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Many sophisticated institutional money managers were also intent on getting a piece of the hottest tech IPO in years, despite concerns about the company's slowing user growth and lack of voting rights for new shareholders.

Snap declined to comment on trading in its shares.

INFLATED LEVELS?

Companies with especially enthusiastic customer bases, such as action-camera maker GoPro Inc <GPRO.O>, social games company Zynga Inc <ZNGA.O> and English soccer club Manchester United Plc <MANU.N>, have in the past attracted fans to dabble in their IPOs.

But the wildly popular Snapchat - with an average of about 158 million daily active users - appears to be taking the enthusiasm to another level, some analysts and brokers said.

"One of the non-fundamental reasons driving the stock is that many millennials purchased Snap shares at inflated levels due to their preference for the product," said Shebly Seyrafi, managing director at FBN Securities. "That is, not due to a real understanding of the number or valuation."

Snapchat's users, mostly in the 18-34 age range coveted by advertisers, spend an average of 25 to 30 minutes on the app and visit it more than 18 times a day, according to the company, making it more visited than any other social media platform.

"Snap is tapping into the pride of ownership (for millennials) which we don't see often in the stock market," said Dan Schatt, chief commercial officer at Stockpile.

Snap's IPO gave Stockpile its biggest single day since it launched in 2015, nearly 10 times the service's daily average in transaction and sales.

"Snap is offering the comfort of buying something that you know so well, understand and use it every day, which is what these young investors want," said Schatt, whose teenaged daughter and son also bought Snap shares with his approval on Stockpile.

On StockTwits, a Twitter-like platform for sharing trading ideas, where 40 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 34, Snap has been the most talked-about stock for days.

There are concerns about slowing user growth and competition from Facebook Inc <FB.O>. The overall sentiment on the stock is now 44 percent bullish and 56 percent bearish, compared to early February when bullish sentiment was 100 percent, according to StockTwits.

That has not deterred Tiffany Dun, a San Francisco-based mortgage consultant in her late 20s who purchased 125 shares in Snap on the first day of trading at about $22 a share.

"There's always risk to everything," she said. "I use the product and I like it, so I bought some."