ability to penetrate new markets, adding on businesses like experiences to its platform and offering more curated listings like Airbnb Luxe and Airbnb Plus.

With momentum building in vaccinations, the combination of Airbnb's market position and an industry that's poised to skyrocket with pent-up demand should reward investors handsomely over the next year and beyond.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Here's why Airbnb is the perfect recovery stock appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Share prices of Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) have taken off since the company's initial public offering (IPO) on 10 December. Despite listing at a tumultuous time for the travel industry, Airbnb's shares currently trade at $180.40 -- more than double its IPO price of $68 a share. At $108.44 billion, Airbnb's market capitalisation has already eclipsed the combined valuations of rivals Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) and Expedia Group Inc (NASDAQ: EXPE).

Investors who missed the rally may wonder if they should chase up Airbnb's soaring stock price. But first, they need to understand why Airbnb is getting so much love. 

Airbnb has a highly scalable and resilient business model

Alongside Uber, Airbnb is seen as the poster child of the sharing economy. It runs a software platform connecting hosts (people who own homes) and users (those looking to stay in a particular area). This highly capital-efficient business model is one of its biggest merits.

By turning unused bedrooms into an alternative to hotel accommodations, Airbnb has made travel a less expensive affair. In the process, it has also unlocked a valuable source of extra income for homeowners. Since Airbnb was founded in 2008, hosts have earned over $110 billion through the platform.

The scalability of Airbnb's business model has helped revenue grow from $919 million in 2015 to $4.8 billion in 2019, an over fourfold increase.

Along the way, the company has become a sort of legend among start-ups. After scoring seed funding from Y Combinator in 2009, Airbnb raised capital from a Who's Who list of venture capitalists including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Andreessen Horowitz.

At the time, Airbnb's potential upside was obvious. But investors knew little about how well it would survive black swan, economy-crushing situations such as a pandemic. Then COVID-19 hit.

Lockdowns killed off long-distance travel, and Zoom Video Communications calls took over face-to-face business meetings. For many investors, this might have sounded the death knell for airlines and other travel industry players. Shares of Airbnb rivals Expedia and Booking Holdings dropped to multi-year lows.

By April 2020, Airbnb's bookings had slumped 72% year on year. It was forced to slash a quarter of its workforce, and raise emergency funding. But bookings have since recovered to 70% of pre-COVID levels. How has this happened?

While COVID-19 shut down international travel, many have kept moving within national borders. People just don't like to stay home, but they don't want to be in crowded hotel lobbies either. 

Furthermore, a new Airbnb use case emerged as people began combining work-from-home and travel, resulting in longer stays. According to a report in The Economist, the average length of an Airbnb stay in June 2020 was a week, nearly double what it was pre-COVID. The share of domestic reservations also more than doubled to over 80%, while stays less than 200 miles from home generated 56% of bookings, up from 33%.

All this has proved the resiliency and flexibility of Airbnb's business model -- even in the face of wild demand fluctuations.

Seizing a multi-trillion dollar market opportunity

Airbnb is a very recognizable brand in the global travel industry, where it estimates its total addressable market is worth $3.4 trillion. In 2019, the company recorded $38 billion in gross booking value -- just 1% of this market opportunity.

To expand its business, Airbnb is slowly transforming from a bed-and-breakfast provider into a global travel marketplace working with airlines, hotels, and tour guides. 

There are good reasons to believe Airbnb can keep growing, thanks to its massive global scale. This includes 4 million hosts who've placed over 5 million listings across 220 countries and regions. This huge selection naturally attracts and retains users, which in turn draws more hosts onto the platform. This network effect will drive a rising number of users, hosts, and listings toward Airbnb, sustaining its long-term growth -- while reducing the amount it needs to spend on marketing.

Despite the strengths of Airbnb's business model, there are risks investors shouldn't ignore. For instance, Airbnb still faces the threat of a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. While vaccines are now available, cases remain high and are on a rising trend. That means international travel is still severely restricted.

In coming years, Airbnb will increasingly go head-to-head with industry bigwigs like Booking.com, Tripadvisor, and Expedia. Meanwhile, companies like Hostfully are giving hosts a way to manage listings across multiple platforms.

All this could prevent Airbnb from turning profitable anytime soon as it plows cash into retaining users and attracting new ones. The company has never had a full year of profitability.

Promising prospects, but a sky-high valuation

By now, it's quite obvious Airbnb is a wonderful business that's poised to grow over the long term -- post-COVID-19, of course. Given its explosive potential, Airbnb was never going to trade at a cheap valuation. 

But at $180 a share, Airbnb trades at 30 times its trailing 12-month revenue. That's jaw-dropping, considering Facebook -- the biggest social media company in the world -- trades at barely half that multiple.

Rational investors will look for a good entry point promising adequate returns, and some margin of safety. Right now, they are better off not hitting the road with Airbnb stock.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Is Airbnb stock a buy now? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Well, 2020 was certainly a year of surprises. Many investors believed that the onset of the coronavirus pandemic would result in (at least) a year of severe haemorrhaging for ASX shares. That, of course, did take place back in March and April. But ASX shares quickly rebounded and ended up finishing the year essentially flat. That's a deal I'm sure most investors would have taken with both hands back in March.

Over in the United States, the reaction was even more positive. The S&P 500 Index (INDEXSP: .INX) was up more than 16% for 2020 despite America being arguably one of the hardest-hit countries around the world. In the latter half of 2020, things turned exuberant across these 2 markets. We had a number of 'winners' from the pandemic booking massive share price moves.

Take buy now, pay later (BNPL) pioneer Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT). Afterpay appreciated more than 300% in 2020, driven by the shunning of cash that the pandemic brought forward, as well as several other tailwinds. These include its partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Tencent Holdings, as well as a series of stellar earnings reports.

Over in the US we saw similar, if not more potent, trends. Growth stocks like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Square Inc (NASDAQ: SQ) exploded in value, driven by a cocktail of both sentiment and results. We also saw frenzied speculation in both 'vaccine stocks' like Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA), and 'pandemic losers' like Hertz Global Holdings Inc and Carnival Corp (NYSE: CCL) in almost equal measure. IPOs like AirBnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) saw stock prices double on initial trading.

2021: bubble or boom?

Such behaviour is often described as the early signs of a stock market bubble. So is that what 2021 might eventually bring us?

According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR), one investor is warning that we are in a bubble "that will eventually burst". That investor is Roger Bootle, chair of Capital Economics. Mr Bootle quotes another legendary investor, Jeremy Grantham, who has recently warned investors of "bubble-like conditions", calling the current state of the US markets "more overvalued that the eve of the great crash of 1929".

Bootle agrees with Grantham that "while the economy has floundered, the share market has continued moving upwards so that it is now far higher than it was before the pandemic hit".

Pop?

So when will this bubble burst? Well, that's the $64 trillion question. Like many commentators, Bootle says that the emergence of inflation, which will result in interest rates finally rising above zero, is likely to be the catalyst. But Bootle points out that Grantham stated that "investors are playing chicken with interest rates".

Even so, Bootle has hypothesised that central banks around the world might wait for inflation to pick up substantially before raising said rates:

I suppose that governments and central banks would initially try to take other measures to restrain inflation in the hope that they could avoid raising interest rates. But in the end this would not succeed. At some point in the future there lies not only an upsurge in inflation but also an increase in real interest rates, feeding through into bond yields. As and when this happens, it would undermine equity valuations.

He says that this initial stage will give asset prices (like ASX shares) an even bigger boost before the inevitable rise in rates brings things back to earth. That might or might not happen in 2021, but Bootle is pretty confident it's a 'when', not an 'if'.

Not such a Happy New Year from this commentator!

The post Will the ASX see a share market bubble in 2021? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In an article published on Dec. 7, I named Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) as my top initial public offering (IPO) stock to buy in December. It has been years since an IPO intrigued me so much, and I took the rare step of selling other stocks in my portfolio in order to buy more shares of the prominent online rental marketplace.

When the initial pricing range for the Airbnb IPO was announced, I planned to make its stock my biggest purchase of the year and one of my biggest holdings. However, my view of the deal eventually changed, and I avoided making a big investment. Here's why.  

The hype was overwhelming, but valuation still matters

Airbnb is a great company. With an easy-to-use platform that connects travelers and renters with property owners, it has already disrupted the hotel and vacation-rental industry and has plenty of room for long-term expansion. When the initial price range for Airbnb stock was announced at between $44 and $50 per share, valuing the company at as much as $35 billion, my eyes saw dollar signs.

My basic expectation was that shares would probably follow the trend for tech IPOs this year and be bid up well above the IPO price in early trading. However, I still saw plenty of opportunity for big gains on day one and beyond if I could get shares early. In fact, I figured the company had a good chance of reaching a valuation of $100 billion within the next six months.

Then, Airbnb increased its projected IPO pricing range to between $56 and $60 per share -- valuing the company at about $42 billion. My thesis held with this first bump, and the news didn't come as a surprise. Many high-profile tech companies that went public this year also raised their pricing ranges following the initial announcement.

However, things started to look different by the time Airbnb revealed on Dec. 9 that it would be pricing the IPO at $68 per share. The implied valuation of roughly $47 billion was still well below my near-term target level, but warning signs that the IPO was becoming too hot for me were starting to pile up. 

Tech IPOs have been extraordinarily hot this year

By the time Airbnb's first day of trading rolled around -- Dec. 10 -- reports emerged that the stock would likely open with shares trading in the range of $150 per share. It's important to understand how the company's valuation could more than double before shares even became available to the average investor.

Companies seeking to go public typically turn to large financial institutions to function as underwriters that help with the process. These financial institutions distribute shares to large institutional investors at the IPO price, who then sell shares to smaller but still very large investors before the stock becomes available to the typical retail investor.

In Airbnb's case, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs functioned as the lead underwriters in the IPO. These institutions apportioned shares to large investors, who then offered the shares in a round of early auction trading that wasn't available to most of the public. Retail investors like me had to contend with the fact that they are at the bottom of the IPO food chain. 

The market for tech IPOs has been strong, and many companies saw their stocks bid well above their initial listing price before the average investor could get their hands on any shares. The following table looks at some other notable tech IPOs this year and compares their IPO price with their opening price when the stock finally began trading on the market:

Data sources: company filings and Yahoo! Finance. *Palantir went public via direct listing.

Predictably, Airbnb followed suit. Shares opened at $146 per share -- 115% higher than the actual IPO price and 192% higher than the top of its original pricing range. That meant the company opened with a market capitalization of roughly $102 billion.

I'm still a big believer in the company, and the hype was tempting. But I opted not to buy in at a level that exceeded my target valuation, at least not to the extent I had planned. 

What happens next?

I wound up passing on Airbnb stock on its first day of trading, but I did purchase a very small number of shares the following day. I was able to buy significantly below opening-day trading prices, but my purchase was small enough to be largely symbolic. 

I think Airbnb has the potential to post strong long-term growth and significantly exceed a valuation of roughly $100 billion. However, I knew that I'd have been getting caught up in hype and ignoring my initial analysis if I went through with making a large investment in the company. My small purchase was a nod to the company's potential and a psychological anchor to provide extra motivation to follow the business closely and monitor ongoing opportunities to buy the stock. 

Greed can be good, but it pays to be principled

With 471 companies having gone public on the U.S. market year to date, there have been more IPOs this year than ever before. The size of this year's IPO class surpassed the record previously set in 1999, and more companies have opened trading at double their IPO price than any time since that much-studied year.  

Analysts and market watchers have compared IPO trends across these record years and noted that 1999 was the height of the dot-com bubble, which raises some red flags. The case can be made that the tech economy is at a much more advanced stage than it was roughly two decades ago, while also having a future that's brighter than ever. At the same time, it's clear that some valuations in the tech sector have become stretched, and investors buying on momentum has played a big role in IPO performance.

I still love Airbnb as a company and rate its prospects higher than most of this year's other notable tech IPOs. Despite challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the business has a promising growth outlook. Strong gross margin, a leadership position in its service category, and unmatched brand strength point to huge potential. 

On the other hand, I made the decision not to follow through with a large investment, because it would have meant throwing out key foundations of my investing thesis to chase market buzz. It's possible that Airbnb will go nowhere but up from current prices and that I'll come to regret my decision. However, restraint can be a virtue, and I'm confident that sticking to the principles that shaped my decision will lead to better long-term performance across my portfolio.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post Why I didn't go all in on the Airbnb IPO appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Our Australian dollar is currently buying 75.18 US cents at the time of writing, but was buying as much as 75.72 US cents late last week.

Last week also saw the first time that the Aussie dollar has traded above 75 US cents since June 2018.

So with the Aussie riding high (and the greenback rising low), many ASX investors might be thinking that now is the time to buy US-listed shares. Since US shares are obviously traded in US dollars, a higher Aussie dollar means that these shares become relatively cheaper for us Australians to buy, since we first have to swap our dollars for greenbacks before trading.

As a hypothetical example, let's assume that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares are trading at US$100 each. If our dollar is at parity with the US, it will (of course) cost an Australian an even $100 to buy that share. But if our dollar is at 50 US cents (like it was getting close to back in March), that same US$100 share would cost an Aussie $200.

Ok, so it's obvious that buying US shares today, when the Aussie dollar is at a 2-year high, presents a better opportunity to do so than at any time in the past 2 years (especially over the March lows). Purely from a currency perspective that is.

So does that mean you should join the Aussie investors buying Apple, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), AirBnB Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) and the other US shares popular at the moment?

US shares remain high

Not necessarily. Remember, US shares are arguably far from cheap today. US indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI), and the S&P 500 Index (INDEXSP: .INX) are pretty much at record highs. Apple shares are up 62% year to date, and up 112% since the lows of March. Tesla shares are up more than 600% year to date.

Getting a better deal on a currency conversion does not mitigate these gains. Remember, currency fluctuations between the Aussie and the greenback only give 'one-off' advantages or disadvantages. Those gains or losses don't compound over time the way share price gains do. Thus, it's probably better just to focus on the price you are paying for a company, rather than the exchange rate that is prevailing at any given time.

Now, if the exchange rate of our dollar is at a historically unsustainable level (say either 40 or 120 US cents), then it might make sense to invest based on that level. But the Aussie is not at any kind of 'unprecedented high' at the current rate, even though it hasn't touched this level for a couple of years.  In fact, looking at data from Macrotrends, it appears to be pretty much at its long-term average right now.

Thus, it probably isn't a good idea to buy US shares on a pure currency basis today.

The post With the high Aussie dollar, is now a good time to buy US shares? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

CommSec is one of the largest online brokers in the country. As such, this data can be a nice gauge of general investing trends in our market. This week's data covers 7-11 December.

So here are the top 10 United States shares CommSec customers were buying last week:

Most traded US shares on the ASX

1. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) – representing 9% of total trades with a 77%/23% buy-to-sell ratio.
2. Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) – representing 2.9% of total trades with an 80%/20% buy-to-sell ratio.
3. AirBnB Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB) – representing 2.4% of total trades with a 97%/3% buy-to-sell ratio.
4. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) – representing 2.3% of total trades with a 69%/31% buy-to-sell ratio.
5. Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE: PLTR) – representing 1.5% of total trades with an 83%/17% buy-to-sell ratio.

   The next five most traded shares were these:

6. Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE)
7. Xpeng Inc (NYSE: XPEV)
8. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
9. Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA)
10. Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ: ZM)

What can we learn from these trades?

Well, a notable inclusion this week is AirBnB, which had a very publicised initial public offering (IPO) last week (meaning AirBnB launched on the share market for the first time). AirBnB shares rocketed as high as 142.6% at one point on IPO day, surging past the opening price of US$68. The following day, the shares climbed as high as US$165, but have since cooled somewhat and last traded for US$130 per share a the time of writing.

AirBnB is one of those 'unicorn' businesses, similar to Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER), that people right around the world have become familiar with long before they achieved 'public company' status. As such, these IPOs often attract a lot of attention. AirBnB was evidently no different, including for Aussie investors. We can see this on CommSec's list, where it usurped the No.3 spot last week.

In other news, electric car/battery manufacturers Tesla and Nio seem to be unstoppable. These 2 companies have been swapping the top positions with each other for most of the year, with Tesla stealing back much of the interest last week. That might have had something to do with Tesla's upcoming inclusion in the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX), or perhaps Tesla shares appreciating more than 56% in the past month alone. Tesla trades were almost as popular as those of the other top 5 stocks combined, which says something.

Notably, only one of the famous 'FAANG' stocks made the top ten at all – Apple. It seems ASX investors are losing their appetite for Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook, at least for now. And almost a third of Apple trades were 'sells' (far more than the others).

The post Here are the US shares ASX investors are buying appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Aussie tech investors weren't going to miss out on the opportunity and many were quick to snap up shares in the United States company.

When did Airbnb IPO?

The world-renowned vacation rental online marketplace group listed on the US-based Nasdaq last Thursday and saw its valuation nearly double in a day, closing just shy of US$100 billion.

The Airbnb share price rocketed to US$146 (A$194) at the open despite ongoing market volatility surrounding COVID-19 concerns and the US election.

This also came despite a difficult year in which the travel industry was forced to a grinding halt as the pandemic took hold and many governments closed their borders. That hasn't slowed down Airbnb nor the IPO market which has been on fire in recent months.

How are Aussie tech investors getting in on the action?

It's not just US-based investors that are getting in on the IPO action. Business Insider has reported huge interest in the Airbnb IPO from Aussie investors wanting to snap up another tech giant.

Stake Global Head of Marketing Bryan Wilmot reported "huge interest in Airbnb" on the Stake platform with investors having "put almost US$5 million through it". 

Wilmot said Airbnb had attracted 10 times the trading volume of the recent DoorDash Inc (NYSE: DASH) IPO and 6 times that of fellow travel marketplace Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BKNG) for the year.

What lies ahead for Airbnb investors?

According to Business Insider, some analysts have concerns over Airbnb's future trajectory. Warwick Business School professor John Colley said there are "significant" risks attached to the lofty valuation after the Airbnb IPO.

However, many are attracted to the stock due to its potential future growth with the company reporting its second-largest ever third-quarter revenue figure.

Foolish takeaway

Aussie tech investors were quick to snap up a chunk of the Airbnb IPO as investors everywhere piled into the stock. With new listings surging in 2020, all eyes will be on new potential investments as we head into 2021.

The post How Aussie tech investors snapped up Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) IPO appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Online broker Stake has given out a referral code — 'Airbnb' — that allows new users of the platform to receive a free Airbnb stock to the value of US$75.

The company's initial public offering (IPO) price is in the range of US$56 to US$60.

This is in addition to Stake's usual sign-up offer of a free share of Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), GoPro Inc (NASDAQ: GPRO) or Dropbox Inc (NASDAQ: DBX).

The Motley Fool has contacted Stake for comment.

The catch is that users will have to submit proof they have used Airbnb as a host or a guest in order to receive the free stock.

Airbnb's public listing has been highly anticipated for years. It reportedly tried to list earlier this year but the COVID-19 pandemic killed off that attempt.

Now, after sacking a quarter of its employees during the height of the virus downturn, it's back with a vengeance.

So much so that it hiked up its IPO price from a range of US$44 to US$50 due to investor demand.

"Even at a higher price, Airbnb will see a lot of demand from IPO investors, and shareholders are hopeful that the stock will jump out of the gate as well," wrote The Motley Fool US's Dan Caplinger.

"That's not surprising for a company as well known as Airbnb, and it'll be interesting to see whether $56 to $60 per share turns out to be a huge bargain for IPO stock buyers."

Why is Airbnb called Airbnb?

Airbnb started as an online listing in 2007 to rent out the co-founders' air mattress in their San Francisco flat.

"I learn there's a design conference coming to town, and all the hotels are sold out. And I've always believed that turning fear into fun is the gift of creativity," Airbnb co-founder and chief product officer Joe Gebbia recalled in a 2016 TED talk.

Three guests booked to stay on their timber floor.

"They loved it, and so did we. I swear, the ham and Swiss cheese omelets we made tasted totally different because we made them for our guests," Gebbia said.

"We took them on adventures around the city, and when we said goodbye to the last guest, the door latch clicked, Brian and I just stared at each other. Did we just discover it was possible to make friends while also making rent?"

The answer was an overwhelming yes, and now their company is about to list with a market capitalisation of more than US$42 billion.

The post How to get free Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) shares appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.