Routing control for orders eligible for multiple markets

• US 8,799,138 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2001
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xylon LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Stikine Technology LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Keith, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Weisberger, Richard C
• Application Number:
  US09/801,495
• Publication Number:
  US 20010042040A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,898 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 705/37
• 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

Trading processes are operative to route orders from order rooms to market processes, which process the orders according to respective market methodologies. The order routing strategy can be embodied in a decision table having rules with conditions and actions to be taken when the conditions are true. Accordingly, order rooms can readily configure and reconfigure trading processes.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating trading, comprising:

at a computer, storing a plurality of sets of conditional rules in a memory,

wherein each set of conditional rules defines a discovery strategy and an action strategy, the discovery strategy specifying parameters for computer-implemented logic that determines whether to obtain a price quotation for at least one of a plurality of markets and indicates at least one procedure for obtaining the price quotation, and the action strategy specifying order processing parameters,

wherein each set of conditional rules is implemented in a computer-executable order-handling program, and

wherein execution of the order-handling program includes automatically routing an order to at least one of a plurality of markets in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules;

at a computer, receiving a trader selection of a set of conditional rules from the plurality of sets of conditional rules;

at a computer, receiving an order for processing in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules;

at a computer, receiving information that is applied to the selected set of conditional rules to determine at least one of the plurality of markets to which to route the order; and

at a computer, executing the order-handling program configured with the selected set of conditional rules to route the order to the at least one of the plurality of markets in accordance with the set of conditional rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of conditional rules is embodied in a decision table, each conditional rule defining at least one condition to occur and at least one corresponding action to be taken when the respective condition has occurred.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of conditional rules routes the order in accordance with one or more relationships represented by respective codes defined between the order-handling program and the plurality of markets.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of conditional rules routes the order in accordance with a characteristic of the order.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of conditional rules routes the order in accordance with a characteristic of the at least one of the plurality of markets, wherein the characteristic defines a manner in which the at least one market provides information and processes an order.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovery strategy includes discovery from at least one informal market provided by a liquidity provider not subject to regulation by a government securities regulation agency at the time the order-handling program implementing the set of conditional rules is executed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovery strategy includes a discovery methodology selected from at least two of (i) conducting no discovery, (ii) accessing a market status board maintained by a trading platform on which the plurality of markets executes, the market status board including price quotation information from at least one of the plurality of markets, (iii) querying selected ones of the plurality of markets, and (iv) obtaining information from an advisory process.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the action strategy comprises the results of conditional rules that are applicable because of characteristics of at least one of the order and the market.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the order is routed to at least two markets in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules.

10. A system for facilitating trading, comprising:

a computer in communication with a memory,

wherein the memory has stored therein a plurality of sets of conditional rules, each set of conditional rules defining a discovery strategy and an action strategy, the discovery strategy specifying parameters for computer-implemented logic that determines whether to obtain a price quotation for at least one of a plurality of markets and indicates at least one procedure for obtaining the price quotation, and the action strategy specifying order processing parameters, and

wherein each set of conditional rules is implemented in a computer-executable order-handling program, said order-handling program being configured to automatically route an order to at least one of a plurality of markets in accordance with the conditional rules implemented in the order-handling program,

wherein the computer has a selection component configured to receive a selection of a set of conditional rules from the plurality of sets of conditional rules, and

wherein the computer further has an order component and an execution component, the order component being operable to receive an order for processing in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules, and the execution component being operable to receive information that is applied to the selected set of conditional rules to determine at least one of the plurality of markets to which to route the order and to execute the order-handling program to route the order to the at least one of the plurality of markets in accordance with the set of conditional rules.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of conditional rules is embodied in a decision table, each conditional rule defining at least one condition to occur and at least one corresponding action to be taken when the respective condition has occurred.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of conditional rules is executable by the execution component to route the order in accordance with one or more relationships represented by respective codes defined between the order-handling program and the plurality of markets.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of conditional rules is executable by the execution component to route the order in accordance with a characteristic of the order.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of conditional rules is executable by the execution component to route the order in accordance with a characteristic of the at least one of the plurality of markets, wherein the characteristic defines a manner in which the at least one market provides information and processes an order.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the discovery strategy includes discovery from at least one informal market provided by a liquidity provider not subject to regulation by a government securities regulation agency at the time the order-handling program implementing the set of conditional rules is executed.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the discovery strategy includes a discovery methodology selected from at least two of (i) conducting no discovery, (ii) accessing a market status board maintained by a trading platform on which the plurality of markets executes, the market status board including price quotation information from at least one of the plurality of markets, (iii) querying selected ones of the plurality of markets, and (iv) obtaining information from an advisory process.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the action strategy comprises the results of conditional rules that are applicable because of characteristics of at least one of the order and the market.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the order-handling program, when executed, is configured to route the order to at least two markets in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules.

19. A non-transitory computer-accessible medium having executable instructions stored thereon for facilitating trading, wherein the instructions, in response to being executed, cause a computer to:

store a plurality of sets of conditional rules,

wherein each set of conditional rules defines a discovery strategy and an action strategy, the discovery strategy specifying parameters for computer-implemented logic that determines whether to obtain a price quotation for at least one of a plurality of markets and indicates at least one procedure for obtaining the price quotation, and the action strategy specifying order processing parameters,

wherein the selected set of conditional rules is implemented in a computer-executable order-handling program, and

wherein the order-handling program is configured to automatically route an order to at least one of a plurality of markets in accordance with the conditional rules implemented in the order-handling program;

receive a trader selection of a set of conditional rules from the plurality of sets of conditional rules;

receive an order for processing in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules;

receive information that is applied to the selected set of conditional rules to determine at least one of the plurality of markets to which to route the order; and

execute the order-handling program configured with the selected set of conditional rules and routing the order to the at least one of the plurality of markets in accordance with the set of conditional rules.

20. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the set of conditional rules is embodied in a decision table, each conditional rule defining at least one condition to occur and at least one corresponding action to be taken when the respective condition has occurred.

21. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the set of conditional rules is configured to route the order in accordance with one or more relationships represented by respective codes defined between the order-handling program and the plurality of markets.

22. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the set of conditional rules is configured to route the order in accordance with a characteristic of the order.

23. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the set of conditional rules is configured to route the order in accordance with a characteristic of the at least one of the plurality of markets, wherein the characteristic defines a manner in which the at least one market provides information and processes an order.

24. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the discovery strategy includes discovery from at least one informal market provided by a liquidity provider not subject to regulation by a government securities regulation agency at the time the order-handling program implementing the set of conditional rules is executed.

25. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the discovery strategy includes a discovery methodology selected from at least two of (i) conducting no discovery, (ii) accessing a market status board maintained by a trading platform on which the plurality of markets executes, the market status board including price quotation information from at least one of the plurality of markets, (iii) querying selected ones of the plurality of markets, and (iv) obtaining information from an advisory process.

26. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the action strategy comprises the results of conditional rules that are applicable because of characteristics of at least one of the order and the market.

27. The computer-accessible medium of claim 19, wherein the order-handling program implementing the set of conditional rules is configured to route the order to at least two markets in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules.

28. A system for facilitating trading, comprising:

computer means for storing a plurality of sets of conditional rules in a memory, wherein each set of conditional rules defines a discovery strategy and an action strategy, the discovery strategy specifying parameters for computer-implemented logic that determines whether to obtain a price quotation for at least one of a plurality of markets and indicates at least one procedure for obtaining the price quotation, and the action strategy specifying order processing parameters, wherein each set of conditional rules is implemented in a computer-executable order-handling program, and wherein execution of the order-handling program includes automatically routing an order to at least one of a plurality of markets in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules;

computer means for receiving a trader selection of a set of conditional rules from the plurality of sets of conditional rules;

computer means for receiving an order for processing in accordance with the selected set of conditional rules;

computer means for receiving information that is applied to the selected set of conditions rules to determine at least one of the plurality of markets to which to route the order; and

computer means for executing the order-handling program configured with the selected set of conditional rules to route the order to the at least one of the plurality of markets in accordance with the set of conditional rules.