Anonymous trading system with improved quote input capabilities

• US 6,282,521 B1
• Filed: 06/15/1998
• Issued: 08/28/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/1995
• 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 R
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): KANOF, PEDRO R
• Application Number:
  US09/029,181
• Time in Patent Office: 1,170 Days
• Field of Search: 705/37, 705/35, 705/36
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

For each quote entered into a computerized anonymous trading system, the system determines if it is waiting to be “hit” (would be matched with the first hit of a predetermined size) at a substantial number of trading floors, and if so, notifies the trader originating the quote. The substantial number of floors is preferably expressed as greater than a predetermined percentage of the available trading partners with whom credit has been established on a bilateral basis, and is preferably greater than 25%. In an alternate embodiment, the system provides a graphical display to the market maker originating a particular quote indicating how many trading floors are poised to hit that particular quote, and/or a numeric display indicating a price that would be Hittable by a predetermined number or percentage of available trading partners.

Claims

1. In a computerized trading system wherein quotes for a particular financial instrument or other commodity are selectively made available from at least one market maker only to those trading floors eligible to accept that offer:

for each trading floor, taker queue means for determining which of the quotes available to that trading floor are Hittable from that trading floor; and

for each quote from each market maker, quote status means responsive to all said taker queue means for determining whether that particular quote is currently Hittable from at least a predetermined plurality of more than one and less than all of the trading floors, and

notification means responsive to the quote status means for notifying that particular market maker whether that particular quote is currently Hittable from said predetermined plurality of trading floors,

wherein a particular quote from a particular market maker for a particular commodity is Hittable from a particular trading floor, if a hit at the best price available to that floor for a predetermined quantity of that commodity would be automatically matched with at least some part of that quote.

2. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein

the predetermined plurality is a predetermined percentage less than 100 of the eligible trading floors; and

the quote status means is responsive to a credit matrix means indicating for each market maker, those trading floors which are eligible trading floors having credit with said market maker.

3. The computerized system of claim 2, wherein the credit is established on a bilateral basis.

4. The computerized system of claim 2, wherein the predetermined percentage is greater than 25%.

5. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein

the taker queue means includes a queue for ranking the available offers for each commodity by price and time;

a particular quote is considered Hittable at a particular trading floor if;

said quote is the highest ranking offer available to said trading floor for the particular commodity, or

said quote is available to said trading floor and all the available offers in the aggregate for that particular commodity do not exceed the predetermined quantity, or

said quote would be automatically matched with a hit from said trading floor at the best price that would include not only the highest ranking offer but as many next highest ranked offers as would be necessary to constitute the predetermined quantity of the particular commodity.

6. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the notification is in the form of a visual and/or audible indication on a terminal from which the quote originated.

7. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the notification is in the form of a quantitative indication of the percentage of eligible trading floors for whom the quote is Hittable.

8. The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the notification is in the form of a quantitative indication of the worst price that would be Hittable by at least a predetermined number of said trading floors.