At the majors you also have to have serious money. At E-Trade, you need to have only enough in your account to cover the buy. The online brokerage firms have general rules about who gets IPOs. DLJdirect considers how long you've been a client and how actively you trade. E-Trade reserves a percentage for its beloved heavy traders, but allocates shares randomly.
Wit allocates first to customers who bid for the shares on the day the prospectus is released.
What you especially need is access to better IPOs. The best IPOs are those still owned by institutions three months after trading starts, says Laura Casares Field, assistant professor of finance at Penn State University. Online brokers, by the way, don't want you to flip your stock, which they generally define as selling within the first 30 or 60 days. Flippers hurt the brokers' chance of getting more IPOs to sell. If you break their rules, you'll be off their list.