Trader station user interface

• US 7,734,529 B1
• Filed: 05/03/2004
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (CME Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (CME Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Zhou, Yuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle; Charles R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wood; David L
• Application Number:
  US10/837,818
• Time in Patent Office: 2,227 Days
• Field of Search: 705/36.R, 705/37
• 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 variety of user interfaces, systems and methods are provided for traders of commodities, futures contracts, derivatives, stocks, etc. A user interface may have two display modes, locked and unlocked. In the locked mode, some or all of the data fields (price, bids, offers—optionally bids and offers not exposed to the market) are locked. In the unlocked mode, all the data fields, including the price column, are dynamically updated. In a second embodiment, a price column is divided such that prices above the market are in a first column and prices below the market are in a second column to reduce the number of columns required to show bids, offers and prices. Optionally, the trader'"'"'s bids and offers not exposed to the market can be shown in columns adjacent to the market bids and offers. In a third embodiment of the invention orders are cancelled if the market changes within a short period of time before the order is placed and the change does not benefit the user.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of processing an order for a financial instrument, the method comprising:

(a) receiving at a mobile computer device dynamically updated market depth information for a financial instrument;

(b) receiving a selection command at a graphical user interface of the mobile computer device corresponding to an order for the financial instrument;

(c) determining at the mobile computer device whether the market price for the financial instrument has changed within a predetermined period of time before (b) until (b);

(d) when the price in (c) has changed within the predetermined period of time, transmitting the order from the mobile computer device to a match engine only when the price change benefits the user; and

(e) when the price in (c) has changed within the predetermined period of time, canceling the order when the price change does not benefit the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the order transmitted in (d) is for a price that is lower than the price received in (b).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile computer device comprises a handheld mobile terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial instrument comprises an options contract.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial instrument comprises a futures contract.

6. The method of claim 1, further including receiving from the user the predetermined time period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period is selected for use when ordering one or more financial instruments identified by the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period is selected for use with orders that exceed a predetermined dollar amount.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period is selected for use with orders that involve a predetermined number of contracts.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein (c) comprises determining whether the market price for the financial instrument has changed at least a predetermined amount within the predetermined period of time.