Market orders to buy shares of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during the first day of trading are generally not accepted by Firstrade. Only limit orders to buy IPO stock will generally be accepted on the day the IPO goes public. This restriction is put in place to protect our clients from receiving a price that is significantly higher than the price they expected to pay.

When you consider buying a stock in the secondary market, which is going public that same day, placing a limit order will establish a buy price at the maximum you're willing to pay. Limit orders on a "hot" IPO stock reduce your risk of receiving an unexpected execution price and allow you to place an order at the price level you're most comfortable with when buying that stock. Although a limit order does not guarantee your order will be executed, placing a limit order does guarantee you will not pay a higher price than you expected.

In addition to the policy referenced above, Firstrade requires that all orders to buy IPO shares during the first day of trading be accompanied by sufficient cash or cash equivalents in the brokerage account prior to placing that order. In other words, if you wish to buy a stock in the after-market, which is going public today, you must either have enough cash in your cash account or enough Available SMA (Available Funds) in your margin account to cover that particular purchase.

These IPO shares are not marginable for the first 30 days.