Fixed income securities ratings visualization

• US 8,548,885 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2010
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Multiple-Markets
• Original Assignee: Multiple-Markets
• Inventors: Long, Catherine Caldwell
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US12/884,729
• Publication Number:
  US 20110040665A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,110 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/39, 705/37
• 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 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• 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 plurality of symbolic ratings for a fixed income security in a storage device coupled to a hardware processor, wherein the plurality of symbolic ratings have different symbolic rating schemes to represent a credit quality of the fixed income security;

converting, on the hardware processor, the plurality of symbolic ratings for the fixed income security into a rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the rating value represents the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes that the plurality of symbolic ratings have to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security; and

generating, on the hardware processor, a visualization of the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different symbolic rating schemes have different symbolic ratings that represent investment grade credit qualities for fixed income securities and different symbolic ratings that represent speculative grade credit qualities for fixed income securities.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value includes mapping, on the hardware processor, the plurality of symbolic ratings to color code tuples, wherein the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes blending the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings to produce a blended color code, wherein the rating value includes the blended color code to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as an average of the plurality of symbolic ratings.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes selecting one of the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a lightest color code, wherein the rating value includes the lightest color code to conservatively represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes selecting one of the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a darkest color code, wherein the rating value includes the darkest color code to optimistically represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the visualization of the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security includes a row separately displaying the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value includes mapping, on the hardware processor, the plurality of symbolic ratings to real values, wherein the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes averaging the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings to produce an averaged numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the averaged numeric value to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as an average of the plurality of symbolic ratings.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes selecting one of the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a lowest numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the lowest numeric value to conservatively represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein converting the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value further includes selecting one of the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a highest numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the highest numeric value to optimistically represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the visualization aggregates the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security with a time to maturity for the fixed income security and a percentage yield on the fixed income security.

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

a storage device comprising a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of symbolic ratings that have different symbolic rating schemes to represent a credit quality of a fixed income security; and

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

convert the plurality of symbolic ratings for the fixed income security into a rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security, wherein the rating value represents the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes that the plurality of symbolic ratings have to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security; and

generate a visualization of the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the different symbolic rating schemes have different symbolic ratings that represent investment grade credit qualities for fixed income securities and different symbolic ratings that represent speculative grade credit qualities for fixed income securities.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to map the plurality of symbolic ratings to color code tuples, wherein the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to blend the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings to produce a blended color code, wherein the rating value includes the blended color code to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as an average of the plurality of symbolic ratings.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to select one of the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a lightest color code, wherein the rating value includes the lightest color code to conservatively represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to select one of the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a darkest color code, wherein the rating value includes the darkest color code to optimistically represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the visualization of the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security includes a row separately displaying the color code tuples mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to map the plurality of symbolic ratings to real values, wherein the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as a function of the different symbolic rating schemes.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to average the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings to produce an averaged numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the averaged numeric value to represent the credit quality of the fixed income security as an average of the plurality of symbolic ratings.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to select one of the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a lowest numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the lowest numeric value to conservatively represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein to convert the plurality of symbolic ratings into the rating value, the hardware processor is further configured to select one of the real values mapped to the plurality of symbolic ratings that has a highest numeric value, wherein the rating value includes the highest numeric value to optimistically represent the credit quality of the fixed income security.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the visualization aggregates the rating value that represents the credit quality of the fixed income security with a time to maturity for the fixed income security and a percentage yield on the fixed income security.