Electronic transaction terminal for vocalization of transactional data

• US 5,806,050 A
• Filed: 11/12/1993
• Issued: 09/08/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: EBS Dealing Resources, Inc. (CME Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: EBS Dealing Resources, Inc. (CME Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Howorka, Edward, Klepka, Chris, Shinn, Phil, Hartheimer, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): MCELHENY JR, DONALD E
• Application Number:
  US08/226,511
• Time in Patent Office: 1,761 Days
• Field of Search: 395/2.7, 395/2.67, 395/2.69, 395/2.77, 395/2.74, 395/2.75, 395/2.79, 364/408, 381/51, 381/52
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1804 for stock exchange and similar applications

Abstract

A method for vocalizing information from an electronic brokerage system (EBS) used in international currency exchange incorporates a specialized grammar to emulate the interpersonal trading style and vernacular used by foreign currency brokers catering to the international banking industry. Used in conjunction with the screen display of an EBS, the vocalizing method makes the system easier for a trader to use by emphasizing information content. The vocalizing method optimizes redundancy of data available to the user to minimize both the ambiguity of data to and the cognitive effort of the user. The vocalizing method chooses what data should be vocalized, when the data should be vocalized, and, in what manner the data should be vocalized. For example, a long form of the offer and bid prices is initially vocalized which includes both figure and pips data, but thereafter only the pips are vocalized. Three categories of messages each provide different data to the system user. First, market broadcast messages provide quote and bid information. Second, maker and taker specific messages provide specific deal information between the parties to an ongoing or completed transaction. Third, system deals and price change reasons messages provide all workstations dealing in the currency pair with recent prices given and paid for that currency pair, at least when it affects the current best price. The trader may have none, all, one, or two of the three categories of messages vocalized by setting the workstation trader profile accordingly. Additionally, the trader may choose with which of a variety of voices the workstation will speak.

Claims

1. In an electronic trading system for executing transactions relating to a specified commodity and having a plurality of trader terminals for inputting price and quantity data from traders willing to buy and/or sell that commodity, an improved terminal for audibly announcing transactional data to an associated trader, the terminal comprising:

last price means for storing a last announced price;

price timeout means for determining when a first predetermined time has elapsed since the last announced price was verbalized;

current price means for receiving bid and offer components of a current price;

price change means responsive to the last price means and to the current price means for determining whether the current price is different from the last announced price;

price decomposing means for decomposing each component of the current price into at least one less significant digit associated with a pips portion and at least one more significant digit associated with a figure portion; and

pips announcing means responsive to the price change means, to the price timeout means and to the price decomposing means, for audibly announcing the pips portion of the current price if no price has been announced for the first predetermined period of time, or if the current price is not equal to the last announced price and no other transaction data is currently being announced;

wherein;

the pips announcing means announces the pips portion of the bid component of the current price separately from the pips portion of the offer component of the current price, with the pips portion of the bid component being vocalized with a rising pitch and the pips portion of the offer component being vocalized with a falling pitch.

2. The improved terminal of claim 1, wherein the pips announcing means announces only the pips portion if a figure enunciation condition does not currently exist.

3. The improved terminal of claim 1, wherein not all received prices include both a bid component and an offer component, and the pips announcing means announces the pips portions of both components only when the current price includes both a bid component and an offer component.

4. The improved terminal of claim 1, wherein:

each pips component is a multidigit number;

each possible value of each possible digit of each possible multidigit number is separately stored with both rising and falling intonations; and

the pips announcing means forms each vocalized pips component from at least two stored digits having the same respective intonation.

5. The improved terminal of claim of claim 1, wherein, if the bid and offer components of the current price are equal, the pips announcing means vocalizes only one of the components and the word "choice".

6. The improved terminal of claim 1, wherein, if only one of the components is present in the current price, the pips announcing means also announces whether the price is a "bid" price or an "offer" price.

7. The improved terminal of claim 1, further comprising

figure timeout means for determining when a second predetermined time has elapsed since a figure portion was last announced;

price spread means responsive to the current price means and to the last price means for determining whether a figure enunciation condition exists in which both figure .portions of the current price are not readily apparent from the last announced price and the pips portion of the current price; and

figure announcing means responsive to the pips announcing means, to the figure timeout means and to the price spread means, for announcing at least one digit of the figure portion of the current price concurrently with the announcement of the pips portion whenever the second predetermined time has elapsed or the figure enunciation condition currently exists.

8. The improved terminal of claim 7, wherein the price spread means calculates a maximum spread between the minimum and maximum of the four values of the current bid price, current offer price, last announced bid price, and last announced offer price, and compares that maximum spread with a predetermined spread less than a one digit increment in the least significant digit of the figure portion.

9. The improved terminal of claim 8, wherein the predetermined spread assumes a first predetermined value when the current bid price is smaller than the current offer price and assumes a second predetermined value smaller than the first redetermined value when the current bid price is greater than the current offer price.

10. The improved terminal of claim 7, further comprising

figure spread means for determining a figure difference between the respective figure portions of the current bid price and the current offer price.

11. The improved terminal of claim 10, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes the figure portion in an abbreviated form when the figure difference is only one digit.

12. The improved terminal of claim 11, wherein:

said abbreviated form consists of "around" plus the least significant digit of the offer price.

13. The improved terminal of claim 10, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes at least one digit of the figure portion of both the bid price and the offer price when the figure difference is more than one digit.

14. The improved terminal of claim 13, wherein:

said figure announcing means vocalizes the bid and offer components of the current price in their entirety when the figure spread is more than one digit.

15. The improved terminal of claim 10, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes only one figure portion when the FIG. 4 difference is zero.

16. In an electronic trading system for executing transactions relating to a specified commodity and having a plurality of trader terminals for inputting price and quantity data from traders willing to buy and/or sell that commodity, an improved terminal for audibly announcing transactional data to an associated trader, the terminal comprising:

last price means for storing a last announced price;

price timeout means for determining when a first predetermined time has elapsed since the last announced price was verbalized;

current price means for receiving bid and offer components of a current price;

price change means responsive to the last price means and to the current price means for determining whether the current price is different from the last announced price;

price decomposing means for decomposing each component of the current price into at least one less significant digit associated with a pips portion and at least one more significant digit associated with a figure portion;

pips announcing means responsive to the price change means, to the price timeout means and to the price decomposing means, for audibly vocalizing the pips portion of the current price if no price has been announced for the first predetermined period of time, or if the current price is not equal to the last announced price and no other transaction data is currently being announced;

figure timeout means for determining when a second predetermined time has elapsed since a figure portion was last announced;

price spread means responsive to the current price means and to the last price means for determining whether a figure enunciation condition exists in which both figure portions of the current price are not readily apparent from the last announced price and the pips portion of the current price; and

figure announcing means responsive to the pips announcing means, to the figure timeout means and to the price spread means, for announcing at least one digit of the figure portion of the current price concurrently with the announcement of the pips portion whenever the second predetermined time has elapsed or the figure enunciation condition currently exists,

wherein only the pips portion of the current price is vocalized if a figure enunciation condition does not currently exist and the second predetermined time has not elapsed.

17. The improved terminal of claim 16, wherein not all received prices include both a bid component and an offer component, and the pips announcing means vocalizes the pips portions of both components only when both a bid component and an offer component have been received for current price.

18. The improved terminal of claim 16, wherein, if the bid and offer components of the current price are equal, the pips announcing means vocalizes only one of the components and the word "choice".

19. The improved terminal of claim 16, wherein, if only one of the components is present in the current price, the pips announcing means also vocalizes whether the price is a "bid" price or an "offer" price.

20. The improved terminal of claim 16, wherein the price spread means calculates a maximum spread between the minimum and maximum of the four values of the current bid price, current offer price, last announced bid price, and last announced offer price, and compares that maximum spread with a predetermined spread less than one figure digit.

21. The improved terminal of claim 20, wherein the predetermined spread is greater when the current bid price is smaller than the current offer price and is smaller when the current bid price is greater than the current offer price.

22. The improved terminal of claim 16, further comprising

figure spread means for determining a figure difference between the figure portion of the bid and offer components of the current price.

23. The improved terminal of claim 22, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes the figure portion in an abbreviated form when the figure difference is only one digit.

24. The improved terminal of claim 23, wherein:

said abbreviated form consists of "around" plus the least significant digit of the offer price.

25. The improved terminal of claim 22, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes at least one digit of the figure portion of both the bid price and the offer price when the figure difference is more than one digit.

26. The improved terminal of claim 25, wherein:

said figure announcing means vocalizes the bid and offer components of the current price in their entirety when the figure spread is more than a one digit increment in the least significant digit of the figure portion.

27. The improved terminal of claim 22, wherein:

said figure announcing means is further responsive to said figure spread means and vocalizes only one figure portion when the figure difference is zero.

28. In an electronic trading system for executing transactions relating to a specified commodity and having a plurality of trader terminals for inputting price and quantity data from traders willing to buy and/or sell that commodity, each of the prices including respective bid and offer components separated by a respective spread, an improved terminal for audibly announcing transactional data to an associated trader, the terminal comprising:

price decomposing means for decomposing the price components into at least one less significant digit associated with a pips portion and at least one more significant digit associated with a figure portion;

pips announcing means for announcing the pips portions of a current price;

figure ambiguity means responsive to the price decomposing means for determining whether a figure enunciation condition exists in which a maximum spread between the minimum and maximum of the four values of the current bid price, current offer price, last announced bid price, and last announced offer price, is greater than a predetermined allowable spread; and

figure announcing means responsive to the figure ambiguity means for announcing at least one digit of the figure portion of the current price if the figure enunciation condition exists.

29. The improved terminal of claim 28, wherein the predetermined allowable spread is a first predetermined value when the current bid price is smaller than the current offer price and is a second predetermined value smaller than the first predetermined value when the current bid price is greater than the current offer price.

30. In an electronic trading system for executing transactions relating to a specified commodity and having a plurality of trader terminals for inputting price and quantity data from traders willing to buy and/or sell that commodity, at least some of the prices including respective bid and offer components separated by a respective spread, an improved workstation for audibly announcing transactional data to an associated trader, the workstation comprising;

a first message queue for private information specific to transactions initiated by a particular trader or trading floor, including whether a maker'"'"'s bid or offer is dealable, bettered or acted on and whether a taker'"'"'s response has been accepted or missed;

a second message queue for public information concerning other transactions in which the particular trader or trading floor is eligible to participate, including an indication of the best dealable price currently available that particular trader or trader floor, and if the current price is worse than a previously announced price, an indication as to whether the previously announced price was dealt on or was withdrawn;

an audio output buffer for containing a current message to be vocalized;

first priority means responsive to an empty condition of the output buffer for transferring information from the first message queue to the output buffer; and

second priority means responsive to an empty condition of both the output buffer and the first message queue for transferring information from the second message queue to the output buffer.

31. The improved workstation of claim 30, wherein the first priority means summarizes multiple transactions of a same type.

32. The improved workstation of claim 31, wherein the summary of multiple transactions of a same type involving multiple prices is based on the worst price.

33. The improved workstation of claim 31, wherein the second priority means ignores an unannounced price that has been superseded.