Method and apparatus for managing a virtual portfolio of investment objects

• US 7,587,352 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2006
• Issued: 09/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Research Affiliates LLC (Research Affiliates Global Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Research Affiliates LLC (Research Affiliates Global Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Arnott, Robert D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Subramanian; Narayanswamy
• Application Number:
  US11/509,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20070055599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 37, 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/36.00T
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/10 Tax strategies

Abstract

A method of managing financial object(s), on a computer, including but not limited to managing a virtual portfolio of the objects where the portfolio may include a collection of objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of investor(s); providing a database associating lot(s) owned by each of the investors and associating the lots as tradable regardless of initiator of the purchase; providing lot selection rules; receiving a requested trade; selecting a lot for trading using the database, the lot selection rules, and the requested trade; providing taxation rules; determining if a trade using the selected lot should be deferred; generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that the requested trade should be deferred; and selecting the deferred trade in the sub-account for execution if the deferred trade should no longer be deferred using the database and the taxation rules.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more financial objects, the method being executed on a data processing system, the method comprising:

managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by at least one computer wherein said virtual portfolio comprises a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors;

providing a computer database associating by the at least one computer, a plurality of lots owned by each of said plurality of investors and associating by the at least one computer, said plurality of lots as tradable regardless of an initiator of the purchase of said plurality of lots;

providing by the at least one computer, lot selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade;

selecting by the at least one computer, a lot for trading from said plurality of lots using said computer database, said lot selection rules, and said requested trade;

providing by the at least one computer, taxation rules;

determining by the at least one computer, if a trade using said selected lot should be deferred using the computer database and said taxation rules;

generating by the at least one computer, a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that said requested trade should be deferred; and

selecting by the at least one computer, said deferred trade in said tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said lot selection rules comprise a rule for selecting by the at least one computer, a lot with a highest cost basis for trading.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial object comprises at least one of:

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said lot selection rules comprise investment management rules.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving by the at least one computer, a plurality of requested trades;

selecting by the at least one computer, a plurality of lots for trade execution; and

aggregating by the at least one computer, any executed trades for reconciliation.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of lots comprises at least one of:

one or more financial objects,

wherein the financial object comprises at least one of;

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund;

a plurality of securities;

a group of financial objects;

or

a group of securities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial object comprises:

at least one unit of interest in at least one of;

an asset;

a liability;

a tracking portfolio;

a financial instrument or a security, wherein said financial instrument or said security denotes at least one of a debt, an equity interest, or a hybrid;

a derivatives contract, comprising at least one of;

a future, a forward, a put, a call, an option, a swap, or any other transaction relating to a fluctuation of an underlying asset, notwithstanding the prevailing value of the contract, and notwithstanding whether such contract, for purposes of accounting, is considered an asset or liability;

a fund;

or

an investment entity or account of any kind, comprising an interest in, or rights relating to at least one of;

a hedge fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, a mutual fund, a closed end fund, an investment vehicle, or any other pooled or separately managed investments.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of lots comprises at least one of one or more financial objects, wherein said financial object comprises:

at least one unit of interest in at least one of;

an asset;

a liability;

a tracking portfolio;

a financial instrument or a security, wherein said financial instrument or said security denotes a debt, an equity interest, or a hybrid;

a derivatives contract, comprising at least one of;

a future, a forward, a put, a call, an option, a swap, or any other transaction relating to a fluctuation of an underlying asset, notwithstanding the prevailing value of the contract, and notwithstanding whether such contract, for purposes of accounting, is considered an asset or liability;

a fund;

or

an investment entity or account of any kind, comprising an interest in, or rights relating to at least one of;

a hedge fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, a mutual fund, a closed end fund, an investment vehicle, or any other pooled or separately managed investments.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer, wherein said virtual portfolio comprises a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors,

wherein the financial object comprises at least one of;

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund;

providing the at least one computer database associating a plurality of lots owned by each of said plurality of investors and associating by the at least one computer said plurality of lots as tradable regardless of an initiator of the purchase of said plurality of lots;

providing lot selection rules comprising investment management rules comprising at least one of;

coordinating trades, enforcing compliance with policy, or preventing offsetting trades comprising avoiding both purchasing and selling the same lot;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade; and

selecting by the at least one computer, a lot for trading from said plurality of lots using said computer database, said lot selection rules, and said requested trade.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by the at least one computer, with separate lots owned by one or more individual investors and tracked separately;

receiving by the at least one computer, investments by the one or more individual investors;

purchasing the plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by the at least one computer, using said investments, wherein the plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects are purchased according to an index of the financial objects which is constructed without influence of prices of the financial objects, said index constructed by a construction method comprising;

i) determining by the at least one computer, at least one selection rule, and at least one weighting rule;

ii) receiving data by the at least one computer comprising;

receiving data by the at least one computer, regarding publicly traded financial objects,

receiving data by the at least one computer, regarding a plurality of entities, each associated with the publicly traded financial objects, and

receiving data by the at least one computer, regarding at least one accounting data about the plurality of entities,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

iii) selecting by the at least one computer, constituent selected financial objects of said index based upon said at least one selection rule comprising said at least one accounting data about each of the entities associated with the publicly traded financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

wherein said selecting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and a market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

iv) weighting by the at least one computer, said constituent selected financial objects of said index to obtain constituent weightings based upon said at least one weighting rule comprising weighting said constituent selected financial objects as a function of at least one accounting data regarding the entities associated with said constituent selected financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said weighting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and is not based on any of equal weighting, weighting in proportion to price of the financial object, or weighting in proportion to market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

providing a computer-implemented lot matrix associating a plurality of lots with said plurality of virtual portfolios, each lot of said plurality of lots tradable regardless of an initiator of purchase of said lot and associating said plurality of lots as separately owned by said one or more investors,

wherein the financial object comprises at least one of;

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund;

providing lot selection rules comprising investment management rules comprising at least one of;

coordinating trades, enforcing compliance with policy, or preventing offsetting trades comprising avoiding both purchasing and selling the same lot;

receiving by athe ai least one computer, a requested trade;

for each of said plurality of virtual portfolios, performing the following;

for said requested trade, selecting by arhe at least one computers a lot from said plurality of lots for execution of said requested trade using said lot selection rules, and said lot matrix; and

altering the plurality of virtual portfolios by the at least one computer, comprising at least one of buying or selling the financial objects, according to changes in said index over time.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a) managing the portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer, the financial objects owned by one or more investors;

b) receiving by the at least one computer investments by the one or more investors;

wherein said managing comprises;

managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer wherein said virtual portfolio comprises a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of the one or more investors;

providing a computer database associating by the at least one computer a plurality of lots owned by each of said one or more investors and associating by the at least one computer said plurality of lots as tradable regardless of an initiator of the purchase of said plurality of lots;

providing by the at least one computer, lot selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer a requested trade;

selecting by the at least one computer a lot for trading from said plurality of lots using said computer database, said lot selection rules, and said requested trade;

providing by the at least one computer, taxation rules;

determining by the at least one computer if a trade using said selected lot should be deferred using the computer database and said taxation rules;

generating by the at least one computer a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that said requested trade should be deferred; and

selecting by the at least one computer said deferred trade in said tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules;

c) purchasing the portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer using said investments, wherein the portfolio of the financial objects is purchased according to an index of financial objects which is constructed without influence of prices of the financial objects, said index constructed by a construction method comprising;

i) determining by the at least one computer at least one selection rule, and at least one weighting rule;

ii) receiving data by the at least one computer comprising;

receiving by the at least one computer, data regarding publicly traded financial objects,

receiving by the at least one computer data, regarding a plurality of entities, each associated with the publicly traded financial objects, and

receiving by the at least one computer data, regarding at least one accounting data about the plurality of entities,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

iii) selecting by the at least one computer, constituent selected financial objects of said index based upon said at least one selection rule comprising said at least one accounting data about each of the entities associated with the publicly traded financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said selecting is exclusive of both a market price of the financial object and a market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

iv) weighting by the at least one computer, said constituent selected financial objects of said index to obtain constituent weightings based upon said at least one weighting rule comprising weighting said constituent selected financial objects as a function of at least one accounting data regarding the entities associated with said constituent selected financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said weighting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and is not based on any of equal weighting, weighting in proportion to price of the financial object, or weighting in proportion to market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

d) altering the portfolio by the at least one computer, comprising at least one of buying new financial objects for the portfolio or selling current financial objects in the portfolio, according to changes in said index over time,

wherein said changes in said index over time are determined according to an altering method yielding an altered index, the altering method comprising;

i) receiving new data by the at least one computer comprising;

receiving by the at least one computer, new data regarding the publicly traded financial objects,

receiving by the at least one computer, new data regarding the plurality of entities, each associated with the publicly traded financial objects, and

receiving by the at least one computer, new data regarding at least one accounting data about the plurality of entities,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

iii) re-selecting by the at least one computer, constituent selected financial objects of said altered index based upon said at least one selection rule comprising said at least one accounting data about each of the entities associated with the publicly traded financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said re-selecting is exclusive of both a market price of the financial object and a market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

iv) re-weighting by the at least one computer, said constituent selected financial objects of said altered index to obtain constituent re-weightings based upon said at least one weighting rule comprising weighting said constituent selected financial objects of said altered index as a function of at least one accounting data regarding the entities associated with said constituent selected financial objects of said altered index,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales;

assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said re-weighting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and is not based on any of equal weighting, weighting in proportion to price of the financial object, or weighting in proportion to market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

v) determining by the at least one computer, said new financial objects of the portfolio to purchase based on said altered index; and

vi) determining by the at least one computer, said current financial objects of the portfolio to sell based on said altered index.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the financial object comprises at least one of:

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund.

13. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more financial objects comprising:

managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by at least one computer, with separate lots owned by one or more individual investors and tracked separately;

providing a computer-implemented lot matrix associating by the at least one computer, a plurality of lots with said plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects, each lot of said plurality of lots tradable regardless of an initiator of purchase of said lot and associating by the at least one computer, said plurality of lots as separately owned by said one or more investors;

providing by the at least one computer, lot selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade;

for each of said plurality of virtual portfolios, performing the following;

for said requested trade, selecting by the at least one computer, a lot from said plurality of lots for execution of said requested trade using said lot selection rules, and said lot matrix;

determining by the at least one computer, if said requested trade should be deferred using said lot matrix, taxation rules, and said lot selection rules;

generating by the at least one computer, a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that the requested trade should be deferred; and

selecting by the at least one computer, said deferred trade in said tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said lot matrix and said taxation rules.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the financial object comprises at least one of:

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein said lot selection rules comprise investment management rules.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer, trades for execution from selected lot; and

aggregating by the at least one computer, generated trades for a virtual portfolio of said plurality of virtual portfolios.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising aggregating by the at least one computer, tax savings across said plurality of virtual portfolios for each of said one or more individual investors.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing by the at least one computer, a holdings matrix associating one or more managers with said plurality of virtual portfolios; and

wherein said selecting said lot for execution of said requested trade, further comprises;

selecting said lot for execution by the at least one computer, using said holdings matrix.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein said lot selection rules comprise a rule for selecting by the at least one computer, a lot with a highest cost basis for trading.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein said financial object comprises:

at least one unit of interest in at least one of;

an asset;

a liability;

a tracking portfolio;

a financial instrument or a security, wherein said financial instrument or said security denotes at least one of a debt, an equity interest, or a hybrid;

a derivatives contract, comprising at least one of;

a future, a forward, a put, a call, an option, a swap, or any other transaction relating to a fluctuation of an underlying asset, notwithstanding the prevailing value of the contract, and notwithstanding whether such contract, for purposes of accounting, is considered an asset or liability;

a fund;

or

an investment entity or account of any kind, comprising an interest in, or rights relating to at least one of;

a hedge fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, a mutual fund, a closed end fund, an investment vehicle, or any other pooled or separately managed investments.

21. A data processing system for managing one or more financial objects comprising:

at least one computer processor;

instructions for managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor wherein said virtual portfolio comprises a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors;

a computer database accessible by the at least one computer processor associating a plurality of lots of said plurality of investors and associating said plurality of lots as tradable regardless of an initiator of the purchase of one of said plurality of lots; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute said program instructions, said program instructions comprising;

lot selection rules;

instructions for receiving by the at least one computer processor a requested trade, and selecting a lot for trading from said plurality of lots using said computer database, said lot selection rules, and said requested trade;

taxation rules;

instructions for determining by the at least one computer processor if a trade using said selected lot should be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules, and generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that said requested trade should be deferred; and

instructions for selecting by the at least one computer processor a deferred trade in said tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules.

22. The data processing system of claim 21, wherein said lot selection rules comprise a rule for selecting by the at least one computer processor a lot with a highest cost basis for trading.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the financial object comprises at least one of:

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein said lot selection rules comprise investment management rules.

25. The data processing system of claim 21, said program instructions further comprising:

instructions for receiving by the at least one computer processor a plurality of requested trades;

instructions for selecting by the at least one computer processor a plurality of lots for trade execution; and

instructions for aggregating by the at least one computer processor any executed trades for reconciliation.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein said financial object comprises:

at least one unit of interest in at least one of;

an asset;

a liability;

a tracking portfolio;

a financial instrument or a security, wherein said financial instrument or said security denotes a debt, an equity interest, or a hybrid;

a derivatives contract, comprising at least one of;

a future, a forward, a put, a call, an option, a swap, or any other transaction relating to a fluctuation of an underlying asset, notwithstanding the prevailing value of the contract, and notwithstanding whether such contract, for purposes of accounting, is considered an asset or liability;

a fund;

or

an investment entity or account of any kind, comprising an interest in, or rights relating to at least one of;

a hedge fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, a mutual fund, a closed end fund, an investment vehicle, or any other pooled or separately managed investments.

27. The system of claim 21 further comprising:

instructions for managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor wherein said virtual portfolio comprises a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors,

wherein the financial object comprises at least one of;

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund;

a computer database accessible by the least one computer processor associating a plurality of lots of said plurality of investors and associating said plurality of lots as tradable regardless of an initiator of the purchase of one of said plurality of lots; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute said program instructions, said program instructions comprising;

lot selection rules comprising investment management rules comprising at least one of;

coordinating trades, enforcing compliance with policy, or preventing offsetting trades comprising avoiding both purchasing and selling the same lot; and

instructions for receiving a requested trade; and

selecting a lot for trading from said plurality of lots using said computer database, said lot selection rules, and said requested trade;

taxation rules;

instructions for determining if a trade using said selected lot should be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules, and generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that said requested trade should be deferred; and

instructions for selecting a deferred trade in said tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said computer database and said taxation rules;

instructions for receiving investments by the plurality of investors;

instructions for purchasing the virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor using said investments, wherein the virtual portfolio of the financial objects is purchased according to an index which is constructed without influence of prices of the financial objects, said index constructed by a construction method comprising;

i) determining by the at least one computer processor at least one selection rule, and at least one weighting rule;

ii) receiving data by the at least one computer processor comprising;

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding publicly traded financial objects,

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding a plurality of entities, each associated with the publicly traded financial objects, and

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding at least one accounting data about the plurality of entities,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

iii) selecting by the at least one computer processor, constituent selected financial objects of said index based upon said at least one selection rule comprising said at least one accounting data about each of the entities associated with the publicly traded financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said selecting is exclusive of both a market price of the financial object and a market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

iv) weighting by the at least one computer processor, said constituent selected financial objects of said index to obtain constituent weightings based upon said at least one weighting rule comprising weighting said constituent selected financial objects as a function of at least one accounting data regarding the entities associated with said constituent selected financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

 

wherein said weighting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and is not based on any of equal weighting, weighting in proportion to price of the financial object, or weighting in proportion to market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

instructions for altering the virtual portfolio by the at least one computer processor, comprising at least one of buying or selling the financial objects, according to changes in said index over time.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising:

a plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects with separate lots owned by one or more individual investors,

wherein the financial object comprises at least one of;

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund;

a computer-implemented lot matrix database accessible by the at least one computer processor associating a plurality of lots with said plurality of virtual portfolios each lot of said plurality of lots tradable regardless of an initiator of purchase of said lot; and

a memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute said program instructions, said program instructions comprising;

lot selection rules comprising investment management rules comprising at least one of;

coordinating trades, enforcing compliance with policy, or preventing offsetting trades comprising avoiding both purchasing and selling the same lot; and

instructions for receiving one or more requested trades; and

for each of said plurality of virtual portfolios, for performing the following;

for said requested trade;

said system operative to select a lot from said plurality of lots fdr execution of said requested trade using said lot selection rules, and said lot matrix database;

instructions for purchasing the plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor using said investments, wherein the plurality of virtual portfolios purchased according to an index which is constructed without influence of a price of the financial objects, said index constructed by a construction method comprising;

instructions for receiving investments by the one or more investors;

instructions being for purchasing the plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor using said investments, wherein the plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects is purchased according to an index which is constructed without influence of prices of the financial objects, said index constructed by a construction method comprising;

i) determining by the at least one computer processor, at least one selection rule, and at least one weighting rule;

ii) receiving by the at least one computer processor, data by a computer comprising;

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding publicly traded financial objects,

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding a plurality of entities, each associated with the publicly traded financial objects, and

receiving by the at least one computer processor, data regarding at least one accounting data about the plurality of entities,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends;

iii) selecting by the at least one computer processor, constituent selected financial objects of said index based upon said at least one selection rule comprising said at least one accounting data about each of the entities associated with the publicly traded financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said selecting is exclusive of both a market price of the financial object and a market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

iv) weighting by the at least one computer processor, said constituent selected financial objects of said index to obtain constituent weightings based upon said at least one weighting rule comprising weighting said constituent selected financial objects as a function of at least one accounting data regarding the entities associated with said constituent selected financial objects,

wherein said at least one accounting data comprises at least one of;

data found within an annual report, data found within a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) annual report, data found within a standard U.S. GAAP company annual report and accounts (GAAP reports), relative size of profit of an entity, pre-exceptional profits, sales, assets, cash flow, shareholders'"'"' equity, a return on investment of the entity, revenue, book value, cash flow, or any dividends,

wherein said weighting is exclusive of a market price of the financial object and is not based on any of equal weighting, weighting in proportion to price of the financial object, or weighting in proportion to market capitalization of the entity associated with the financial object; and

instructions for altering the plurality of virtual portfolios by the at least one computer processor, comprising at least one of buying or selling the financial objects, according to changes in said index over time.

29. A data processing system for managing one or more financial objects comprising:

at least one computer processor;

instructions for managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor with separate lots owned by one or more individual investors;

a computer-implemented lot matrix database accessible by the at least one computer processor associating a plurality of lots with said plurality of virtual portfolios each lot of said plurality of lots tradable regardless of an initiator of purchase of said lot; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute said program instructions, said program instructions comprising;

lot selection rules;

instructions for receiving by the least one computer processor one or more requested trades for each of said plurality of virtual portfolios;

instructions for selecting by the at least one computer processor a lot from said plurality of lots for execution of said one or more requested trades using said lot selection rules, and said lot matrix database;

instructions for determining by the at least one computer processor if said requested trade should be deferred using said lot matrix, taxation rules; and

said system programmed to generate a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account if it is determined that said requested trade should be deferred; and

instructions for selecting by the at least one computer processor a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account for execution if it is determined that said deferred trade should no longer be deferred using said lot matrix database and said taxation rules.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the financial object comprises at least one of:

equity, debt, a bond, a stock, a financial instrument, a contract, a security, a derivative contract, a mutual fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, an index fund, a passive index fund, an enhanced index fund, an actively managed fund, a non-capitalization weighted index fund, a capitalization weighted index fund, an equal weighted indexed fund, an international fund, a sector fund, an asset, a liability, an accounting data based index (ADBI) fund, a portfolio of assets, a portfolio of assets tracking an index, a portfolio of assets tracking at least one of S&

P indexes, FTSE indexes, Russell indexes, Dow Jones indexes, Morgan Stanley indexes, Lehman indexes, Wilshire indexes, composite indexes, international indexes, or Morgan Stanley Capital International indexes, a portfolio of assets tracking an ADBI weighted index, a commodity, an option, a derivative trade, a long hedge, a short hedge, a swap, a futures contract, or a hedge fund.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein said lot selection rules comprise investment management rules.

32. The data processing system of claim 29, said program instructions comprising generating by the at least one computer processor trades for execution from said selected lots;

and aggregating by the at least one computer processor said generated trades for a virtual portfolio from the one or more virtual portfolios.

33. The data processing system of claim 29, the program instructions further comprising aggregating by the at least one computer processor, tax savings across said plurality of virtual portfolios for each of the one or more investors.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein said financial object comprises:

at least one unit of interest in at least one of;

an asset;

a liability;

a tracking portfolio;

a financial instrument or a security, wherein said financial instrument or said security denotes at least one of a debt, an equity interest, or a hybrid;

a derivatives contract, comprising at least one of;

a future, a forward, a put, a call, an option, a swap, or any other transaction relating to a fluctuation of an underlying asset, notwithstanding the prevailing value of the contract, and notwithstanding whether such contract, for purposes of accounting, is considered an asset or liability;

a fund;

or

an investment entity or account of any kind, comprising an interest in, or rights relating to at least one of;

a hedge fund, an exchange traded fund (ETF), a fund of funds, a mutual fund, a closed end fund, an investment vehicle, or any other pooled or separately managed investments.

35. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more financial objects, the method being executed on a data processing system, the method comprising:

managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by at least one computer comprising a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately-owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors;

providing a computer database associating by the at least one computer, a plurality of holdings owned by each of said plurality of investors as tradable, regardless of an initiator of purchase of a holding;

providing by the at least one computer, holding selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade;

selecting by the at least one computer, a holding for trading from said plurality of holdings using said computer database, said holding selection rules, and said requested trade;

determining by the at least one computer, whether a trade using said holding should be deferred using said computer database and said holding selection rules; and

generating by the at least one computer, a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said plurality of investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for said one investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding; and

generating by the at least one computer, a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating said offsetting purchase of said holding.

38. A data processing system for managing one or more financial objects comprising:

at least one computer processor;

instructions for managing a virtual portfolio of the financial objects by the at least one computer processor comprising a collection of the financial objects managed collectively by the at least one computer processor but tracked separately with separate accounts on behalf of a plurality of investors;

a computer-implemented database associating a plurality of holdings owned by each of said plurality of investors, wherein a holding may be traded regardless of an initiator of purchase of said holding; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute the program instructions, the program instructions comprising;

at least one holding selection rule;

receiving a requested trade;

selecting a holding for trading from said plurality of holdings by said computer-implemented database, said holding selection rule, and said requested trade;

determining whether said trade using said holding should be deferred by said computer-implemented database and said holding selection rules; and

generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said plurality of investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for said one investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

39. The data processing system of claim 38, wherein the program instructions generate by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

40. The data processing system of claim 39, the program instructions further comprise generating by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding;

and generating by the at least one computer processor a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating by the at least one computer processor said offsetting purchase of said holding.

41. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more financial objects, the method being executed on a data processing system, the method comprising:

managing a plurality of virtual financial objects by at least one computer, comprising a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately-owned lots on behalf of one or more investors;

providing a computer database associating by the at least one computer, a plurality of holdings owned by each of said one or more investors to separate managers in separate manager accounts wherein a holding may be traded regardless of an initiator of purchase of said holding;

providing by the at least one computer, holding selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade;

selecting by the at least one computer, said holding for trading from said plurality of holdings using said computer database, said holding selection rules, and said requested trade;

determining by the at least one computer, whether said trade using said holding should be deferred using said computer database and said holding selection rules; and

generating by the at least one computer, a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said one or more investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for the investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding; and

generating by the at least one computer, a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating said offsetting purchase of said holding.

44. A computer-implemented method of managing one or more financial objects, the method being executed on a data processing system, the method comprising:

managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of financial objects by at least one computer comprising a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separately-owned lots on behalf of a plurality of investors;

providing a computer database associating by the at least one computer, a plurality of holdings owned by each of said plurality of investors to separate managers in separate manager accounts wherein a holding may be traded regardless of an initiator of purchase of said holding;

providing by the at least one computer, holding selection rules;

receiving by the at least one computer, a requested trade;

selecting by the at least one computer, said holding for trading from said plurality of holdings using said computer database, said holding selection rules, and said requested trade;

determining by the at least one computer, whether said trade using said holding should be deferred using said computer database and said holding selection rules; and

generating by the at least one computer, a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said plurality of investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for the one investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

45. The method of claim 44, further comprising generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer, an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding; and

generating by the at least one computer, a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating said offsetting purchase of said holding.

47. A data processing system for managing one or more financial objects comprising:

at least one computer processor;

instructions for managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of financial objects by the at least one computer processor comprising a collection of the financial objects managed collectively but tracked separately with separate accounts on behalf of one or more investors;

a computer-implemented database accessible by the at least one computer processor associating a plurality of holdings owned by each of said one or more investors, wherein a holding may be traded regardless of an initiator of purchase of said holding; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute the program instructions, the program instructions comprising;

at least one holding selection rule;

receiving a requested trade;

selecting a holding for trading from said plurality of holdings by said computer-implemented database, said holding selection rule, and said requested trade;

determining whether said trade using said holding should be deferred by said computer-implemented database and said holding selection rules; and

generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said one or more investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for said one investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

48. The data processing system of claim 47, wherein the program instructions further comprise generating by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

49. The data processing system of claim 48, the program instructions further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding; and

generating by the at least one computer processor a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating by the at least one computer processor said offsetting purchase of said holding.

50. A data processing system for managing one or more financial objects comprising:

at least one computer processor;

instructions for managing a plurality of virtual portfolios of financial objects by the at least one computer processor comprising a collection of assets managed collectively but tracked separately with separate accounts on behalf of a plurality of investors;

a computer-implemented database accessible by the at least one computer processor associating a plurality of holdings owned by each of said plurality of investors, wherein a holding may be traded regardless of an initiator of purchase of said holding; and

a computer memory coupled to the at least one computer processor and having program instructions stored therein, the at least one computer processor programmed to execute the program instructions, the program instructions comprising;

at least one holding selection rule;

receiving a requested trade;

selecting a holding for trading from said plurality of holdings by said computer-implemented database, said holding selection rule, and said requested trade;

determining whether said trade using said holding should be deferred by said computer-implemented database and said holding selection rules; and

generating a deferred trade in a tax-managed sub-account associated with one investor of said plurality of investors using said holding if it is determined that said holding should be sold in order to realize a loss for said one investor, wherein a manager'"'"'s account is unaffected by said loss realized by sale of said holding.

51. The data processing system of claim 50, wherein the program instructions further comprise generating by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of said holding if it is determined that enough time has passed to avoid a wash-sale violation.

52. The data processing system of claim 51, the program instructions further comprising:

generating by the at least one computer processor an offsetting purchase of a temporary offsetting holding; and

generating by the at least one computer processor a sale of said temporary offsetting holding when generating by the at least one computer processor said offsetting purchase of said holding.