Systems and methods for providing a trading interface with advanced features

• US 7,865,422 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2005
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BGC Partners Incorporated (BGC Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: BGC Partners Incorporated (BGC Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gilbert, Andrew C, Lutnick, Howard W, Kirwin, Glenn D
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, JAGDISH
• Application Number:
  US11/229,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20060015434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 705/37, 705/26, 345/762
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods for a trading interface with advanced features are provided. Using these systems and methods, a user may create orders, manipulate orders, cancel orders, configure alternative keyboard settings, and/or obtain additional information on transactions. When a user clicks on a bid and/or offer, a dialog box may pop-up, thereby providing the user with multiple options. To enable customization of the keyboard settings to a user'"'"'s preference, a keyboard settings feature is provided. Users may also be provided with additional information relating to the user'"'"'s wish to transact.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising at least one processor in communication with a trading server in a networked trading system, the at least one processor configured to electronically communicate with a user-interactive computer interface for allowing data input to an application capable of assuming a plurality of different states, the interface having a display device that displays a plurality of user-selectable buttons, wherein said user-selectable buttons are arranged to communicate with the application and wherein at least some of the user-selectable buttons display an identification of function of the associated button, the interface being responsive to state change of said application to cause at least one of the user-selectable buttons to change function and identification, in which the interface comprises:

order indicia representing the price, the quantity, and the financial instrument for each of a plurality of orders, each of the plurality of orders comprising a plurality of bids and a plurality of offers, each bid and each offer comprising a price and a quantity of a financial instrument traded on an electronic exchange, in which the plurality of orders is received from a user over a networked trading system having a plurality of workstations;

in which the interface is operable to;

display order indicia representing the price, the quantity, and the financial instrument for each of the plurality of orders;

display a plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia corresponding to the plurality of orders, each order-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to change the price of a specific one of the plurality of orders;

display a bid-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to change the price of all of the plurality of bids;

display an offer-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to change the price of all of the plurality of offers;

the interface being further configured to;

receive a selection of one of (1) the bid-specific price adjustment indicia and (2) the offer-specific price adjustment indicia; and

based on the act of receiving the selection of one of the bid-specific price adjustment indicia and the offer-specific price adjustment indicia, change the prices of one of (1) all of the plurality of bids and (2) all of the plurality of offers; and

the display device further operable to;

display a modified price for each of the plurality of bids based on the changed prices.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the interface is further operable to display an existing price of an existing order from a different user and a join button operable to enable the user to join the existing order, the existing order being associated with an existing financial instrument;

and in which the workstation is further operable to;

receive from the user a selection of the join button; and

transmit an order for the existing financial instrument at the existing price over the networked trading system.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the interface is further operable to display at least one of a color and a direction associated with a filled order, the at least one of a color and a direction indicating information about at least one of a price and a size of the filled order.

4. An apparatus comprising at least one processor in communication with a trading server in a networked trading system, the at least one processor configured to electronically communicate with a user-interactive computer interface for allowing data input to an application capable of assuming a plurality of different states, the interface having a display that displays a plurality of user-selectable buttons, wherein said user-selectable buttons are arranged to communicate with the application and wherein at least some of the user-selectable buttons display an identification of function of the associated button, the interface being responsive to state change of said application to cause at least one of the user-selectable buttons to change function and identification, in which the interface comprises:

order indicia representing the price, the quantity, and the financial instrument for each of a plurality of orders, each of the plurality of orders comprising a plurality of bids and a plurality of offers, each bid and each offer comprising a price and a quantity of a financial instrument traded on an electronic exchange, in which the plurality of orders is received from a user over a networked trading system having a plurality of workstations; and

in which the interface is operable to;

display the price, the quantity, and a financial instrument identifier for each of the plurality of orders;

display a plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia corresponding to the plurality of orders, each order-specific price adjustment indicia comprising at least one of an up arrow button corresponding to an increase in price and a down arrow button corresponding to a decrease in price, order-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to increase or decrease the price of a specific one of the plurality of orders;

display a bid-specific price adjustment indicia comprising at least one of an up arrow button corresponding to an increase in price and a down arrow button corresponding to a decrease in price, the bid-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to increase or decrease the price of all of the plurality of bids by a predetermined amount;

display an offer-specific price adjustment indicia comprising at least one of an up arrow button corresponding to an increase in price and a down arrow button corresponding to a decrease in price, the offer-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to increase or decrease the price of all of the plurality of offers by a predetermined amount;

the interface being further configured to;

receive a selection of one of (1) the bid-specific price adjustment indicia and (2) the offer-specific price adjustment indicia; and

based on the act of receiving the selection of one of the bid-specific price adjustment indicia and the offer-specific price adjustment indicia, display a modified price for one of (1) all of the plurality of bids and (2) all of the plurality of offers.

5. An apparatus comprising at least one processor in communication with a trading server in a networked trading system, the at least one processor configured to electronically communicate with a user-interactive computer interface for allowing data input to an application capable of assuming a plurality of different states, the interface having a display that displays a plurality of user-selectable buttons, wherein said user-selectable buttons are arranged to communicate with the application and wherein at least some of the user-selectable buttons display an identification of function of the associated button, the interface being responsive to state change of said application to cause at least one of the user-selectable buttons to change function and identification, in which the interface comprises:

order indicia representing the price, the quantity, and the financial instrument for each of a plurality of orders, each of the plurality of orders comprising one of a bid and an offer, each bid and each offer comprising a price and a quantity of a financial instrument traded on an electronic exchange, in which each of the plurality of orders is received at a computing device over a networked trading system having a plurality of workstations;

a plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia corresponding to the plurality of orders, each order-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by a user to change the price of a specific one of the plurality of orders;

a bid-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to change the price of all of the plurality of bids;

an offer-specific price adjustment indicia selectable by the user to change the price of all of the plurality of offers;

in which the interface is configured to display modified prices of all of the plurality of bids in response to a user selection of the bid-specific price adjustment indicia, and in which the interface is configured to display modified prices of all of the plurality of offers in response to a user selection of the offer-specific price adjustment indicia.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the application is adapted to run on a networked system having a plurality of workstations at which users make inputs causing state change of the application, wherein the application is an electronic trading application, and wherein one of the displayed buttons is operable to allow a user to configure a keyboard and save the user'"'"'s preferred settings, while retaining the default keyboard setting.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to display each order-specific price adjustment indicia adjacent to the price and quantity of each corresponding bid or offer.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to display both the price and the quantity of a specific order in a single row.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to modify the prices of one of (1) all of the plurality of bids and (2) all of the plurality of offers by a predetermined amount in response to a user selection of one of (1) the bid-specific price adjustment indicia and (2) the offer-specific price adjustment indicia.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the user interface is configured to display a user-selectable column arrow button in a column comprising one of (1) all of the prices of the plurality of bids and (2) all of the prices of the plurality of offers.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to display a user-selectable up arrow in a bid column comprising all of the prices of the plurality of bids, and in which the interface is configured to increase all of the plurality of bids by a predetermined amount in response to a user selection of the up arrow, and in which the increased bid price of each bid comprises a sum of the predetermined amount and the price of the corresponding bid.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the modified price for each of the plurality of bids is transmitted over the networked trading system.

13. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the user interface is configured to:

display a user-selectable button that when selected enables a user to define an alternative keyboard setting that is different from a default keyboard setting, the default keyboard setting associating a plurality of inputs of a user input device with a plurality of commands associated with an electronic trading interface, the user input device being in communication with at least one of the plurality of workstations;

in which the interface is configured to;

based on a request from a user, display a prompt indicia to the user that prompts the user to specify alternative keyboard settings that are received from the user and saved in a database; and

in which the interface is configured to receive keyboard inputs in accordance with the saved alternative keyboard settings.

14. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to:

in response to a request to specify a display position for a plurality of user-selectable command indicia displayed at the interface, display a prompt indicia that prompts a user to specify a display position for each of the plurality of user-selectable command indicia, each command indicia associated with an instruction associated with an electronic trading system; and

display the plurality of user-selectable command indicia in accordance with the specified display positions.

15. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving at a computing device a user selection of a specific one of the plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia, the specific one of the plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia associated with a specific one of the plurality of orders;

based on a user selection of a specific one of the plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia, display an adjusted price of the specific one of the plurality of orders, in which the specific one of the plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia associated with a specific one of the plurality of orders.

16. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is configured to:

display an existing price of an existing order from a different user and a user-selectable join button operable to enable the user to join the existing order at the existing price, the existing order being associated with an existing financial instrument.

17. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is further configured to:

display user-selectable adjustment indicia that enables a user to adjust a quantity of a specific one of the plurality of orders by a user-specified amount; and

display an adjusted quantity of the specific one of the plurality of orders by the user-specified amount.

18. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is further configured to:

display at least one of a color and a direction associated with a filled order, the at least one of a color and a direction indicating information about at least one of a price and a size of the filled order.

19. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the plurality of order-specific price adjustment indicia, the bid-specific price adjustment indicia, and the offer-specific price adjustment indicia each comprise at least one of an up arrow button corresponding to an increase in price by a predetermined amount and a down arrow button corresponding to a decrease in price by a predetermined amount.

20. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the interface is further configured to display:

one or more indicia indicating whether a bid size is greater than or less than an offer size, and

one or more indicia representing whether a last transacted price is equal to an offer price.