NYSE Performs Twitter IPO Dry Run

Remember the fiasco of Facebook’s glitchy entrance to the stock market? Well, the New York Stock Exchange sure does: for the first time ever, the NYSE on Saturday performed a simulated initial public offering for Twitter’s market debut, which could happen as early as November 7. Twitter intends to sell 70 million shares between $17 and $20 each, the biggest Internet IPO since Facebook (which sold 421 million shares for $38 each in May 2012). The high volume of trading caused glitches in Nasdaq’s system, causing major market investors to lose an estimated $500 million in the IPO. The NYSE tested for two things on Saturday: to make sure it could handle the volume of exchanges, and to make sure any firms that placed orders could receive prompt replies.