Education
Evergreen explainers on the IPO process. Each piece is grounded in the same SEC primary sources and editorial methodology as our research briefs. See methodology for the full process.
Foundations
What Is an IPO?
An initial public offering is the first sale of a company's shares to public investors under a registration statement filed with the SEC. What changes, who sells, who gets the money, and who can actually buy at the offer price.
Read more →How Does an IPO Work?
The eight stages of an IPO, from choosing underwriters to lock-up expiration — who drives each one, and which parts the company controls rather than the market.
Read more →The IPO Process: Step by Step
The detailed walkthrough: eighteen steps in order, from the organisational meeting to lock-up expiration, alongside the EDGAR filing each one produces.
Read more →How Long Does an IPO Take?
How long a US IPO actually takes — roughly 16 to 20 weeks of formal execution per the NYSE, plus readiness work that often runs a year or more, and what drives delays.
Read more →How Much Does an IPO Cost?
What an IPO actually costs — the underwriting spread and why 7% isn't universal, legal and audit fees, exchange listing fees, D&O insurance, ongoing public-company costs, and the cost of underpricing.
Read more →Why Do Companies Go Public?
The real reasons companies IPO — capital, liquidity, acquisition currency, employee equity, price discovery — and the costs that keep many of them private for longer than ever.
Read more →Primary vs. Secondary Shares
Primary shares are newly issued and the money goes to the company. Secondary shares are existing shares and the money goes to whoever sold them. Where the split is disclosed, and why it changes what 'raised $2 billion' means.
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Filings and disclosure
What Is an S-1?
The S-1 is the registration statement a US company files with the SEC to go public. What's inside it, who files it, how amendments work, and how to read one without drowning.
Read more →What Is Form 424B4?
Form 424B4 is the final IPO prospectus, filed after pricing. It's the first document in the sequence with real numbers instead of estimates — here's what's in it and why it matters.
Read more →S-1 vs. 424B4: What Actually Changes
The S-1 tells you what a company hoped to do. The 424B4 records what it did. A line-by-line comparison of what changes between the two, and what each change tells you.
Read more →What Is a Prospectus?
A prospectus is the legal disclosure document delivered to investors in a public offering. What it's for, who it's written for, why it reads the way it does, and what it can't tell you.
Read more →What Is a Red Herring Prospectus?
The red herring is the preliminary IPO prospectus used during the roadshow, before pricing. Where the name comes from, what it can and can't contain, and what it tells you.
Read more →How to Read an IPO Prospectus
A section-by-section guide to reading an IPO prospectus — what matters, what's boilerplate, and the specific questions to ask of each part. With a 30-minute first-pass method.
Read more →The IPO Filing Lifecycle
Every SEC filing in a US IPO, in order — DRS, S-1, S-1/A, FWP, 8-A, EFFECT, 424B4, then ongoing reporting. What each one signals and how to follow a deal in real time.
Read more →Withdrawn and Postponed IPOs
Why IPOs get pulled, what Form RW actually means, the difference between withdrawal and postponement, and how often companies come back. The part of the IPO market nobody tracks.
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Pricing and trading
How Is an IPO Priced?
An IPO price is negotiated once, after the market closes the night before trading, using demand collected during the roadshow. Who decides, where the range comes from, and what the company actually receives.
Read more →IPO Bookbuilding
How underwriters collect demand during the roadshow and turn it into a price. What an indication of interest is, what oversubscribed actually means, and why the book is a demand curve rather than a queue.
Read more →IPO Allocation
Who gets shares at the IPO price, and why it is almost never retail. Allocation is discretionary, not pro-rata and not a queue — here is what underwriters optimise for and which investors are barred outright.
Read more →What Happens on IPO Day?
A newly listed company's first trading day in sequence — from the final prospectus filed before the open, through the auction, halts and stabilisation, to the closing print. And what the day does not tell you.
Read more →Offer Price vs. Opening Price
Why an IPO priced at $33 can open at $85. The offer price is negotiated; the opening price is auctioned. What the gap means, who captures it, and why retail investors rarely do.
Read more →The IPO Opening Auction
Why a newly listed stock does not start trading at 9:30, and how the NYSE and Nasdaq each run the auction that produces the first public price. The mechanism that explains why a $20 IPO opens at $31.
Read more →Why Do IPOs Pop?
IPOs have risen an average of 19% on their first day since 1980. The explanations — winner's curse, bookbuilding incentives, small floats, litigation risk — and what the pop costs issuers.
Read more →The Greenshoe Option
The over-allotment option lets underwriters sell 15% more shares than the deal offers, then decide afterwards whether to buy them from the company or from the market. How it works, and why it is the mechanism behind aftermarket price support.
Read more →The IPO Lock-Up Period
What an IPO lock-up is, why 180 days became the convention, how staggered releases and price-based early triggers work, and what actually happens when a lock-up expires.
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