Hunting for Illusions in IPOs

Also, when your brain says you're one age, and your body says another...

Now that the initial public offering ('IPO') calendar is heating up, a word of warning before you get too excited about all those reported sales numbers...

At some companies, they may very well be an illusion.

You just have to search for details on reported sales, and don't expect the companies to make it easy...

There's the letter of the law on disclosure and the spirit of the law, and a huge gray area in between.

A perfect example is VinFast Auto (VFS), the Vietnamese electric vehicle ("EV") maker that recently went public in the U.S. Since its IPO a month ago, the stock has gone from boom to bust... as investors took a closer look at what they were really buying.