Systems and methods for requesting a reservation for a set of debt instruments to be offered

• US 10,074,131 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barry Forman
• Original Assignee: Fairway IP Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Avery, N. Caleb
• Primary Examiner(s): Wai Wong, Eric Tak
• Assistant Examiner(s): Poe, Kevin T
• Application Number:
  US13/826,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339207A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,007 Days
• Field of Search: 705 37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A method and system for the determination of optimal pricing and allocation of securities in an open, competitive environment. The method and system may also be used in developing pre-markets of other items that are difficult to price and allocate in a competitive manner, such as the underwriting/securitization of contracts for property; future revenue/earning streams from an asset and/or group of assets; underwritten insurance portfolios, intellectual property and other goods and services. The system of price optimization and allocation is accomplished by interactive feedback of information using a display and including competitive participation of individual members of the public (and/or their agents) or institutional buyers over a data network e.g., the Internet, uncovering the nature and identification of demand in a self-organizing fashion. Demand emerges through participants'"'"' interaction with the system and with each other, via a graphically-supported, interactive reservation process.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for interactively displaying a bidstream comprising a collection of indications of demand for one or more reservations for a set of debt instruments to be offered by an issuer to participants for later sale, providing real-time feedback and requesting one or more reservation by a first participant computer associated with a first participant, comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting, from the first participant computer comprising a display screen, to one or more servers, via a web services system, a first request to obtain the bidstream relating to a debt instrument offering, the debt instrument offering comprises a plurality of units of a debt instrument offering of one or more types at one or more yields that are available for reservation, wherein

(i) each of the units of the debt instrument offering is intended to be offered as a debt instrument for later sale to potential debt instrument purchasers, and

(ii) for at least one of the types having at least one of the yields, a plurality of units is available for reservation;

(b) receiving in real-time, at the first participation computer via the web services system, from the one or more servers, at a first time, the bidstream including first status information accessible by the first participant computer;

(c) graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the bidstream as a first graphic display including the first status information, wherein the first status information comprises at least information that identify;

(i) first available units of the debt instrument offering for each type at each yield that are available for reservation as of the first time, including the type, yield, and number of units available for reservation, and

(ii) first reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by one or more other participants as of the first time, including the type, yield, and number of units that have been reserved by the one or more other participants, so that the information that identifies the first reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by the one or more other participants at the first time is transparent to the first participant and indicates true market demand for the one or more sets of units of the debt instrument offering;

(d) receiving, at the first participant computer, a second request by the first participant to reserve a first group of one or more of the units of the debt instrument offering selected from the first available units of the debt instrument offering as displayed as part of the first graphic display;

(e) transmitting, from the first participant computer to the one or more servers, the second request;

(f) receiving in real-time, at the first participant computer via the web services system, from the one or more servers, at a second time, an updated bidstream including second status information accessible by the first participant computer;

(g) graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the updated bidstream as a second graphic display including the second status information, wherein the second status information comprises at least information that identify;

(i) second available units within said plurality of units of the debt instrument offering that are yet available for request for reservation as of the second time, including the type, yield, and number of units available, and

(ii) second reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by the one or more other participants, including the type, yield, and number of units reserved by the one or more other participants as of the second time, wherein the second reserved units that have been reserved by the one or more other participants include at least a first set of units within the first group that were available for reservation, so that the information that identifies the second reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by the one or more other participants at the second time is transparent to the first participant and indicates true market demand for the one or more sets of units of the debt instrument offering.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(h) receiving in real-time, at the from the first participant computer from the one or more servers, at a third time, a further updated bidstream including third status information accessible by the first participant computer;

(i) graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the further updated bidstream as a third graphical display including the third status information, wherein the third status information comprises at least information that identify;

(i) third available units within said plurality of units of the debt instrument offering that are yet still available for request for reservation as of the third time, including the type, yield, and number of units available,

(ii) third reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by the one or more other participants, including the type, yield, and number of units reserved as of the third time, wherein the third reserved units that have been reserved by the one or more other participants include at least the first set of units within the first group and a second set of units, so that the information that identifies the third reserved units of the debt instrument offering that have been reserved by the one or more other participants at the third time is transparent to the first participant and indicates true market demand for the one or more sets of units of the debt instrument offering.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the yield comprises one or more of the following:

a yield rate, an interest rate, a coupon rate, a yield equivalent, a yield-to-maturity rate, a yield-to-call rate, a yield-to-worst-call rate, or a spread from an index.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a threshold yield for requests for reservations is set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of units of a particular type of the debt instrument offering available at a particular yield is limited to fewer units than the total number of units of the debt instrument offering.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the debt instruments, when offered for later sale, comprise at least one of corporate bonds, commercial paper, municipal bonds, international bonds, sovereign debt, sub-sovereign debt, public debt, securitization of assets, notes, or convertible debt securities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types comprise at least one of debt instruments of a series, debt instruments having the same maturity, debt instruments having the same coupon rate, or debt instruments available for reservation by a predetermined investor class.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined investor class comprises one or more institutional investors.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined investor class comprises one or more retail investors.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the debt instruments for the predetermined investor class have a predetermined yield.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the number of units of debt instruments for the predetermined investor class is fixed.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the debt instruments for the predetermined investor class have one or more yields calculated based on the yields of other reservations outside the predetermined investor class.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of units comprises all of the units of the first group.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of units comprises fewer than all of the units of the first group.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (c) of graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the bidstream as a first graphic display including the first status information comprises:

graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, first available units graphically represented as one or more allocation blocks arranged on a graph with a first axis indicating number of units of the debt instrument offering and a second axis indicating price point; and

graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the first reserved units graphically represented as at least one of the one or more allocation blocks being filled, with the number and yield of the first reserved units indicated by position of the at least one of the one or more allocation blocks along the first and second axis.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more allocation blocks are limited in number at each price point.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more allocation blocks are arranged within a fixed geometric shape along the first and second axis.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the step (c) of graphically displaying in real-time, on the display screen of the first participant computer, the bidstream as a first graphic display including the first status information further comprises, upon the condition that all of the one or more allocation blocks are filled, moving the fixed geometric shape along the first and second axis to graphically indicate oversubscription and resetting of the bidstream.