If March Madness applied to the S&P 500, the tech sector would've been better off not making the tournament.
Take the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) for instance, shedding 3% month-to-date, compared with the benchmark S&P 500's 1% downturn. The ETF's top holdings include Apple (AAPL), IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG). So why the weakness for some of America's favorite companies?
Well, there's a new game in town attracting money, and it's called social media. Shares of privately held companies like Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Groupon, Pandora and LinkedIn are all the rage, seeing strong demand from institutional and accredited investors looking to buy what they're selling.
Company insiders who are willing to sell their private stakes are finding a growing marketplace to do so, mainly through two companies: SharesPost and SecondMarket.
The "Breakout" team took a field trip down to the financial district in New York to talk with SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert to find out how investors can cash in on Facebook. In the video above, Silbert explains why his company is "the Match.com of illiquid markets."
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