System and method for creating and trading a digital derivative investment instrument
First Claim
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1. A method of creating a financial instrument comprising:
- identifying a variable that will assume one of a first state and a second state at a designated time;
establishing a contract between a first investor and a second investor in which the first investor agrees to pay a futures price to the second investor and the second investor agrees to pay to the first investor one of a first settlement amount and a second settlement amount, depending on whether the variable has assumed the first state or the second state;
determining which of the first state and the second state the variable has assumed at the designated time; and
settling the contract according to the state assumed by the variable.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to an investment instrument which allows investors to take risk positions relative to the occurrence or non-occurrence of a contingent binary event. The contingent binary event will have one of two possible outcomes. In a digital futures contract, a long investor agrees to pay a short investor a contract futures amount in return for the short investor agreeing to pay the long investor one of two different settlement amounts depending on the outcome as the contingent binary event. Typically one settlement amount will be zero and the other will be an amount greater than the futures price.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method of creating a financial instrument comprising:
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identifying a variable that will assume one of a first state and a second state at a designated time;
establishing a contract between a first investor and a second investor in which the first investor agrees to pay a futures price to the second investor and the second investor agrees to pay to the first investor one of a first settlement amount and a second settlement amount, depending on whether the variable has assumed the first state or the second state;
determining which of the first state and the second state the variable has assumed at the designated time; and
settling the contract according to the state assumed by the variable. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of trading digital futures contracts comprising defining a standard digital futures contract having one of a first settlement amount and a second settlement amount, contingent on the state of a digital variable on a specified date;
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accepting long positions and short positions and matching at least one long investor with at least one short investor to form at least one digital futures contract based on said standard digital futures contract;
determining the state of the digital variable on the specified date; and
settling the at least one digital futures contract. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of investing in the occurrence or non-occurrence of a contingent event, comprising:
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a first investor agreeing with a second investor to pay a futures price to the second investor in exchange for the second investor agreeing to pay one of a first amount and a second amount depending on whether the contingent event occurs or does not occur;
determining whether the event occurs or does not occur;
the first investor settling with the second investor based on the determination whether the event occurred or did not occur. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A system for creating a digital futures contract to be traded on an exchange, the system comprising:
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a contract definition module for receiving user input and defining terms of a digital futures contract, including a binary variable and first and second settlement amounts, one of which is to be paid by a first party to a second party based on a state of the binary variable;
a pricing data accumulation and dissemination module for receiving price data based on executed trades of said digital futures contracts, and disseminating said pricing data to investors;
a binary variable monitoring module for determining the state of the binary variable; and
a settlement calculation model for calculating a settlement amount based on the state of the binary variable at expiration of the digital futures contract.
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31. A method of creating a financial instrument comprising:
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identifying an underling asset for a digital option contract;
establishing the digital option contract in which an investor will receive one of a first settlement amount and a second settlement depending on whether a strike price of the digital option contract is less than, equal to, or greater than the value of the underlying asset at expiration of the digital option contract;
determining whether the strike price of the digital option contract is less than, equal to, or greater than the value of the underlying asset at expiration of the digital option contract; and
settling the contract according to whether the strike price of the digital option contract is less than, equal to, or greater than the value of the underlying asset at expiration of the digital option contract. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A system for creating a digital option contract to be traded on an exchange, the system comprising:
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a contract definition module for receiving user input and defining terms of a digital option contract, including an underlying asset, a strike price, and first and second settlement amounts, the first and second settlement amounts paid to an investor depending on whether the strike price is less than, equal to, or greater than the value of the underlying asset at expiration of the digital option contract;
a pricing data accumulation and dissemination module for receiving price data based on executed trades of said digital options contracts, and disseminating said pricing data to investors;
a binary variable monitoring module for determining the state of the strike price in relation to the value of the underlying asset; and
a settlement calculation model for calculating a settlement amount based on the state of the strike price in relation to the value of the underlying asset at expiration of the digital option contract. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification