While smaller or individual investors are finding it easier to buy IPO shares through online brokerage firms, they may still find it difficult to buy IPO shares for a number of reasons:

The Underwriting Process

The IPOs of all but the smallest of companies are usually offered to the public through an "underwriting syndicate," a group of underwriters who agree to purchase the shares from the issuer and then sell the shares to investors. Only a limited number of broker-dealers are invited into the syndicate as underwriters and some of them may not have individual investors as clients. Moreover, syndicate members themselves do not receive equal allocations of securities for sale to their clients.