Patent ID: 7885888
Filing Date: 2011-02-08
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method using a programmable device for conducting an auction for a plurality of financially settled contracts, the method comprising: receiving, by the programmable device, a plurality of first participant bids from a first participant; receiving, by the programmable device, a plurality of second participant bids from a second participant; and simultaneously matching a batch of bids by the programmable device to create a plurality of awarded bids, wherein the batch of bids comprises the plurality of bids from all the participants, wherein each bid of the batch of bids relates to at least a portion of the plurality of financially settled contracts, and wherein the matching comprises matching at least one leg of at least one non-outright bid, wherein a non-outright bid is a bid for a position that does not have a one-to-one correlation to a contract, and has at least one of: (i) multiple legs, where each leg represents a long or short position in a particular contract, and, (ii) one or more legs each representing a single position that is less than all of a contract; wherein the non-outright bid comprises a price and an indication of each contract corresponding to a leg of the non-outright bid, the indication comprising, a quantity, a settlement period, and a contract code, and an indication of which leg or legs are short and which leg or legs are long, wherein the matching does not match any of the legs of a non-outright bid unless it matches all of the legs of the non-outright bid, such that a participant making a non-outright bid has no risk that less than all of the non-outright bid will be awarded; and wherein the plurality of awarded bids maximizes at least one auction variable selected from the group consisting of auction revenue and transaction volume.