Methods and systems for market clearance

• US 7,349,879 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2000
• Issued: 03/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aggregation Commerce LLC
• Original Assignee: Andrew J. Wise, Peter A. Alsberg
• Inventors: Alsberg, Peter A., Wise, Andrew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): KARMIS, STEFANOS
• Application Number:
  US09/726,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20010032162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,671 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/37, 705/80, 705/35, 705/7, 705/10, 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/37
• 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

In a marketplace, offers are processed that are intended to be associated with other offers in a pool. The offers specify conditions for acceptance. Improvable offers are received that are capable of being associated with offers having more favorable specifications than initial offers associated with the improvable offers. Nonimprovable offers that have more favorable specifications than initial offers associated with improvable offers are identified. The identified nonimprovable offers are associated with corresponding improvable offers. Straddles, which comprise a set of offers and a limit on the associations, may span multiple pools. Information about the marketplace may be obtained from data generated by the operation of the marketplace.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for clearing binding offers, each of which specifies conditions for acceptance, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of binding advantaged offers each having a respective requested close time, wherein an advantaged offer is one which, once associated with a given disadvantaged offer, will necessarily be transacted upon, either in accordance with terms originally associated with the advantaged offer, or in accordance with better terms;

respectively associating individual binding advantaged offers with individual available most-favorable binding disadvantaged offers each having a respective requested close time, wherein the conditions of acceptance of the individual binding advantaged offers are met by respective binding disadvantaged offers;

changing the association of one of the individual binding associated advantaged offers to a newly available binding disadvantaged offer that offers more favorable terms than a currently associated binding disadvantaged offer, when the newly available binding disadvantaged offer is received and meets the conditions of acceptance of the associated binding advantaged offer, wherein the step of changing the association is performed in order of chronological priority of receipt of the binding advantaged offers;

at a predetermined time based on respective requested close times of associated individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers, clearing the associated individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers to produce cleared individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers; and

transmitting transaction directives to transacting buyers and sellers associated respectively with the cleared individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the binding advantaged and binding disadvantaged offers are each associated with a pool and a corresponding pool close event.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specified conditions for acceptance of the offers have attributes related to terms of acceptance of that offer, and

wherein determining which of the binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications further comprises:

applying attributes of one of the binding advantaged offers to a price function for one of the binding disadvantaged offers to systematically calculate a price.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the calculated price includes all appropriate costs.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein determining which of the binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications further comprises:

applying a weighting function to the calculated price.

6. A method according to claim 3, wherein applying attributes of one of the binding advantaged offers comprises:

using as the price function a table in which price ranges correspond to attributes of an binding advantaged offer.

7. A method according to claim 3, wherein applying attributes of one of the binding advantaged offers comprises:

using as the price function a computer program capable of defining a price based on attributes of the binding advantaged offer.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specifications of conditions for acceptance of the offers include price specifications, and

wherein determining which binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications further comprises:

comparing price specifications.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the price specifications are constant prices, and

wherein comparing the price specifications comprises:

comparing constant prices.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein available binding disadvantaged offers comprise those binding disadvantaged offers that are not already associated with other offers.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specifications of the conditions of acceptance of the binding advantaged offers further comprise:

a product specification, a quantity specification, a pool specification, and a fragment list; and

wherein determining which binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications includes;

examining the product specification, quantity specification, pool specification, and fragment list of the improvable offers.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specifications of the conditions of acceptance of the binding disadvantaged offers further comprise:

a product specification, a quantity specification, a pool specification; and

a fragment list; and

wherein determining which binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications includes;

examining the product specification, quantity specification, pool specification, and fragment list of the binding disadvantaged offers.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the quantity specification further comprises a minimum quantity and a maximum quantity;

and

wherein determining which binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications includes;

examining the minimum and maximum quantities.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein the quantity specification further comprises:

a minimum quantity and a maximum quantity; and

wherein determining which binding disadvantaged offers have more favorable specifications includes;

examining the minimum and maximum quantities.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested close time is established by an event.

15. A computer-implemented method for generating events to be posted to a marketplace, the method comprising:

receiving a description of transactions to be offered in the marketplace;

expanding the description of transactions to be offered in the marketplace into at least one offer, with specified conditions of acceptance; and

generating a set of post events based on the at least one offer in a manner to cause the transactions to be offered in a marketplace in which a marketplace method for processing offers is used, and the marketplace method comprising;

receiving a plurality of binding advantaged offers each having a respective requested close time, wherein an advantaged offer is one which, once associated with a given binding disadvantaged offer, will necessarily be transacted upon, either in accordance with terms originally associated with the binding advantaged offer, or in accordance with better terms;

respectively associating individual advantaged offers with individual available most-favorable binding disadvantaged offers each having a respective requested close time, wherein the conditions of acceptance of the individual binding advantaged offers are met by respective binding disadvantaged offers;

changing the association of one of the individual binding advantaged offers to a newly available binding disadvantaged offer that offers more favorable terms than a currently associated binding disadvantaged offer, when the newly available binding disadvantaged offer is received and meets the conditions of acceptance of the associated binding advantaged offer, wherein the step of changing the association is performed in order of chronological priority of receipt of the binding advantaged offers;

at a predetermined time based on respective requested close times of associated individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers, clearing the associated individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers to produce cleared individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers; and

transmitting transaction directives to transacting buyers and sellers associated respectively with the cleared individual binding advantaged offers and binding disadvantaged offers.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the description of transactions is a stepped-price schedule having price breaks at each price step in the stepped-price schedule, and

wherein generating a set of post events includes:

generating an uninterruptible sequence of offers, each offer in the sequence corresponding to a price step in the stepped-price schedule, and each offer having a reserve price equal to the price break of the price step.

17. A method according to claim 15, wherein the description of transactions is an all-or-none specification having a minimum quantity, and

wherein generating a set of post events includes:

posting an offer with a minimum quantity specification corresponding to the minimum quantity in the all-or-none specification.

18. A method according to claim 15, wherein the description of transactions is a fill-or-kill specification having a minimum quantity, and

wherein generating a set of post events includes:

posting an offer with a minimum quantity specification corresponding to the minimum quantity in the fill-or-kill specification; and

withdrawing the offer if the minimum quantity specification cannot be satisfied.

19. A method according to claim 15, wherein the description of transactions is a fill-and-withdraw specification having a desired quantity, and

wherein generating a set of post events includes:

posting an offer with a maximum quantity specification corresponding to the desired quantity in the fill-and-withdraw specification; and

withdrawing any quantity of the offer not immediately filled.

22. A method according to claim 15, wherein receiving a description of offered transactions further includes:

providing a user interface to specify products in the offer.

23. A method according to claim 15, wherein generating a set of post events further includes:

generating offers contingent on the occurrence of an event.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the requested close time is established by an event.

20. A computer-implemented method for generating events to be posted to a marketplace, the method comprising:

receiving a description of transactions to be offered in the marketplace;

expanding the description of transactions to be offered in the marketplace into at least one offer, with specified conditions of acceptance; and

generating a set of post events based on the at least one offer in a manner to cause the transactions to be offered in a marketplace in which a marketplace method for processing offers is used, and the marketplace method comprising;

receiving a plurality of advantaged offers, each having a respective requested close time;

associating each advantaged offer with one or more available most-favorable disadvantaged offers each having a respective requested close time, wherein the conditions of acceptance of each advantaged offer are met by each disadvantaged offer that has been associated with the advantaged offer;

changing the association of an advantaged offer to a newly available disadvantaged offer that offers more favorable terms than a currently associated disadvantaged offer, when the newly available disadvantaged offer is received and meets the conditions of acceptance of the associated advantaged offer,

at a predetermined time based on respective requested close times of associated advantaged and disadvantaged offers, clearing the associated individual advantaged offers and disadvantaged offers to produce cleared individual advantaged offers and disadvantaged offers; and

transmitting transaction directives to transacting buyers and sellers associated respectively with the cleared individual advantaged offers and disadvantaged offers,

wherein the events include straddles specifying a straddle limit, which restricts the number of associations, and

wherein generating a set of post events further comprises;

creating an offer corresponding to one of the descriptions;

adding the created offer to any corresponding straddles; and

generating a straddle including the created offer if no corresponding straddles exist.

21. A method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

monitoring the marketplace for new opportunities to post an offer corresponding to offers in a posted straddle; and

adding an offer corresponding to the new opportunity to the posted straddle.