Subscribed

Newly issued securities that an investor has agreed or stated his or her intent to buy prior to the issue date. When investors use rights, they expect to own the designated number of shares to which they have subscribed once the offering is complete.

The goal of an investment bank in a public offering of securities is to have enough subscribed investors for the issue. Essentially, you can view a subscription to a public offering as an order to purchase soon-to-be issued shares from your brokerage firm.

The investment bank handling a public offering tries to determine which offering price will result in an optimal number of share subscriptions; too many subscriptions will not impress the issuing company, as it is likely to prefer a higher offering price. Conversely, too few subscriptions might result in the investment bank being unable to sell its entire inventory of the security issue, exposing it to significant losses.