Method and system for exchange of financial investment advice

• US 7,373,324 B1
• Filed: 06/07/2000
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Robert Charles Osborne
• Original Assignee: Robert C. Osborne
• Inventors: Osborne, Robert Charles, Engin, Kerimcan
• Primary Examiner(s): Subramanian; Narayanswamy
• Application Number:
  US09/589,253
• Time in Patent Office: 2,897 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 37
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• 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 method and system for distributing professional investment advice to investors is provided. A computerized exchange system permits one or more advisors to make investment strategies available to subscribing investors. Each strategy defines a sequence of trade transactions that are consistent with strategy parameters and are designed to achieve the risk and return objectives of the strategy. The strategies are distributed to subscribers who can undertake the recommended transactions using separate brokerage accounts. A subscriber can maintain a corresponding portfolio that assigns weighting factors to various strategies in order to provide a customized investment strategy. Accordingly, the exchange system can provide professional fund manager trading decisions to individual investors in near real time without the administrative burdens or costs associated with traditional mutual funds.

Claims

1. A system for providing investment advice to investors over a computer network, comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of investment strategies from a plurality of investment advisors, each of the investment strategies being updated periodically and including a plurality of trade recommendations, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a financial instrument and terms necessary for trading the financial instrument in a respective financial market;

means for subscribing to the investment strategies;

means for entering one or more investor-defined management weights by way of the computer network;

means for applying the investor-defined management weights to the investment strategies thereby generating a weighted portfolio of trade recommendations, the management weights defining the percentage of investor portfolio funds available for investing in the investment strategies;

means for delivering the weighted portfolio of trade recommendations to the investor over the computer network during a trade recommendation distribution period;

means for accepting, rejecting or modifying each of the trade recommendations of the weighted portfolio of trade recommendations by the investor, through the computer network, thereby producing a sequence of customized trade recommendations;

means for entering, by way of the computer network, one or more investor trades based on an investor-defined strategy, each of the investor trades specifying a financial instrument and terms necessary for trading the financial instrument in a respective financial market; and

means for submitting the sequence of customized trade recommendations and the investor trades to a separate investor brokerage account for execution.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the investment strategies includes at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of an initial investment amount, a recommended minimum investment, a tradable financial instrument, a set of allowed position types, and restrictions on cash transactions.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for executing a plurality of trade transactions based on the sequence of customized trade recommendations.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for updating the investment strategies at predetermined intervals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a price type.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a trade type.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for subscribing to the investment strategies includes:

means for comparing historical or projected returns of the investment strategies;

means for selecting at least one of the investment strategies based on the comparison of historical or projected returns; and

means for subscribing to the at least one of the investment strategies.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for defining and storing within the system initial parameters for each of the investment strategies, wherein the initial parameters include an initial investment amount, a recommended minimum investment amount, a tradable financial instrument set, and allowed position types.

9. A method of providing investment advice to an investor, comprising:

receiving over a computer network a plurality of investment strategies from a plurality of investment advisors, each of the investment strategies being updated periodically and including a plurality of trade recommendations, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a financial instrument and terms necessary for trading the financial instrument in a respective financial market;

maintaining a subscription to the investment strategies for the investor using a strategy client database;

receiving from the investor, by way of the computer network, one or more investor-defined management weights, the management weights defining a percentage of investor portfolio funds available for investing in each of the investment strategies;

generating a weighted portfolio of trade recommendations by applying the investor-defined management weights to the investment strategies;

delivering the weighted portfolio of trade recommendations to the investor over the computer network during a trade recommendation distribution period;

selecting a subset of trade recommendations from the weighted portfolio of trade recommendations based on a risk measure sing an investor-accessible search utility;

receiving from the investor, through the computer network, an acceptance, rejection, or modification of each of the trade recommendations included in the subset of trade recommendations;

producing a sequence of customized trade recommendation based on the received investor acceptance, rejection, or modification of each of the trade recommendations included in the subset of trade recommendations;

receiving from the investor, by way of the computer network, one or more investor trades based on an investor-defined strategy, each of the investor trades specifying a financial instrument and terms necessary for trading the financial instrument in a respective financial market; and

submitting the sequence of customized trade recommendations and the investor trades to a separate investor brokerage account for execution.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the plurality of trade recommendations to a brokerage account.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

executing a plurality of trades based on the sequence of customized trade recommendations.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

updating the trade recommendations at predetermined intervals.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

synchronizing information contained in the portfolio with a brokerage account.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a price type.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the trade recommendations specifies a trade type.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing a computer-network interface for comparing historical or projected returns of the investment strategies;

providing a computer-network interface for selecting one or more of the investment strategies based on the comparison of historical or projected returns; and

providing a computer-network interface for subscribing to the selected investment strategies.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing a computer-network interface for defining and storing initial parameters for each of the investment strategies, wherein the initial parameters include an initial investment amount, a recommended minimum investment amount, a tradable financial instrument set, and allowed position types.