User interface for an electronic trading system

• US 8,175,955 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2008
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trading Technologies International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Trading Technologies International, Inc.
• Inventors: Friesen, Richard W., Hart, Peter C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi, Hani M
• Application Number:
  US12/327,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 37
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• 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

A user interface for an electronic trading exchange is provided which allows a remote trader to view in real time bid orders, offer orders, and trades for an item, and optionally one or more sources of contextual data. Individual traders place orders on remote client terminals, and this information is routed to a transaction server. The transaction server receives order information from the remote terminals, matches a bid for an item to an offer for an item responsive to the bid corresponding with the offer, and communicates outstanding bid and offer information, and additional information (such as trades and contextual data) back to the client terminals. Each client terminal displays all of the outstanding bids and offers for an item, allowing the trader to view trends in orders for an item. A priority view is provided in which orders are displayed as tokens at locations corresponding to the values of the orders. The size of the tokens reflects the quantity of the orders. An alternate view positions order icons at a location which reflects the value and quantity of the order. Additionally, contextual data for the item is also displayed to allow the trader to consider as much information as possible while making transaction decisions. A pit panel view is also provided in which traders connected to the pit are represented by icons, and are displayed corresponding to an activity level of the trader.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating the placement of an order for an item and displaying market information regarding the item, the method comprising:

receiving market data from an electronic trading exchange via a computing device, the market data identifying at least an inside market including a bid quantity available at a highest bid price for an item and an ask quantity available at a lowest ask price for the item;

displaying a display region having a plurality of locations via an output associated with the computing device, each of the plurality of locations associated with a value level along a value axis having a lowest value level and a highest value level;

displaying a first indicator at a first location of the plurality of locations, the first location associated with a first value level corresponding to any of the highest bid price and the lowest ask price;

receiving at least one user command via an input device associated with the computing device to move an order indicator to a location along the value axis corresponding to a desired price; and

initiating, via the computing device, submission of an order to the electronic trading exchange for an order quantity at the desired price.

2. The method of claim 1, where the first indicator represents a bid quantity available at the highest bid price when the first value level corresponds to the highest bid price and represents an ask quantity available at the lowest ask price when the first value level corresponds to the lowest ask price.

3. The method of claim 1, where the first indicator represents at least one bid order at the highest bid price when the first value level corresponds to the highest bid price and represents at least one ask order at the lowest ask price when the first value level corresponds to the lowest ask price.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a plurality of bid indicators in the display region, each of the plurality of bid indicators being associated with a bid price and being displayed at a respective bid location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the bid price associated with the bid indicator; and

displaying a plurality of ask indicators in the display region, each of the plurality of ask indicators being associated with an ask price and being displayed at a respective ask location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the ask price associated with the ask indicator.

5. The method of claim 4, where each of the plurality of bid indicators represents a bid quantity available at the bid price associated with the bid indicator and where each of the plurality of ask indicators represents an ask quantity available at the ask price associated with the ask indicator.

6. The method of claim 5, where each of the plurality of bid indicators represents at least one bid order and where each of the plurality of ask indicators represents at least one ask order.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a plurality of order indicators, each of the plurality of order indicators being associated with a pre-set quantity for an order, where receiving the at least one user command further comprises selecting the order indicator from the plurality of order indicators.

8. The method of claim 7, where the item comprises any of a good, a commodity, a futures product, an equity, an index-based product, an interest rate, and combinations thereof.

9. The method of claim 8, where the value axis represents any of prices for the item, derivative of prices for the item, and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a value marker identifying a value of the order indicator according to a location of the value marker relative to the value axis, where the value of the order indicator varies with movement of the value marker relative to the value axis.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a second indicator at a second location of the plurality of locations, the second location associated with a second price level corresponding to any of the highest bid price and the lowest ask price not represented by the first indicator; and

displaying a subset of the plurality of locations along the value axis between the first indicator and the second indicator.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving confirmation of submission of the order to the electronic trading exchange; and

displaying a user order indicator at a third location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the desired price.

25. The method of claim 1 where the computing device comprises a distributed system.

26. The method of claim 1 where the order indicator comprises any of an icon and a token.

27. The method of claim 1 where the at least one user command comprises any of selecting and moving the order indicator to the location, dragging the order indicator, selecting the order indicator and subsequent selecting of the location, and combinations thereof.

28. The method of claim 1 where the input device comprises a computer peripheral device and the at least one user command comprises manipulation of the computer peripheral device.

29. The method of claim 28 where the computer peripheral device comprises a computer mouse and the at least one user command comprises any of manipulation of a button of the computer mouse, activating of a button of the computer mouse, releasing a button of the computer mouse, initiating activation of the button of the computer mouse, and combinations thereof.

30. The method of claim 1 where generating an order comprises generating an order confirmation for confirming the order to be submitted.

31. The method of claim 30 where the order confirmation comprises an order ticket.

32. The method of claim 31 where the order ticket comprises the desired price and the order quantity.

33. The method of claim 30 further comprising submitting the order in response to detecting confirmation of the order via the order confirmation.

34. The method of claim 1 where the order indicator comprises any of a graphical indicator, a numerical indicator, a color-coded indicator, and combinations thereof.

35. The method of claim 4 where the plurality of bid indicators and the plurality of ask indicators are configured to distinguish user orders.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause a computer to execute acts comprising:

receiving market data from an electronic trading exchange, the market data identifying at least an inside market including a bid quantity available at a highest bid price for an item and an ask quantity available at a lowest ask price for the item;

displaying a display region having a plurality of locations, each of the plurality of locations associated with a value level along a value axis having a lowest value level and a highest value level;

displaying a first indicator at a first location of the plurality of locations, the first location associated with a first value level corresponding to any of the highest bid price and the lowest ask price;

receiving at least one user command to move an order indicator to a location along the value axis corresponding to a desired price; and

initiating submission of an order to the electronic trading exchange for an order quantity at the desired price.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the first indicator represents a bid quantity available at the highest bid price when the first value level corresponds to the highest bid price and the second indicator represents an ask quantity available at the lowest ask price when the first value level corresponds to the lowest ask price.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the first indicator represents at least one bid order at the highest bid price when the first value level corresponds to the highest bid price and represents at least one ask order pending at the lowest ask price when the first value level corresponds to the lowest ask price.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the acts further comprise:

displaying a plurality of bid indicators in the display region, each of the plurality of bid indicators being associated with a bid price and being displayed at a respective bid location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the bid price associated with the bid indicator; and

displaying a plurality of ask indicators in the display region, each of the plurality of ask indicators being associated with an ask price and being displayed at a respective ask location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the ask price associated with the ask indicators.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, where each of the plurality of bid indicators represents a bid quantity available at the bid price associated with the bid indicator and each of the plurality of ask indicators represents an ask quantity available at the ask price associated with the ask indicator.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, where each of the plurality of bid indicators represents at least one bid order and each of the plurality of ask indicators represents at least one ask order.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the acts further comprise:

displaying a value marker identifying a value of the order indicator according to a location of the value marker relative to the value axis, where the value of the order indicator varies with movement of the value marker relative to the value axis.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the acts further comprise:

displaying a second indicator at a second location of the plurality of locations, the second location associated with a second price level corresponding to any of the highest bid price and the lowest ask price not represented by the first indicator; and

displaying a subset of the plurality of locations along the value axis between the first indicator and the second indicator.

36. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the acts further comprise:

receiving confirmation of receipt of the order at the electronic trading exchange; and

displaying a user order indicator at a third location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the desired price.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 where the order indicator comprises any of an icon and a token.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, where the acts further comprise displaying a plurality of order indicators, each of the plurality of order indicators being associated with a pre-set quantity for an order.

39. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 38, where receiving the at least one user command further comprises selecting the order indicator from the plurality of order indicators.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed, cause a computer to execute acts comprising:

receiving market data from an electronic trading exchange, the market data identifying an inside market including a highest bid price for an item and a lowest ask price for the item;

displaying a display region having a plurality of locations along a value axis, each of the plurality of locations corresponding to a value level;

displaying an a first indicator relative to one of the plurality of locations corresponding to any of;

the highest bid price and the lowest ask price;

identifying a desired price for an order according to moving an order indicator to one of the plurality of locations corresponding to the desired price; and

initiating submission of the order to the electronic exchange, where the order is for a quantity associated with the order indicator at the desired price.

21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, where the order comprises a bid when the order indicator is associated with a quantity to buy the item.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, where the order comprises an offer when the order indicator is associated with a quantity to sell the item.

23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, where the acts further comprise:

displaying a second indicator relative to a second location of the plurality of locations, where the second indicator is associated with another of the highest bid price or the lowest ask price not represented by the first indicator.

40. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, where the acts further comprise:

receiving confirmation of receipt of the order at the electronic trading exchange; and

displaying a user order indicator relative to a second location of the plurality of locations corresponding to the desired price.