Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, is began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”

The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares have since stabilized at around $70, marking a 40% increase from Monday’s close.

Wall Street is assigning Trump Media an eye-popping valuation of around $13 billion — a price tag that experts warn is untethered to reality.

The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.

“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.

  • edric
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    8 months ago

    with plenty of disposable income.

    I would even wager a lot of those people don’t have the disposable income but dispose it anyway.

      • partial_accumen
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        338 months ago

        Servicing the debt on a $50k pickup on an 84 month note at 12.35% is different than owning a $50k pickup outright.

      • @acetanilide
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        148 months ago

        I know more than a few not-rich people with 50k+ pickups

        • @[email protected]
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think you drive a >50K pickup and don’t have some disposable income though.

      • edric
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        68 months ago

        That’s what they spent all their savings on.

    • @stanleytweedle
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      138 months ago

      True, yeah I guess the money they should be paying in child support or just feeding their kids isn’t technically ‘disposable’, but if Truth Social can get to it before the kids do… I guess they owned the libs…

    • @pete_the_cat
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      48 months ago

      Oh absolutely. They buy into his bullshit products because they think it will make them money, but in the end they’re worse off than when they started.