MR Global’s (MF) IPO was one of the largest of the year.

The futures broker got off to a poor start when it priced at $30 and not the expected $36 to $30. It still raised $2.9 billion.

But, that was only the beginning of the disaster. The stock opened down and trades just above $28 at 10.05 AM New York time.

The easy excuse is that, in a world were futures and derivatives are unpopular because portions of the market like sub-prime securities that have fallen apart, an IPO for a futures trading firm was going to get dinged.

That is not an excuse for mis-pricing the deal and hammering early investors.

Douglas A. McIntyre