Method and system for building and maintenance watch lists

• US 8,170,939 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Charles Schwab Trust Company (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Charles Schwab Trust Company (Charles Schwab Corporation)
• Inventors: Corning, Douglas, Lera, Natalie, Kwan, Jennifer, Wayshak, Corinne, Burmester, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi, Hani M
• Application Number:
  US11/951,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20080140587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,608 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 42
• US Class Current: 705/36.R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• 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 apparatus for monitoring a items such as stocks and other securities, suitable for use in portable devices, such as personal organizers, wherein instead of separate watch lists, a pool of items being watched is maintained, and the total number of items which can be contained in the pool is intentionally limited to a predefined number, and further wherein each of the items in the pool includes an associated tag which defines a watch list to which it belongs, and the pool of the items being watched can be viewed simultaneously as one coherent collection, or specific watch lists can be displayed.

Claims

1. A method for organizing information for a plurality of data items which are being tracked in a computing device of the type which is capable of exchanging information with a communications center, comprising:

tracking a plurality of data items at the communications center that comprises a subset of available data items;

receiving from a user an instruction at the communications center defining at least one category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked;

maintaining a data list at the communications center, which includes information for all of the plurality of data items being tracked, and that is limited to a predetermined number of data items;

displaying on the data list a first number which indicates a running total of the number of items in the data list, and displaying a second number which indicates the predetermined number of items permitted in the data list;

updating the data lists by the communications center with at least one user defined category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked; and

sending the updated data list to the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving updates to the data list items being tracked, wherein the updates are generated by the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the data list to the computing device is initiated by a request from the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of data items being tracked includes at least two user defined category tags.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a copy of the data list in the computing device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one item of the plurality of data items being tracked is associated with at least two user defined category tags.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein changing the user defined category tag associated with an item of the plurality of data items with the computing device causes the change to be sent by the computing device to the communications center.

6. A system for organizing information for a plurality of data items being tracked comprising:

a communications center of the type which is capable of exchanging information with a computing device, wherein the communications center;

tracks a plurality of data items that comprises a subset of available data items in response to receiving an instruction to track the plurality of data items;

receives an instruction from a user defining at least one category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked;

maintains a data list, which includes information for all of the plurality of data items being tracked, wherein the data list is limited to a predetermined size;

displays on the data list a first number which indicates a running total of the number of items in the data list, and displays a second number which indicates the predetermined number of items permitted in the data list;

updates the data list with the at least one user defined category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked; and

sends the updated data list to the computing device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the communications center further receives updates to the data list items being tracked, wherein the updates are generated by the computing device.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein sending the data list to the computing device is initiated by a request from the computing device.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of data items being tracked includes at least two user defined category tags.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the computing device maintains a copy of the data list.

13. A method for organizing information for a plurality of data items which are being tracked in a computing device of the type which is capable of exchanging information with a communications center, comprising:

tracking a plurality of data items at the communications center that are a subset of available data items;

receiving from a user an instruction at the communications center defining at least one category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked;

maintaining a data list at the communications center, which includes information for all of the plurality of data items being tracked, and that is limited to a predetermined number of data items;

displaying on the data list a first number which indicates a running total of the number of items in the data list, and displaying a second number which indicates the predetermined number of items permitted in the data list

updating the data list by the communications center with at least one user defined category tag for each of the plurality of data items being tracked;

sending the updated data list to the computing device; and

receiving updates to the data list from the computing device, wherein if the computing device is unable to communicate with a communications server, the data list in the computing device is not updated and is placed into a hold state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein once the computing device is again able to communicate with the communications server, the updates to the data list are sent to the communications center.