Patent ID: 7873564
Filing Date: 2011-01-18
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer system for conducting an auction for a plurality of financially settled contracts, the system comprising: means for receiving a plurality of first participant bids from a first participant; means for receiving a plurality of second participant bids from a second participant; and means for simultaneously matching a batch of bids to create a plurality of awarded bids, wherein the batch of bids comprises the plurality of first participant bids and the plurality of second participant bids, wherein each bid of the batch of bids relates to at least a portion of the plurality of financially settled contracts, wherein the matching comprises matching an outright bid with 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, and 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 an economic surplus.