Can I invest in a company on the day of its Initial Public Offering (IPO)?

Good question! First, it's important to understand that there's a difference between directly participating in a company's IPO versus trading the company's shares in the secondary market on the day it IPOs. The former means that you'd be one of the first to own a public share of the company because you purchased the shares directly from the company or from another investor in the company selling their shares in the IPO. The latter means buying and selling shares on the open market after the shares begin publicly trading.

Wealthsimple Trade does not support the ability to directly participate in a company's IPO at this time, but we generally support the trading of shares sold in an IPO once they begin publicly trading.

For a company that IPOs in Canada, shares will generally appear in our app shortly after they begin public trading. For a company that IPOs in the United States, Wealthsimple aims to support trading of shares on the day the company IPOs, so long as the company meets our eligibility criteria and has a market capitalization of US$1 billion or more*.

It's important to remember that shares sold in an IPO will not appear in our app until after they become available to the secondary market for trading. This means that the shares may not appear in the app for several hours after trading begins.

*This is the threshold whereby Wealthsimple Trade will request a company's shares to be made CDS eligible (a criterion for being listed on the Trade platform). If another dealer requests a company's shares to be made CDS eligible, we may also support trading that company's shares the day of the IPO, even if the company's market capitalization is below US$1 billion.