New Delhi, June 12 -- With the media frenzy surrounding the public listing of Elon Musk's SpaceX sizzling, there's a serious risk that investors piling into the world's largest IPO will get burned - especially the retail crowd.

In a typical large initial public offering, the percentage of shares allocated to "mom and pop" investors is no more than 10%, leaving large institutional players with the vast majority of newly listed shares.

This protects small investors as a launch can flop in the early days of trading, or be highly volatile in the weeks and months afterward. Big institutions typically have deep pockets, the capacity to withstand market volatility, and a reasonably high pain threshold for losses. The same cannot be said for th...