Stock purchase indices

• US 6,901,383 B1
• Filed: 10/08/1999
• Issued: 05/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: TD Ameritrade IP Company Incorporated (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Ameritrade Holding Corp. (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Inventors: Schumann, Douglas F., Ricketts, John J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Olszewski, Robert P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GORT, ELAINE L
• Application Number:
  US09/414,781
• Time in Patent Office: 2,062 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36, 705/37, 340/825.27, 340/825.26
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• 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 method and system for determining investor participation driven stock purchase indices. Raw customer trading data is received from an accounting system. The raw customer trading data is then aggregated to generate daily transaction total counts for all stocks (that is, total shares bought and sold, total market value, etc.) as well as daily transaction total counts for each individual stock. Aggregation of the raw customer data also addresses customer privacy concerns. The aggregated data is processed to produce moving averages, stock purchase indices, and stock rankings. The stock purchase indices are based on a diffusion index technique of segregating buyers from sellers, and with these relative counts, measures the breadth of investor purchasing participation. The stock purchase indices are then displayed to a graphical user interface. The display includes stock buy and sell ranking lists.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing a stock purchase index, comprising the steps of:

(1) receiving raw customer trading data;

(2) segregating the raw customer trading data into buy and sell data;

(3) sorting the buy and sell data per CUSIP to determine a number of buy CUSIP shares, a number of sell CUSIP shares, a total buy CUSIP market value, a total sell CUSIP market value, a total number of buy accounts, and a total number of sell accounts;

(4) processing via a computer the sorted data to produce a stock purchase index, wherein the stock purchase index is a buy weighted index, and wherein determining the buy weighted index as a measure of investor purchasing participation is comprised of the following steps;

(a) initializing a total buy weight and a total sell weight;

(b) determining an average buy price and an average sell price, wherein the average buy price is the ratio of the total buy CUSIP market value to the number of buy CUSIP shares, and wherein the average sell price is the ratio of the total sell CUSIP market value to the number of sell CUSIP shares;

(c) determining a buy weight and a sell weight, wherein the buy weight is the average buy price times the total number of buy accounts, and wherein the sell weight is the average sell price times the total number of sell accounts;

(d) incrementing the total buy weight and the total sell weight, wherein the total buy weight is incremented by adding the buy weight of each CUSIP to the total buy weight counter, and wherein the total sell weight is incremented by adding the sell weight of each CUSIP to the total sell weight counter;

(e) determining a total weight, wherein the total weight is the total buy weight plus the total sell weight; and

(f) determining the buy weighted index, wherein the buy weighted index is the ratio of the total buy weight to the total weight; and

(5) displaying the buy weighted index in a stock purchase index report.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sorting step includes determining and eliminating the buy and sell data related to day traders.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step includes displaying the stock purchase index report via an email.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step includes displaying the stock purchase index report via a web site.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein the step of displaying the stock purchase index report via the web site comprises the step of allowing a user to customize the stock purchase index report.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the step of allowing a user to customize the stock purchase index report includes providing a plurality of filters to customize the stock purchase index report.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the step of allowing a user to customize the stock purchase index report includes providing alerts to enable automatic email delivery upon the occurrence of a user-defined percentage change in the buy weighted index from a prior period.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the step of allowing a user to customize the stock purchase index report includes providing alerts to enable automatic email delivery upon the occurrence of a user-defined percentage change in a gap, wherein the gap is the difference between a first period series and a second period series.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the processing step includes applying smoothing techniques to the buy weighted index to remove noise components.