After that, though, there were a few hitches.

Trading was supposed to start at 11 a.m. ET, but the Nasdaq delayed it by about half an hour in order to handle the flood of buy and sell orders that were coming through for Facebook's stock.

Once trading actually began, the stock started out strong, trading at $42 per share, $4 above the official offering price of $38 the company set Thursday.

However, instead of rising from there, Facebook's share price began to fizzle, and dropped to below $39 just 20 minutes after trading began. Once the price hit $38, about 10 to 15 minutes later, the company's underwriters stepped in to bolster it and hold the price floor at $38, .

TV commentators and online headlines began using words like "underperform" and "disappointing."