How to Invest in IPOs from Portugal (Freedom24): A Practical Guide 2026

When a company first goes public, the significant first-day gains usually go to investment banks and institutional funds — the average investor can only buy afterward, with the price adjusted to market interest. Freedom24 changed this by opening IPO access to retail clients, including investors in Portugal.

What is an IPO and Why is it Different

An IPO (Initial Public Offering) is when a private company sells shares to the public for the first time and starts trading on the stock market. Before the debut, interested investors can subscribe to shares at a fixed price — without yet knowing how the market will react on the first trading day.

How Subscribing to an IPO Works on Freedom24

In practice, the process has three steps:

• Subscription: in the platform’s IPO section, indicate how many shares you want and the amount you’re willing to invest, within the defined subscription period for that offer;
• Allocation: if demand exceeds available supply — which is common in popular IPOs — you may receive only a fraction of what you requested, or nothing at all;
• Lock-up: after receiving the shares, there is usually a mandatory minimum period before you can sell them, which varies from IPO to IPO.

Three Things to Know Before Participating

This is not a “risk-free investment waiting for guaranteed return” — it is the opposite:

• Allocation is not guaranteed, even if you subscribe within the deadline;
• The IPO history includes cases of strong first-day appreciation but also sharp declines shortly after the debut;
• The lock-up period means you can’t sell immediately, even if the price increases or decreases significantly in the meantime.

For these reasons, it makes more sense to treat IPOs as a small speculative part of the portfolio — not as a substitute for a long-term strategy in broad ETFs. For the core of the portfolio, the usual diversification principles still apply.

What It Costs

In the Freedom24 Smart plan — the most used by long-term investors — orders cost from €0.02 per share, with a minimum of €2 per order, with no custody or inactivity fees. There is also the All Inclusive plan, designed for those who trade more frequently; it is worth comparing the two simulators on the official site before choosing.

Is Freedom24 Safe for This?

Freedom24 is regulated by CySEC (Cyprus) under MiFID II, with clients covered up to €20,000 by the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund in case of broker insolvency — it does not cover normal market losses in investments. We detailed the regulation and the strengths and weaknesses in Is Freedom24 Safe? Regulation, Protection, and Opinions (2026).

And How to Declare Gains?

Like any capital gains obtained through Freedom24, the gains (or losses) from selling shares received in an IPO are declared in Annex J of the IRS — we wrote a dedicated guide in Freedom24 and IRS in Portugal: How to Declare in Annex J.

See Available IPOs on Freedom24 →

Educational content: nothing in this article constitutes investment advice. IPOs are high-risk investments and allocation is never guaranteed. Investing involves the risk of capital loss.

Educational content, not financial advice. Investing in IPOs involves high risk — always assess your own situation before investing.