NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Retail investors still have an opportunity to buy into the much-hyped Alibaba IPO at the ground level, despite the fact that many of the world’s biggest institutional investors have already secured much of the company’s stock, market experts have said.

One reason: Alibaba is a mature company, so its stock likely won’t double during its first day of trading, said investment manager Walter Price on Friday. Price manages approximately $1.3 billion in assets at the Allianz RCM Technology Fund.

“The retail investor will get a chance to buy in on the stock at hopefully a reasonable valuation,” Price added.

The investor demand for the giant IPO has been so high that it could drive up the price range estimated for the stock, which currently sits at $60 to $66 per share. Nearly 40 institutional investors have requested $1 billion in orders, according to reports.

When the price is increased, you may also see a slowdown in demand and that’s good for retail investors, Price said.

Unlike other tech IPOs — like the debut of both Twitter Inc. TWTR, +2.03% and Google Inc. GOOG, -2.37% where investors were uncertain of the company’s future — Alibaba is a well-established commercial website with a large foothold in China with an annual revenue of $8.5 billion last year.

Often, well-publicized initial public offerings provide an opportunity for retail investors to get off the sidelines, because the lion’s share of trading happens after the IPO in what is called the secondary market, said Steve Quirk, senior vice president of the Trader Group at TD Ameritrade. Retail investors who buy there are often in it for the long haul.

TD Ameritrade says clients who hadn’t traded in months got in on the action during the IPOs of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn Corp. US:LNKD and Dunkin Donuts DNKN, -0.71% . And only 5% of traders flip stocks the day of an IPO, which is a low number.

For Facebook, trades by retail investors made up 22% of the total number of trades made during its IPO, and trading volume stayed in the 20% range for a few days afterwards, according to TD Ameritrade.

Alibaba’s initial public offering is so hotly anticipated that the banks running the show are closing the order books in the U.S and overseas early. The IPO will be one of the biggest in history, with a valuation of more than $24 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.