Facebook's highs and lows of 2011 [ANALYSIS]

Facebook's stock has been bouncing all over the place on SharesPost this year. There have been impressive highs and big drops – in terms of both share price and trading volume. When you take a look at the chart, it's easy to remember that this stock is still relatively illiquid.

Now that the year is coming to a close, it's time for some perspective. We have data going back to June 6, 2011. After taking a look at it, here's what we found:

1. Shares, shares, everywhere: since June 6, 2011, 1,275,000 shares of Facebook have been traded on SharesPost.

2. Big money: the total value traded in Facebook shares on SharesPost is $42,237,800. While this falls far short of the $133 mn divestiture by IPG in August, it still adds up to an impressive amount of money that went into the sellers' pockets.

3. What it all boils down to: based on the number of shares and total value above, Facebook traded at an average share price of $33.13. That helps put the two most recent transactions into perspective ($33 a share on December 9, 2011 and $32 a share on December 21, 2011).

4. The average auction: the average auction size was 115,909 shares. Again, this is roughly consistent with the two December auctions on SharesPost.

5. The high point: Facebook reached a high of $35 a share on June 22, 2011 and stayed there at the following auction, on July 19, 2011. At the first of these two auctions, 100,000 shares traded hands – with 150,000 shares moving in the second auction.

6. The low point: on November 16, 2011, Facebook reached its low in SharesPost trading, dropping to $30 a share in a transaction of 75,000 shares.

7. The busiest day: on June 6, 2011, an eye-popping 280,000 shares of Facebook were traded on SharesPost, almost twice the next-highest trading volume of 150,000 (which was attained several times this year).

8. The quietest day: the market conditions in August that put severe pressure on the IPO market appeared to have had an effect on trading in pre-IPO Facebook shares, as well. At the August 31, 2011 and September 26, 2011 auctions, trading volume reached only 50,000 (for each auction). Volume has been on the rise since then, though, hitting 70,000 in October, 75,000 in November and reaching 100,000 and 150,000 in the two December auctions.

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Photo: antony_mayfield via Flickr