Foreign exchange trading system

• US 20020049666A1
• Filed: 08/22/2001
• Published: 04/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Goldman Sachs & Company (Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wen, Eddie, Reuter, Dierk
• Granted Patent: US 7,321,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Computer-implemented trading of financial products can include using a first communication channel to stream offering data for a plurality of different financial products from a server to a trading terminal. A second communication channel can be used to receive request for offers about ones of the financial products from the trading terminal. Such request can include user-specified parameters that modify or further specify characteristics of the desired products. Offers may then be determined for the product in accordance with the user-specified parameters and transmitted (over the second communication channel) back to the trading terminal. Each communication channel can be allocated a different priority and/or different level of system processing resources to optimize the allocation of system resources based on the criticality of data on each channel.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for trading financial products, the method comprising:

in a first communication channel, streaming offering data for a plurality of different financial products from a server to a trading terminal;

in a second communication channel, receiving a request for offer details relating to a first one of the plurality of financial products product, the request comprising a user-specified constraint identifying a desired characteristic of the first financial product;

determining offering information for the first product based on the user-specified constraint; and

in the second communication channel, transmitting information relating to the specific product to the trading terminal.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the offering data comprises an aggregate of market data from a plurality of dealers of over-the-counter financial products and the method further comprises:

at the server, receiving the market data from the plurality of dealers and aggregating the market data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first product is an over-the-counter product selected from the group consisting of a simple option, an even currency swap, an even currency roll, an outright forward, an uneven swap, a risk reversal, a straddle, a strangle, a derivative, and an option; and

the user-specified constraint comprises a constraint selected from the group consisting of a value date and a strike price.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein streaming in the first communication channel comprises periodically re-transmitting offering data for the plurality of different financial products to enable a display of updated information reflecting changes in market conditions for the plurality of financial products.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising monitoring network transmission conditions and, based on the network transmission conditions, adjusting a rate of the periodic re-transmitting.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

for each of the plurality of financial products, the offering data comprises an associated value date and price; and

the request for details comprises a request for pricing details related to one of the over-the-counter products and the user-specified constraint comprises a different time period than that identified by the streamed offering data.

7. A computer system for providing financial product offerings over a network, the system comprising:

a computer server accessible to a trading terminal over a communications network; and

executable software stored on the server operative to configuring the server to;

stream data relating to multiple product offerings over a first communication channel to the trading terminal;

receive a request for details relating to a specific product over a second communication channel that is logically separate from the first communication channel;

transmit information over the second communication channel relating to the specific product;

receive an order over the second communication channel relating to the specific product; and

associate different processing priorities with data transmitted over the first channel compared to data transmitted over the second channel.

8. The computer communications system of claim 7 wherein communciation over the first and second communication channels is in accordance with the hypertext transfer protocol.

9. The computer communications system of claim 8 wherein the communication network comprises an intranet.

10. A computer-implemented method for trading financial products, the method comprising:

receiving at a trading terminal from a server a first communication channel comprising a stream of offering data for a plurality of different financial products,

displaying the offering data to a user;

receiving from a user a selection of a first one of the financial products and a parameter modifying a characteristic of the selected financial product;

establishing a second communication channel to the server and transmitting over the second communication channel a request for an offer for the selected financial products as modified by the parameter;

determining offering information for the first product based on the parameter and transmitting the offering information over the second communication channel in response to the request for an offer;

displaying the offering information at the terminal using a display format logically separating information received in the first and second communication channels.

11. A computer-readable data storage apparatus comprising instructions to configure a computer system to:

stream offering data in a first communication channel to a trading terminal for a plurality of different financial products;

receive a request in a second communication channel for offer details relating to a first one of the plurality of financial products product, the request comprising a user-specified constraint identifying a desired characteristic of the first financial product;

determine offering information for the first product based on the user-specified constraint; and

transmit in the second communication channel to the trading terminal information relating to the specific product.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the offering data comprises an aggregate of market data from a plurality of dealers of over-the-counter financial products and the instructions further comprises instructions to receive the market data from the plurality of dealers and aggregate the market data.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein:

the first product is an over-the-counter product selected from the group consisting of a simple option, an even currency swap, an even currency roll, an outright forward, an uneven swap, a risk reversal, a straddle, a strangle, a derivative, and an option; and

the user-specified constraint comprises a constraint selected from the group consisting of a value date and a strike price.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the instructions to stream in the first communication channel comprises instructions to periodically re-transmit offering data for the plurality of different financial products to enable a display of updated information reflecting changes in market conditions for the plurality of financial products.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to monitor network transmission conditions and, based on the network transmission conditions, adjust a rate of the periodic re-transmitting.