Fixed income securities ratings visualization

• US 7,827,080 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2002
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Multiple-Markets
• Original Assignee: Multiple-Markets
• Inventors: Long, Catherine Caldwell
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi; Hani
• Assistant Examiner(s): ONYEZIA, CHUKS N
• Application Number:
  US10/303,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20040103050A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,899 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36.R
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

An arrangement is provided for enabling online retail fixed income. A fixed income online retail enabling mechanism analyzes a request received from a user to determine the requested operation related to online retail fixed income. If the request is for visualizing information related to securities in one or more fixed income capital markets, visual representations are constructed using color codes and real value ratings converted from corresponding ratings issued from different sources and presented to the user. If the request is for managing account information, the fixed income online retail enabling mechanism facilitates the needs of managing accounts. If the request is related to conducting a transaction related to fixed income securities, the fixed income online retail enabling mechanism performs operations to trade securities in one or more fixed income capital markets.

Claims

1. A method for visually presenting information related to fixed income security ratings, comprising:

storing a first symbolic rating for a fixed income security in a storage device coupled to a hardware processor, the first symbolic rating received from a first rating institution that uses a first symbolic rating scheme to evaluate a credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the first symbolic rating scheme includes a first plurality of investment grade symbolic ratings and a first plurality of speculative grade symbolic ratings to indicate credit qualities for fixed income securities;

storing a second symbolic rating for the fixed income security in the storage device coupled to the hardware processor, the second symbolic rating received from a second rating institution that uses a second symbolic rating scheme to evaluate the credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the second symbolic rating scheme includes a second plurality of investment grade symbolic ratings and a second plurality of speculative grade symbolic ratings to indicate credit qualities for fixed income securities;

mapping, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating for the fixed income security to a third symbolic rating scheme that provides a uniform scale to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security;

converting, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating for the fixed income security into a rating representation within the uniform scale, wherein the rating representation represents the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating; and

generating, on the hardware processor, a visual presentation of information related to a fixed income capital market for display to a user, wherein the generated visual presentation includes at least a visualization of the rating representation.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user includes at least one of a retail investor;

an administrator of a fixed income online retail enabling mechanism;

or a retail investor representative.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generated visual presentation further includes information related to at least one of a plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

market data associated with the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

or a portfolio of the user.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market includes offerings of one or more bonds, wherein the information related to the offerings of the one or more bonds includes at least one of daily offerings of the one or more bonds in the fixed income capital market;

or credit quality evaluations of the one or more bonds.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the generated visual presentation further includes information related to at least one of current holdings in the portfolio of the user;

interest, income, and principal projections for one or more of the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

or default rates for one or more of the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein converting the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation includes:

mapping, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective color code tuples within the uniform scale that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security by the first rating institution and the second rating institution; and

mapping, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective real values within the uniform scale that further characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security by the first rating institution and the second rating institution.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the color code tuples and the real values characterize semantic meanings of the first symbolic rating scheme and the second symbolic rating scheme within the uniform scale, the semantic meanings corresponding to the respective credit quality evaluations.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the color code tuples yield blended colors within a color spectrum to characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security and the real values fall within a fixed numerical range to characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein mapping the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to the respective color code tuples includes:

identifying, on the hardware processor, the first rating institution from which the first symbolic rating was received;

identifying, on the hardware processor, the second rating institution from which the second symbolic rating was received;

determining, on the hardware processor, a first entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the first entry located in a first row of the conversion table that corresponds to the first symbolic rating and a first column of the conversion table that corresponds to the first identified rating institution;

determining, on the hardware processor, a second entry in the conversion table based on the uniform scale, the second entry located in a second row of the conversion table that corresponds to the second symbolic rating and a second column of the conversion table that corresponds to the second identified rating institution; and

retrieving, on the hardware processor, the respective color code tuples from the first entry in the conversion table and the second entry in the conversion table.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein converting the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation includes:

mapping, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective numerical values within the uniform scale; and

computing, on the hardware processor, the color code tuples that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations using a formula that uses the numerical values as an input to produce the color code tuples as an output.

11. The method according to claim 6, wherein mapping the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to the respective the real values includes:

identifying, on the hardware processor, the first rating institution from which the first symbolic rating was received;

identifying, on the hardware processor, the second rating institution from which the second symbolic rating was received;

determining, on the hardware processor, a first entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the first entry located in first a row of the conversion table that corresponds to the first symbolic rating and a first column of the conversion table that corresponds to the first identified rating institution;

determining, on the hardware processor, a second entry in the conversion table based on the uniform scale, the second entry located in a second row of the conversion table that corresponds to the second symbolic rating and a second column of the conversion table that corresponds to the second identified rating institution; and

retrieving, on the hardware processor, the respective real values from the first entry in the conversion table and the second entry in the conversion table.

12. The method according to claim 6, wherein converting the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation includes:

mapping, on the hardware processor, the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective numerical values within the uniform scale; and

computing, on the hardware processor, the real values that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations using a formula that uses the numerical values as an input to produce the real values as an output.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein generating the visual presentation includes:

analyzing, on the hardware processor, a choice of the user related to a desired visual presentation of the information related to the fixed income capital market; and

generating, on the hardware processor, the desired visual presentation.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the desired visual presentation includes at least one of a visual presentation of information related to a plurality of fixed income securities;

or a visual presentation of information related to a specific fixed income security.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the visual presentation of information related to the plurality of fixed income securities includes at, least one of an evaluation of the daily offerings of the one or more bonds in the fixed income capital market;

or current holdings of fixed income securities in the portfolio of the user.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the visual presentation of information related to the specific fixed income security includes at least one of a life cycle of the specific fixed income security;

the interest, income, and principal projections for the specific fixed income security;

or the default rate for the specific fixed income security.

17. A system for visually presenting information related to fixed income security ratings, comprising:

a storage device comprising a computer-readable storage medium, wherein having the storage device is configured to;

store a first symbolic rating for a fixed income security, the first symbolic rating received from a first rating institution that uses a first symbolic rating scheme to evaluate a credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the first symbolic rating scheme includes a first plurality of investment grade symbolic ratings and a first plurality of speculative grade symbolic ratings to indicate credit qualities for fixed income securities; and

store a second symbolic rating for the fixed income security, the second symbolic rating received from a second rating institution that uses a second symbolic rating scheme to evaluate the credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the second symbolic rating scheme includes a second plurality of investment grade symbolic ratings and a second plurality of speculative grade symbolic ratings to indicate credit qualities for fixed income securities; and

a hardware processor coupled to the storage device, wherein the hardware processor is configured to;

map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating for the fixed income security to a third symbolic rating scheme that provides a uniform scale to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security;

convert the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating for the fixed income security into a rating representation within the uniform scale, wherein the rating representation represents the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating; and

generate a visual presentation of information related to a fixed income capital market for display to a user, wherein the generated visual presentation includes at least a visualization of the rating representation.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the user includes at least one of a retail investor;

an administrator of a fixed income online retail enabling mechanism;

or a retail investor representative.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the generated visual presentation further includes information related to at least one of a plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

market data associated with the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

or a portfolio of the user.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market including offerings of one or more bonds, wherein the information related to the offerings of the one or more bonds includes at least one of daily offerings of the one or more bonds in the fixed income capital market;

or credit quality evaluations of the one or more bonds.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the generated visual presentation further includes information related to at least one of current holdings in the portfolio of the user;

interest, income, and principal projections for one or more of the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market;

or default rates for one or more of the plurality of fixed income securities offered in the fixed income capital market.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein to convert the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation, the hardware processor is further configured to:

map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective color code tuples within the uniform scale that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security by the first rating institution and the second rating institution; and

map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective real values within the uniform scale that further characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security by the first rating institution and the second rating institution.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the color code tuples and the real values characterize semantic meanings of the first symbolic rating scheme and the second symbolic rating scheme within the uniform scale, the semantic meanings corresponding to the respective credit quality evaluations.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein the color code tuples yield blended colors within a color spectrum to characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security and the real values fall within a fixed numerical range to characterize the respective credit quality evaluations of the fixed income security.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein to map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to the respective color code tuples, the hardware processor is further configured to:

identify the first rating institution from which the first symbolic rating was received;

identify the second rating institution from which the second symbolic rating was received;

determine a first entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the first entry located in a first row of the conversion table that corresponds to the first symbolic rating and a first column of the conversion table that corresponds to the first identified rating institution;

determine a second entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the second entry located in a second row of the conversion table that corresponds to the second symbolic rating and a second column of the conversion table that corresponds to the second identified rating institution; and

retrieve the respective color code tuples from the first entry in the conversion table and the second entry in the conversion table.

26. The system according to claim 22, wherein to convert the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation, the hardware processor is further configured to:

map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective numerical values within the uniform scale; and

compute the color code tuples that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations using a formula that uses the numerical values as an input to produce the color code tuples as an output.

27. The system according to claim 22, wherein to map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to the respective the real values, the hardware processor is further configured to:

identify the first rating institution from which the first symbolic rating was received;

identify the second rating institution from which the second symbolic rating was received;

determine a first entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the first entry located in first a row of the conversion table that corresponds to the first symbolic rating and a first column of the conversion table that corresponds to the first identified rating institution;

determine a second entry in a conversion table based on the uniform scale, the second entry located in a second row of the conversion table that corresponds to the second symbolic rating and a second column of the conversion table that corresponds to the second identified rating institution; and

retrieve the respective real values from the first entry in the conversion table and the second entry in the conversion table.

28. The system according to claim 22, wherein to convert the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating into the rating representation, the hardware processor is further configured to:

map the first symbolic rating and the second symbolic rating to respective numerical values within the uniform scale; and

compute the real values that characterize the respective credit quality evaluations using a formula that uses the numerical values as an input to produce the real values as an output.

29. The system according to claim 27, wherein to generate the visual presentation, the hardware processor is further configured to:

analyze a choice of the user related to a desired visual presentation of the information related to the fixed income capital market; and

generate the desired visual presentation.

30. The system according to claim 29, wherein the desired visual presentation includes at least one of a visual presentation of information related to a plurality of fixed income securities;

or a visual presentation of information related to a specific fixed income security.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein the visual presentation of information related to the plurality of fixed income securities includes at least one of an evaluation of the daily offerings of the one or more bonds in the fixed income capital market;

or current holdings of fixed income securities in the portfolio of the user.

32. The system according to claim 30, wherein the visual presentation of information related to the specific fixed income security includes at least one of a life cycle of the specific fixed income security;

the interest, income, and principal projections for the specific fixed income security;

or the default rate for the specific fixed income security.