Patent ID: 6868400
Filing Date: 2005-03-15
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computerized spread-maximizing trading system for trading multi-attribute products comprising: a plurality of seller trading agents, for accessing seller databases containing seller true values for multi-attribute products distinguished by a variety of attributes with attribute values, each seller trading agent representing a seller; a buyer interface, for receiving buyer true values from a buyer, the buyer interface generating buyer true values for the multi-attribute products distinguished by the variety of attributes with attribute values; a trading manager, coupled to the buyer interface and to the plurality of seller trading agents, for receiving the buyer true values and the seller true values for the multi-attribute products; and an attribute manager, coupled to the trading manager, for generating a plurality of spreads for the multi-attribute products, each spread in the plurality of spreads being a difference of a buyer true value and a seller true value for a specific combination of attribute values; wherein the trading manager finds a spread-maximizing product in the multi-attribute products by finding a maximum spread in the plurality of spreads generated by the attribute manager, the maximum spread having a largest difference between the buyer true value and the seller true value, the maximum spread occurring for a spread-maximizing combination of the attribute values that specifies the spread-maximizing product; wherein the trading manager selects the spread-maximizing product for sale by the seller to the buyer, the trading manager notifying the buyer of the spread-maximizing combination of the attribute values that specifies the spread-maximizing product, whereby the spread-maximizing product is selected by finding the spread-maximizing combination of the attribute values having a maximum difference between the buyer true values and the seller true values.