I asked Rocket Fuel CTO Mark Torrance about Rocket Fuel's somewhat "disappointing" third quarter results and its stock price in an email interview. "My impression is [Wall Street] isn't really getting it," he said.

The Trade Desk's IPO provides a unique opportunity to see both how viable ad tech companies are in the public markets as well as to evaluate The Trade Desk in particular.

This past week, Snap, Inc. was reported to be planning a $25 billion IPO, not surprising us - or anyone in the ad business. Any company that reaches, on a given day, 41% of 18-34 year olds in the U.S. is going to get noticed.

Facebook is taking on Craigslist and eBay directly, with a new mobile local - and probably international - classified ad feature called Marketplace, giving it some unique opportunities to further target its users with programmatic ads.