Method and apparatus for user-interactive financial instrument trading
First Claim
1. A method of providing contemporaneous access to a plurality of financial instrument trading accounts associated with a single user, said accounts being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
- maintaining data relating to a plurality of financial instrument trading accounts possessed by a single user; and
providing a software application, the software application being configured to (1) require a single login by the user to access said data for conducting activities related to the accounts via a web browser, and (2) simultaneously display, upon user command, at least two interface windows within a single main display window, a first of said interface windows corresponding to a first of said accounts and a second of said interface windows corresponding to a second of said accounts.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved interface for interacting with a user of financial instrument trading software is disclosed herein. The improvements include efficient user access to multiple accounts, the ability to quickly cancel open orders from an interface window, the display of real-time quote data within an order entry window, greater flexibility in viewing quote data within a quotes window and chart data within a chart window, the display of a high/low graph for a financial instrument in a quote window, improved visual highlighting techniques for notifying the user of significant data relating to a financial instrument, the ability to embed a chart from a chart window into a quote window, the ability to effectively link different user interface windows together such that a user action in one linked window will have an effect in another window linked thereto, and the ability to efficiently manage open orders within an open orders window.
164 Citations
80 Claims
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1. A method of providing contemporaneous access to a plurality of financial instrument trading accounts associated with a single user, said accounts being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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maintaining data relating to a plurality of financial instrument trading accounts possessed by a single user; and
providing a software application, the software application being configured to (1) require a single login by the user to access said data for conducting activities related to the accounts via a web browser, and (2) simultaneously display, upon user command, at least two interface windows within a single main display window, a first of said interface windows corresponding to a first of said accounts and a second of said interface windows corresponding to a second of said accounts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of providing user management of a financial instrument trading account through a user interface, the account having a plurality of open orders corresponding to pending transactions for financial instruments, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
providing a user interface window for display on a user'"'"'s computer, the window including a button selectable by the user to list the account'"'"'s open orders, each listed open order being individually selectable by the user to effectuate cancellation thereof. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account through a user interface, with quote data relating to a financial instrument, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing an order entry window through which the user places orders for transactions corresponding to one or more financial instruments;
providing a field in the order entry window for receiving an input from the user corresponding to a financial instrument;
displaying, in response to said user input, in the order entry window, real-time quote data for the financial instrument corresponding to the received input. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with quote data relating to a financial instrument, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a quote window for display to the user, the window including a field for receiving an input by the user corresponding to a financial instrument and optionally a request for comprehensive quote data for that financial instrument;
receiving input and a request from the user corresponding to a financial instrument;
responsive to the received input and request; and
displaying, in the quote window, comprehensive quote data for that financial instrument. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with quote data relating to a financial instrument, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a quote window for display to the user, the window including a field for input by the user through which the user requests quote data relating to at least one financial instrument index, each financial instrument index having a plurality of constituent component financial instruments;
receiving input from the user that identifies a financial instrument index;
receiving input from the user through the quote window that corresponds to a request to display quote data for each of the constituent component financial instruments of the identified financial instrument index, and responsive to the user input, displaying, in the quote window, quote data for the constituent component financial instruments of the identified financial instrument index. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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30. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with quote data relating to a financial instrument, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a quote window for display to the user, the quote window including quote data for at least one financial instrument; and
including, in the quote data displayed in the quote window, a high/low graph for the at least one financial instrument. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
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34. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with data relating to a plurality of financial instruments, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a window for display to the user that depicts quote data for a plurality of financial instruments that is indicative of a change in price relative to the previous trading day, the quote data being displayed in a plurality of rows and columns, each row corresponding to a financial instrument, each column corresponding to a different type of quote data, wherein at least one of the columns identifies a symbol for the financial instrument of the corresponding row;
updating the quote data in real-time;
for a financial instrument whose current quote data includes a current price therefor that is at its highest point for the day above its closing price for the previous trading day, visually highlighting at least a portion of the row for that financial instrument in a first manner; and
for a financial instrument whose current quote data includes a current price therefor that is at its highest point for the year, visually highlighting at least a portion of the row for that financial instrument in a second manner different than the first manner. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with quote data relating to a plurality of financial instruments, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a window for display to the user, the window including a plurality of quote data items corresponding to a plurality of financial instruments;
updating the quote data items in real-time; and
visually highlighting each updated quote data item as it is displayed with a real-time flash and dim thereof. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with data relating to at least one financial instrument in an interface, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a user interface window for display to the user, the window being configured to present data related to at least one financial instrument to the user, the window presenting the data to the user through a template that defines how the data is displayed;
storing a plurality of said templates; and
providing a control in the window through which the user selects, from a list of the stored templates, which stored template to be loaded into the window. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A method of controlling the content of a chart window displayed to a user who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the chart window depicting chart data relating to one or more financial instrument, the method comprising:
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providing a chart window for display to the user, the chart window depicting data relating to at least one financial instrument, the chart window including a field through which the user can enter a plurality of modification instructions that are operative to modify the data depicted in the chart window;
simultaneously receiving a plurality of modification instructions from the user through the chart window field; and
modifying the chart window in accordance with the modification instructions. - View Dependent Claims (50)
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51. A method of controlling the content of a quote window displayed to a user who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a quote window for display to the user, the quote window depicting quote data relating to a financial instrument, the quote window including a button selectable by the user to embed a chart of chart data for the financial instrument into the quote window; and
responsive to user input that includes selection of the button, embedding a chart of chart data for the financial instrument into the quote window. - View Dependent Claims (52)
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53. A method of controlling the content of a window displayed to a user who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing a first window for display to the user, the first window depicting quote data relating to a financial instrument through a template;
providing a second window for display to the user, the second window being responsive to user action therein to open a third window from which the user can load the template of the first window into a user-specified area of the second window; and
responsive to user action in the second window and in the third window, loading the template of the first window into a user-specified area of the second window. - View Dependent Claims (54)
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55. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with control over a plurality of user interface windows, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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linking at least a first user interface window and a second user interface window together in response to a corresponding user input;
receiving from the user a selection within the first linked user interface window, the selection being associated with a particular financial instrument; and
responsive to the selection, automatically adding data related to the particular financial instrument to the second linked user interface window. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A computer readable medium for supporting user-interactive financial instrument trading through a plurality of user interface windows, the computer readable medium comprising:
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a code segment executable by a processor for linking at least a first user interface window and a second user interface window together in response to user input;
a code segment executable by a processor for receiving from the user a selection within the first linked user interface window, the selection being associated with a particular financial instrument; and
a code segment executable by a processor for, responsive to the selection, automatically adding data related to the particular financial instrument to the second linked user interface window. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72)
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73. A method of providing a user, who is logged into a financial instrument trading account, with management control through an open orders user interface window of at least one open order corresponding to a financial instrument, said account being accessible through an on-line portal hosted by a services provider, the method comprising:
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providing an open orders user interface window for display to the user, the open orders user interface window comprising a list of all open orders; and
responsive to a user action within the open orders user interface window, presenting a menu to the user, the menu comprising a plurality of selectable options for managing at least one open order on the list. - View Dependent Claims (74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80)
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Specification