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IPO subscriptions
How a fixed-price offering reserves CC, allocates shares and refunds the unused amount.
Last updated: 2026-09-20
A listing begins with an offering window
Before a new fictional company starts trading, MockTradeCity can schedule an IPO subscription. The offering identifies the company and symbol, a fixed issue price, the number of shares offered and the subscription window. A scheduled offering becomes open when its window begins. It is a separate process from the ordinary Order book: submitting a subscription does not immediately match you with a seller or create a public trade at the issue price.
The issue price is the same for every accepted subscription in that offering. Demand does not turn it into an auction price, and subscribers do not submit competing bids. The city does not add real-world bookbuilding or underwriting stages merely because the page uses the term IPO. All amounts use City Coin (CC), and all shares concern the city's fictional company. The offering details state the actual terms applicable to that window.
Submission reserves your own CC
The requested quantity multiplied by the issue price gives the amount to reserve. A subscription for 300 shares at 12 CC therefore commits 3,600 CC. The amount moves out of Available CC into reserved funds, remaining part of equity while it waits. It cannot simultaneously fund another stock order or provide new short-sale collateral. Insufficient available funds prevent acceptance; a subscription is not an instruction to collect the missing CC later.
IPO subscriptions use your own CC rather than margin financing. An account with unpaid financing principal cannot subscribe until the applicable debt restriction is resolved. More than one subscription can be submitted within an open window, with each accepted record carrying its own reservation. The offering's total demand is built from eligible subscriptions, not from drafts in a ticket or requests that failed validation and never became accepted commitments.
Cancellation ends at the cutoff
While the subscription window remains open, an accepted subscription can be canceled through the personal subscription list. Its reserved CC is released and it no longer participates in allocation. Changing a quantity involves canceling and submitting a new record, which receives its own submission position. A canceled record remains part of history rather than being treated as if it never existed, making the associated reservation and release understandable in Account.
At the cutoff, both new subscriptions and subscriber cancellations stop. Settlement can happen afterward, so there may be a period when the window is closed but the allocation remains pending. During that wait, the reservation is still present and counted in equity. The cancellation boundary is the window's deadline, not the later moment when settlement happens to run. Seeing a pending allocation therefore does not mean the subscription can still be withdrawn.
Allocation uses a proportional rule
If valid demand does not exceed the offered share count, subscriptions can receive their requested quantities. If demand exceeds supply, allocation is proportional to each subscription's requested quantity. Whole-share rounding can leave a remainder, which is distributed according to submission order under the city's rule. A request for one tenth of total demand therefore starts from one tenth of the offered shares before those rounding details are applied.
For example, an offering of 1,000 shares facing 2,000 requested shares can allocate 150 shares to a 300-share request when the ratio divides cleanly. At 12 CC per share, 1,800 CC pays for that allocation and the other 1,800 CC of the original reservation is returned. A subscription receiving no shares is refunded. The actual allocation record, rather than the requested quantity, determines the resulting position and the amount consumed from reserved funds.
Where to follow an IPO in the city
The Market page highlights scheduled and open offerings, and the IPO subscription page contains the form and your subscription records. Each record shows its requested quantity, issue price, allocation and state. Account reflects the associated reserved CC and later allocation or refund entries. The offering price also becomes the listing's initial reference; subsequent public prices still require ordinary executions once the company is available for trading in the market.
After settlement, allocated shares appear in Positions with the issue-price cost. Their later value can differ as the city's participants trade. If the operator cancels an offering before settlement, the corresponding active reservations are refunded under the cancellation process and the company remains unlisted. Neither a scheduled listing nor an accepted subscription promises a later trading price. Reading the offering state, personal allocation and account entries together establishes what has actually happened to your fictional CC.