An initial public offering (IPO) is the first time a company’s shares are offered for sale to the public. Before that moment, ownership is private. The IPO sets an offer price and sells a limited pool of shares to early buyers.

After the IPO window, shares usually trade on the open market, where price can move above or below the offer price based on supply and demand. Buying at the offer is early access — not a guaranteed profit.

On StockSt, new listings open in an IPO stage: you can buy a capped allocation at the fixed offer price from MasterTrader inventory. When the window ends (or the retail pool sells out), the stock goes PUBLIC and normal buy/sell matching begins.

Allocation matters: only a fraction of floating shares is reserved for early retail buys, and each trader has a per-account cap. Practice sizing your order, then watch how the public book behaves after promotion.

Takeaways

• IPO = first public sale at an offer price.
• Offer price ≠ later market price.
• Early access is capped; then the open book takes over.