Online trade aggregating system

• US 6,615,188 B1
• Filed: 10/14/1999
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Freedom Investments, Inc. (Oppenheimer Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Freedom Investments, Inc. (Oppenheimer Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Tudisco, Geoffrey M., Breen, Peter E., Macleod, Michael D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Thach H
• Application Number:
  US09/417,901
• Time in Patent Office: 1,419 Days
• Field of Search: 705/25-40
• US Class Current: 705/37
• 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

A trading server collects orders from a plurality of order terminals. Orders are aggregated by transaction type, such as buy or sell types, and by issuer. The combined orders are executed as a single transaction on an exchange.

Claims

1. A method of receiving and executing security orders from one or more investors comprising the steps of:

a) receiving a plurality of security buy orders for differing issuers from the one or more investors over the Internet wherein the plurality of security buy orders are specified in units of currency;

b) executing a purchase through an exchange to cover the plurality of security buy orders; and

c) allocating shares obtained in the step of executing a purchase in fractional shares to investors when the number of shares corresponding to their security buy orders are not whole numbers of shares.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

d) receiving sell orders;

e) executing a sell through an exchange to effect received sell orders; and

f) allocating funds obtained in the step of executing a sell to investors associated with the sell orders.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each sell order specifies a whole share amount.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of executing is a step of executing the purchase on a predetermined day or at a predetermined time relative to when the receiving step occurs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase quantities are specified as whole dollar amounts.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving is a step of receiving in real-time.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

d) receiving a plurality of sell security orders for differing issuers from the one or more investors over the Internet;

e) executing a single sale through an exchange to effect the plurality of sell orders; and

f) allocating funds obtained in the step of executing a single sale to investors corresponding to the plurality of sell security orders.

8. A method of receiving and executing security orders from one or more investors comprising the steps of:

a) receiving a plurality of security orders from the one or more investors over the Internet wherein the type of security orders includes at least a plurality of buy orders for the same security wherein the plurality of buy orders are specified by the one or more investors in dollar amounts and include an order to purchase at least a fractional share of the security;

b) combining the plurality of security orders by same type and same issuer into one or more combined security orders; and

c) executing the one or more combined security orders as a single trade or transaction per combined security order through the exchange.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

d) the step of receiving is a step of receiving the plurality of security orders in real-time for the purchase or sale of common or preferred stock through an exchange; and

e) the step of executing is performed at a predetermined time not in real-time relative to when the step of receiving occurs.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of combining includes combining of the plurality of fractional buy orders of the same type of security and the same issuer into combined buy orders.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of combining further comprises a step of combining a buy order from a clearing account such that each combined security order results in an order for a whole number of shares.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

d) receiving a plurality of sell orders from the one or more investors;

e) combining the plurality of sell orders by same type and same issuer into one or more combined sell orders; and

f) executing the one or more combined sell orders as a single trade or transaction per combined sell order through the exchange.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the steps of receiving and executing security orders allows a reduced cost to each individual investor by sharing at least a portion of the cost of the combined security orders among the plurality of investors through the combination of buy orders or sell orders of the same type and same issuer.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of buy orders are received in real-time and are for the purchase of common stock.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the receiving, combining, and executing steps are repeated for all buy orders received in the receiving step and combined buy orders are executed for each issuer.

16. A method of receiving and executing sell orders from one or more investors comprising the steps of:

a) receiving a plurality of sell orders for differing issuers from the one or more investors over the Internet, wherein the sell orders each include a sell quantity that is specified in whole shares, fractional shares, or whole and fractional shares;

b) aggregating the plurality of sell order by issue to determine an aggregate sell amount for each issuer;

c) for each issuer for which the aggregate sell amount is not a whole number of shares, adding a rounding sell order for that issuer to the plurality of sell orders to round the aggregate sell amount for that issuer to a whole number of shares, thereby forming a combined sell order for each issuer with the number of shares in the combined sell order being a whole number;

d) executing each combined sell order on an exchange; and

e) allocating funds obtained in the step of executing to each of the one or more investors according to the sell quantities specified in their sell orders and a share price obtained in the step of executing.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising a step of allocating funds obtained in the step of executing to a clearing account according to the sell quantity of the rounding sell order if a rounding sell order was used to round a combined sell order.