Patent ID: 9002741
Filing Date: 2015-04-07
Classification: G06Q,Y02W

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: an Exchange-controlled network having at least one host server disposed at a first location, and being in communication with at least two front end virtual servers disposed at second and third locations: each of the two front end virtual servers including a processor configured to run a plurality of non-transitory, machine executable instructions, and at least one memory in communication with the processor, the memory configured to store the non-transitory, machine executable instructions which when running on the processor: at least one of the two front end virtual servers configured to collect data for a plurality of fuels, wherein the data include geographic locations where the fuels are discovered, a rate of extraction of the fuels and physical properties of the fuels; at least one of the two front end virtual servers configured to select fuels from the plurality of fuels based on the physical properties of the fuels to generate sets of fuels comprising fuel commodity benchmarks; at least one of the two front end virtual servers configured to generate weights for use in generating weighted averages, wherein a specific weight for generating a specific weighted average for a particular fuel in a specific set of the sets fuels is based on a rate of extraction of the particular fuel relative to an aggregate rate of extraction of the fuels in the specific set of fuels; at least one of the two front end virtual servers configured to generate the fuel commodity benchmarks indicating aggregate qualities of the sets of fuels, wherein a fuel commodity benchmark for a specific one of the sets of fuels is generated based on weighted averages of the physical properties of the fuels in the specific one of the sets of fuels; a dongle comprised of hardware and software, and wherein the dongle is configured to be coupled to at least one of the front end virtual servers, the dongle operative to configure its associated said front end virtual server for Exchange-controlled communications with the host server and other front end virtual servers and to enable the information to be passed along the Exchange-controlled network for purposes of creating the fuel commodity benchmarks, and for determining or effectuating orders to be placed for the complementary differential index contracts to be presented at a future settlement along with underlying exchange for physical (EFP) contracts being settled by physical delivery.