An initial public offering is the first time a private company sells shares to the public and lists them on a stock exchange.

Why do companies go public?

To raise money for growth, let early investors and employees sell shares, and gain a public market value for acquisitions.

Are IPOs good investments?

Results vary widely. Some soar on the first day and fade later; others start weakly. Lock-up expiries, when insiders can sell, often add pressure months after listing.

Guide · Markets

What Is an IPO (Initial Public Offering)?

The moment a private company becomes a publicly-traded one — and often one of the more unpredictable days a stock will ever have.

Sep 12, 2026

An IPO (Initial Public Offering) is a private company's first sale of shares to the general public, after which the company begins trading on a stock exchange. Before the IPO, ownership is typically limited to founders, employees, and private investors; after it, anyone can buy shares on the open market.

IPOs are notorious for volatility in their first days or weeks of trading. There's no long trading history yet to establish a stable sense of fair value, and demand can be driven heavily by hype and media attention rather than settled fundamentals, which is part of why newly-public stocks can swing sharply in either direction shortly after listing.

That volatility eventually settles as more trading history accumulates and the market has time to digest the company's actual quarterly results rather than just pre-IPO expectations — which is why many experienced investors specifically wait rather than buying on day one.

Trade2Spike's Spot Trading mode lets you engage with a newly volatile stock at its real market price with zero added spread, a reasonable way to get a feel for that kind of early-listing volatility without needing to commit real capital to it.