Abstract:
An electronic market for trading of securities includes a plurality of client stations for entering quotes for securities and a server process that receives quotes from the clients, aggregates the quotes and causes a total of all aggregated quotes to be displayed for a plurality of price levels on the client systems. The market uses a graphical user that depicts aggregated quotes in an aggregate window a plurality of price levels of a product traded in the market. The market also includes processes to handle lock/cross market conditions, match-off of order flow and provides a central quote/order collector that interfaces to disparate order delivery systems to minimize dual liability of market makers.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
         [0001]    This invention relates to trading systems particularly financial trading systems.  
           [0002]    Electronic equity markets, such as The Nasdaq Stock Market® collect, aggregate and display pre-trade information to market participants. In an electronic market pre-trade information takes the form of a quote that represents a single or an aggregate of same-priced principal or agency orders. A market such as Nasdaq also provides trading platforms through which market participants may access liquidity indicated in the marketplace. In such markets, trading occurs between market makers either for their own proprietary account or as agent to a customer. Also, other entities may display quotes or place orders for display in the market. For example, electronic communication networks, (ECNs) are one type.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0003]    According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of trading securities in an electronic market, includes receiving from an electronic communication network a grouped order representing customer orders that are grouped with respect to price. The method also includes assigning a time receipt to components of the grouped order and displaying interest associated with the grouped order as a quote. Thereafter, receiving from the electronic communication network subsequent grouped customer orders that are grouped with the initial interest according to price and assigning different time stamps to components of the subsequent grouped customer orders based on the time of receipt of the subsequent grouped orders and matching components of the grouped order against interest in the market based on how the components of the grouped order interact with interest in the market.  
           [0004]    One or more of the following advantages may be provided by one or more aspects of the present invention.  
           [0005]    An ECN can have its initial aggregated interest entered as a summary quote and any additional, subsequent interest represented as an order that receives a new time stamp, and is associated with the initial interest. Thus, the ECN can summarize, i.e., aggregate orders for their own trading interest sending that interest and additional interest to the system. An ECN can use the summary quote to send their book to the market while avoid showing their order detail to the market.  
           [0006]    The summary quote allows ECN&#39;s or other market participants to give multiple quotes to the system. The summary quote allows interest to be represented in the system at multiple levels, unlike a quote which is only permitted at one level. The summary quote can indicate the capacity which the market maker is trading, principal, riskless principal, agency. The summary quote is comprised of individual underlying orders that are represented for display as a single order per price level but have different priorities, as to size and time and hence different execution or delivery interaction with the market. These priorities will be taken in consideration when components of the summary order are executed or delivered for an execution.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    [0007]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a market system.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a format for summary quotes.  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2B, a diagram showing a format for quotes.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2C is a diagram showing an entry screen for orders  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3A is a block diagram showing arrangement of a quote/order collector facility.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3B is a logic view of functions in the quote/order collector facility.  
         [0013]    FIGS.  4 A- 4 B are flow charts showing a quote/order manager.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4C is a flow chart showing a montage manager.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an execution/routing manager.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 6 depicts the arrangement of FIGS.  6 A- 6 D.  
         [0017]    FIGS.  6 A- 6 D are flow charts depicting details of the execution/routing process.  
         [0018]    FIGS.  7 A- 7 D are diagrams depicting aspects of a summary order.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 8 depicts a quote montage. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION  
       [0020]    Referring to FIG. 1, an electronic market  10  is shown. The electronic market  10  includes client systems  12  that access a central quote/order collector facility  20 . The client systems  12  can be broker/dealer systems  12   a , electronic communication networks (ECN&#39;s)  12   b , market-marker systems  12   c , and other exchanges  12   d . The connections can use existing Nasdaq protocols such as SelectNet®, Small Order Execution System SM  (SOES SM ), and so forth. The client systems  12  include a processor, memory and a storage device, e.g., a client workstation or personal computer (all not shown) that can include a client process to enter quotes/orders into the electronic market system  10 . The quote/order collector facility  20  causes the order execution or order delivery systems (e.g., SOES SM  and SelectNet®) to deliver executions or orders to a market that is coupled to a clearing system  16  and a reporting system  18 . It also causes delivery of executions or routing of orders to the ECN&#39;s  12   c , depending on the status of the ECN, and routing of orders to other markets and exchanges  12   d . The quote/order collector facility  20  is comprised of one or preferably a plurality of server computers generally denoted as  22  including a processor  22   a , main memory  22   b  and storage  22   c . The storage system  22   c  includes quote/order collector process  25  that is executed in memory  22   b . In general, server  22  is a complex computer server, the details of which are not important to an understanding of the present invention.  
         [0021]    The quote/order collector facility  25  collects pre-trade information in the form of quotes or orders. The distinction between a quote and an order depends on several factors. For example, each market maker can send a proprietary quote, i.e., a quote that represents its own trading interest, or an agency quote that represents trading interest of a sponsored entity. If one proprietary quote is sent it could be considered one order. If one agency quote is sent it also could be considered one order. If an agency quote reflects an aggregation of more than one agency order, however, the aggregate agency order could be considered a quote. Entering quotes are limited to registered market makers  12   b  and ECNs  12   c  and possible UTP Exchanges  12   d . For any given stock, a registered market maker or ECN may directly enter a non-marketable order, i.e., quote into the system  20  on behalf of its customer account, or it may sponsor the direct entry of an order by its customer. All sponsored quotes are sent to the quote/order collector facility  20  under the name of the sponsoring market maker or ECN. Every registered market maker or ECN can submit an unlimited number of non-marketable quotes to the system  20 .  
         [0022]    Referring to FIG. 2A, the system  10  accepts multiple quotes from an ECN in the form of a summary quote  27 . An ECN can choose to aggregate orders in their own systems, avoiding showing order detail to the market. The ECN can deliver this aggregated interest at multiple price levels through the use of the summary quote  27  in the form of a quote. The summary quote  27  has a quantity or size field  27   a  that represents the trading size at a specific price level, a timestamp field  27   b  assigned by the system at the time the aggregated interest is entered into the system  10 . The summary quote  27  also includes a price field  27   c . In addition, convention data such as a security symbol  27   d , MMID  27   e , and so forth are included.  
         [0023]    As additional interest comes into the ECN&#39;s system, the ECN sends that interest to the system. The new interest would be treated as an order receiving a new timestamp, and is added to the summary quote  27 . The new interest would interact in the market according to the timestamp and other priorities specified in the new order.  
         [0024]    Simplified data structure representations of summary quotes and how the summary quote is reflected in the market system  10  are depicted in FIGS.  6 A- 6 D.  
         [0025]    The summary quote allows interest to be represented in the system at multiple levels, unlike a quote which is only permitted at one level. The summary quote can indicate the capacity which the market maker is trading, principal, riskless principal, agency. In some embodiments of the system with quotes the trading capacity can be represented, whereas in others the capacity is not displayed. The summary quote  27  can also indicate short sell status on the summary quote  27 .  
         [0026]    Referring to FIG. 2B, quotes  28  submitted to the electronic market system  10  can include a displayed quote size  28   a , a reserve size  28   b  and an indication  28   c  (ATTR) of whether the quote size is attributable or non-attributable. Quote size  28   a , when attributable based on indicator  28   c , is directly attributable to the market maker or ECN and is displayed in a “current quote” montage an order display window  150  to be discussed below in FIG. 8. Quote size  28   b  when non-attributable is the size that the market maker or ECN wishes to display to the marketplace through an aggregate montage of the order display window  150  discussed below. This quote size  28   a  is not attributable to the market maker or ECN until it is executed. Reserve size  28   b  is the size that is not displayed to the marketplace but that is immediately accessible through the quote/order collector facility  20 . In order to use reserve size  28   b , a market maker can be required to have a minimum amount displayed in the aggregate quote size  28   a  without attributable indicator  28   c.    
         [0027]    Referring to FIG. 2C, an entry screen  29  for non-directed order entry is shown. The screen  29  allows a participant to enter non-directed orders and would generally include fields  29   a - 29   e  for entering information including price, amount, and also three type fields. The type fields  29   c - 29   e  determine how the order interacts in the execution/routing manager  26   d  against Quoting Market Participant&#39;s contra-side quotes/orders. The type fields choose a priority, e.g., price/time box  29   c ; or price/size/time box  29   d ; or price/time that accounts for ECN access fees box  29   e.    
         [0028]    The screen  29  can also have a field  29   f  to enter a quoting market participant&#39;s symbol for the purpose of entering preferenced orders. Optionally, the screen  29  can have fields  29   g ,  29   h  to indicate a preference order type, e.g., a preferenced order that has price restrictions box  29   g  or a preferenced order that does not have price restrictions box  29   h . Alternatively, the electronic market system  10  can be configured to accept only one type of preferenced order and not the other.  
         [0029]    Order Collector Facility  
         [0030]    Referring to FIG. 3A, the quote/order collector facility  20  receives quotes and summary quotes  27  from market participants. The quote/order collector facility  20  allows a quote/order and summary quotes  27  to be displayed in the market, and also allows for marketable orders to be executed or routed to market participants.  
         [0031]    The order quote collector facility  20  also includes an interface  21  that couples the order collector facility  20  to a plurality of order delivery systems. For example, the interface  21  can couple the order quote collector facility  20  to an order execution system, e.g., the Small Order Execution System® (SOES SM ) and to an order delivery and negotiation system, e.g., SelectNet®. The interface  21  would provide access to information contained in order flow delivered via the delivery systems to a quote/order collection process  25  described in conjunction with FIG. 3B. In general, the electrical and logical functions which comprise the interface  21  can be similar to the ones currently existing in the SOES SM /SelectNet® systems. The interface  21  or the process  25  would extract information from the quotes and make that information available to the quote order collector process  25 . The quote/order collector process  25  extracts information and processes orders allow the order collector system  20  to be a unifying point of collection of all orders which are sent to the market  10 .  
         [0032]    The interface  21  can also be used to route executions of liability orders back to market participants whose quotes/orders were executed against and can deliver orders, both liability orders for execution or non-liability orders for negotiation against market participants whose quotes are selected for further negotiation via the SelectNet® systems.  
         [0033]    Referring to FIG. 3B, the quote/order collector process  25  is shown. The quote/order collector process  25  provides transmission of multiple orders or quotes at multiple price levels by Quoting Market Participants to a quotation manager  26   a . The quote/order process  25  also handles summary quotes. The quote/order manager  26   a  provides a unified point of entry of quotes and orders from disparate delivery systems into the quote/order collector facility  20  to access quotes/orders and summary quotes  27  displayed (as either attributable or non-attributable) in both the aggregate montage and quote montage, as discussed below. The quote/order manager  26   a  manages multiple quotes/orders and quotes/orders at multiple price levels and summary quotes. The quote/order manager  26   a  uses a montage manager  26   b  to display (either in the Aggregate montage or in the current quote montage) the orders/quotes and summary quotes consistent with an order&#39;s/quote&#39;s parameters. The order collector process  25  can also include an internal execution process manager  26   c  to match off executions for quoting market participants at the best bid/offer. The order collector system  20  also includes an order routing/execution manager  26   d  providing a single point delivery of executions or routing of orders, which substantially eliminates potential for dual liability. That is, order collector process  25  will maintain the order routing and executions functionality available in the SOES SM  and SelectNet® systems. The order collector process  25  can also includes a quote update manager  26   e , a lock/cross quote manager  26   f , and an odd lot execution manager  26   g.    
         [0034]    Referring to FIG. 4A, the order collector process  25  executes the quote/order manager  26   a . The quote/order manager  26   a  receives orders/quotes and summary quotes and time stamps each order/quote upon receipt. This time stamp determines the order&#39;s/quote&#39;s ranking for automated execution. Quotes/orders are designated as either attributable or non-attributable, and could also have a reserve size discussed above. The order collector process  25  aggregates all of a Quoting Market Participant&#39;s attributable and non-attributable orders at a particular price level, and disseminates order/quotation information into the aggregate montage and/or the current quote montage, as will be discussed below.  
         [0035]    In one embodiment, the quote/order manager  26   a  receives  32  quotes and determines  34  whether the received quote is a summary quote, and if so it determines  36  if it is additional interest to an already existing summary quote. As mentioned, the summary quote includes quotes at multiple price levels that receive  38  the time-stamp at the time the interest is entered into the system  10 . Throughout trading, as additional interest comes into the ECN&#39;s system, the ECN sends that interest to the system  10 . The new interest would be treated as an order receiving a timestamp, but would be included in the summary quote above receiving  38  the time stamp of when the additional interest was received by the system. The system then stores/updates  39  the summary quote and enters quote processing  42  at  44 . This, of course, happens on an individual basis for each security traded in the system.  
         [0036]    If the received quote is not a summary quote, the order entry process  25  calls  40  the quote processing  42  (FIG. 4A). Quote processing  42  determines  43  whether the received quote/order corresponds reserve interest. If the quote does not correspond to reserve interest then the quote is a displayable quote that is attributable or non-attributable.  
         [0037]    The order entry process  25  compares  44  the received quotes/orders or summary quotes to existing quotes/orders to determine  46  whether the price of quotes/orders fall in existing quote/order price levels. Any number of quote/order price levels can be accommodated although in this example, only three to five price levels will be displayed in the non-attributable i.e., aggregate montage. If the quote price is in a displayable price level it is a displayable quote eligible for automated execution. The order collector system  20  can be provided with more price level depth than the three levels, e.g., a depth of 20-25 levels although only a limited number, e.g., three or five would be displayed at any one time. Interest at each price level and components of that interest, (e.g., initial interest as distinguished from additional interest that receives new time stamps) will be examined in a similar manner as if they were individually entered.  
         [0038]    If the quote is within one of the pre-defined quote levels, the process  25  determines 48 new non-marketable quote/orders sizes by adding the quote/order size corresponding to the received quote/order to quote sizes at that price level already in the system  20 . The process  25  will cause the new non-marketable quote sizes to be displayed  50 . If the quote is not within one of the pre-defined quote levels, the process  25  stores  52  the quote at a new price level determines  54  if it is at a better price. If the quote is at a better price, the process  25  changes 56 current levels to cause a new price level for non-marketable quote sizes to be displayed  50 .  
         [0039]    Referring to FIG. 4C, the montage manager  26   b  of the quote/order collector process  25  determines  60  which price levels to display and determines  61  if an order or a summary quote  27  is a non-attributable order. If the order is non-attributable, the quote/order collector process  25  will store and sum  66  the quote with like quotes to produce an aggregated quote and display  68  the aggregate size of such orders in the aggregate montage when the orders fall within one of the three top price levels. For attributable orders, the aggregate size of such orders is displayed in the current quote montage once the order(s) at a particular price level becomes the particular quoting market participant&#39;s best attributable bid or offer in the current quote montage. This interest will also be aggregated and included in the aggregate montage if it is within the displayed price levels. Market makers and ECNs can have one MMID and possibly an agency MMID against which they can display attributable quotes. If a market maker has an agency quote, attributable orders will be displayed once the order or orders at a particular price level become the market participant&#39;s best agency quote.  
         [0040]    Quote/order collector system  20  provides several advantages to the market. One advantage is that it ensures compliance with the regulatory rules such as the SEC Order Handling Rules, and in particular the Limit Order Display Rule and SEC Firm Quote Rule. With system  20  it is less likely that a Quoting Market Participant, because of system delays and or/fast moving markets, will miss a market because the Quoting Market Participant is unable to quickly transmit to system  20  a revised quote (which may represent a limit order).  
         [0041]    Nondirected Orders  
         [0042]    Referring to FIG. 5, the market  10  allows market participants that enter Non-Directed Orders three options as to how the order interacts with the quotes/orders in the system  20 . An exemplary format was described above in FIG. 2C. These choices are that the orders can execute against displayed contra side interest in strict price/time; or price/size/time; or price/time that accounts for ECN access fees. This can be set by selecting one of the options on the order entry screen (FIG. 2C). As a default, the system  20  can execute Non-Directed Orders in general price/time priority. A non-directed order is an order that is not executed or routed for response to a particular Quoting Market Participant, e.g., a particular market maker or ECN.  
         [0043]    A market participant can immediately access the best prices in system  20 , as displayed in the aggregate montage, by entering  72  a non-directed order into the OCF  25 . A non-directed order is designated as a market order or a marketable limit order and is considered a “Liability Order” and treated as such by the receiving market participant. If a non-directed limit order is marketable when entered into the system  20 , but subsequently becomes non-marketable because of a change in the inside market, the system  20  may hold  74  the order for e.g., 90 seconds and not immediately return the order to the participant. If within the holding period e.g., 90 seconds, the order once again becomes marketable  75 , the system  20  will execute/send the order to the next Quoting Market Participant in the non-directed order queue. Additionally, the order entry participant can obtain  76  the status of the order and request a cancel of such order (not shown). In some embodiments, the hold period can be less or can be eliminated and also can be selectively applied to market participants depending on how they participate in the market.  
         [0044]    Upon entry, the OCF  25  will determine  78  what market participant is the next Quoting Market Participant in queue to receive an order, based on how the participant desires to have the order interact in the system  20 . Depending on how that receiving Quoting Market Participant participates in system  20  (i.e., automatic execution v. order delivery), the OCF  25  will either cause an execution or delivery of an execution.  
         [0045]    Order Execution Manager  
         [0046]    FIGS.  6 ,  6 A- 6 D, show processing in the order execution/routing manager  26   d . The order execution/routing manager  26   d  will execute non-directed orders against Quoting Market Participant&#39;s quotes/orders based on the chosen priority, specified by the order, e.g., contra side interest in strict price/time; or price/size/time; or price/time that accounts for ECN access fees priority and in accordance with details of summary quotes. Thus, for example, a summary quote  27  can be represented as a single entry per price level in the market, but is comprised of individual underlying orders that may have different priorities for execution or delivery, as to size and time. These priorities will be taken in consideration when components of the summary order are executed or matched and delivered for execution.  
         [0047]    As noted above, each quote/order when entered into the OCF  25  receives a time stamp. The order execution/routing manager  26   d  will deliver all orders at the best bid/best offer in chosen priority. The order execution/routing manager  26   d  can first attempt to provide a match off of orders/quotes and summary quotes entered by a Quoting Market Participant if the participant is at the best bid/best offer by calling the internal execution manager  26   c  (FIG. 3A). Thus, the order execution/routing manager  26   d  will call the internal order execution manager  26   c  to try to match off a Quoting Market Participant&#39;s orders and quotes that are in the system  20  if the participant is at the BBO and receives a market or marketable limit order on the other size of the market.  
         [0048]    The system  20  has a default, e.g., a strict price/time priority. If a market participant does not override the default or selects price/time  94 , (FIG. 6A) a Non-Directed Order would be executed  96  first against all displayed quotes/order and summary quotes of market makers, ECNs, and non-attributable agency orders of UTP Exchanges, in time priority between such interest. If the order is not satisfied  98  at that level of priority the order will execute  100  against the reserve size of market makers and ECNs in time priority between such interest. Note that for summary quotes, the time of receipt of components of the summary quote  27  can affect the priority of how the entire summary quote interacts in the market. Thus, if at a given price level, there is other market interest having a higher priority than for instance some of the additional interest that came to the summary quote, that market interest would be executed or matched ahead of the additional interest in the summary quote  27 , despite that a portion of the summary quote  27  may execute ahead of the other market interest.  
         [0049]    If the order still is not satisfied  102 , (FIG. 6B) the order will execute  104  against principal quotes of UTP Exchanges, in time priority between such interest.  
         [0050]    Alternatively, a market participant can indicate that the orders execute against contra side interest on a price/size/time basis. A Non-Directed Order would execute  106  (FIG. 6A) against displayed quotes and then reserve size based on the size of the displayed quote, and then time if there is a tie in size. Reserve size is executed against based on the size of the related displayed quote/order, not the total amount held in reserve. Under this option, orders are processed first against displayed quotes/orders and summary quotes of market makers, ECNs, and agency quotes/orders of UTP Exchanges in price/size/time priority between such interest. Again for summary quotes  27 , the time of receipt of components of the summary quote  27  can affect the priority of how the entire summary quote interacts in the market, as described above.  
         [0051]    If the order is not satisfied  108  (FIG. 6B) at that level of priority the order will execute  110  against reserve size of market makers and ECNs, in price/size/time priority of such interest, with size priority based on the size of the related displayed quote/order. If the order is still not satisfied  112  (FIG. 6C) at that level of priority the order will execute  114  against principal quotes of UTP Exchanges, in price/size/time priority between such interest.  
         [0052]    A third choice enables a market participant to indicate that their order should be executed in a manner that accounts for ECNs quote-access fees. If a market participant selects this option  116 , (FIG. 6A) Non-Directed Orders execute  118  (FIG. 6A) first against displayed quotes/orders and summary quotes of market makers, ECNs that do not charge a separate quote-access fee, and non-attributable agency orders of UTP Exchanges. The order can also execute against the quotes/orders and summary quotes of ECNs that charge a separate quote-access fee where the ECN indicates that price improvement offered by the quote/order is equal to or exceeds the quote-access fee. The execution is in time priority between such interest and for summary quotes, the time of receipt of components of the summary quote can affect the priority of how the entire summary quote interacts in the market, as described above.  
         [0053]    If the order is not satisfied  120  (FIG. 6B) at that level of priority the order will execute  122  against displayed quotes/orders of ECNs that charge a separate quote-access fee to non-subscribers. If the order is not satisfied at that level of priority the order will execute against reserve size of market makers and ECNs that do not charge a separate quote-access fee to non-subscribers, as well as reserve size of quotes/orders from ECNs that charge a separate quote-access fee to non-subscribers where the ECN entering such quote/order has indicated that the price improvement offered is equal to or exceeds the quote-access fee. Execution is in time priority between such interest. If the order is not satisfied  124  (FIG. 6C) at that level of priority the order will execute  126  against the reserve size of ECNs that charge a separate quote-access fee to non-subscriber, in time priority between such interest. If the order is not satisfied  128  at that level of priority the order will execute  130  against principal interest of UTP Exchanges, in time priority between such interest.  
         [0054]    With all three approaches, the market  10  could make an exception for Non-Directed Orders entered by a market participant when that market participant is also at the inside market. In that case, the system  20  could match off the Non-Directed Order to buy/sell against that market participant&#39;s inside quote/order to sell/buy, in lieu of sending it to the participant next in the queue.  
         [0055]    Referring to FIG. 6D, if the order is not filled  136 , the order execution/routing manager  26   d  will move  134  to the next price level, after a predefined delay, e.g., a 5 second interval delay  132  before attempting to execute an order at the new price level. The price-level interval delay will give market participants time to adjust their quotes and trading interests before the market moves precipitously through multiple price levels, which may occur when there is news, rumors, or significant market events. Thus, the price-level interval delay is a modest and reasonable attempt to limit volatility. In some embodiments this delay can be eliminated.  
         [0056]    Referring to FIGS.  7 A- 7 D, simplified data structures that represent orders aggregated into a summary quote are shown on the ask side of the market.  
         [0057]    [0057]FIG. 7A shows initial multiple quotes in the form of a summary quote received from an ECN that chose to aggregate its orders. This initial interest is ordered by price and receives a common time stamp of 12:00 the time at which the aggregated interest is entered into the system. FIG. 7B shows additional interest from the ECN that was entered into the system prior to any of the interest being matched. The additional interest receives a timestamp of its entry in the system at times 12:00:10; 12:00:12:; 12:00:20; 12:00:25 and 12:00:30 (here time stamped to the hundredth of a second, but any increment could be used). The new interest interacts in the market according to the various time stamps.  
         [0058]    [0058]FIG. 7C shows ECN initial aggregated interest and additional interest is displayed to the market single quotes. FIG. 7D shows that within each price level the interest in the price level may interact with the market in a different manner, taking into consideration time of receipt of each component of the interest. Additional details that would be used to represent this interest is not shown such as details of the interest (which customer, account, etc) that could be kept by the ECN. Also, not shown is an identifier of the capacity at which the market maker is trading, e.g., principal, riskless principal, agency.  
         [0059]    Referring to FIG. 8, the system  20  produces a composite montage  150 . One component of the composite montage  150  is an aggregate montage that shows aggregated interest at 3 or more price levels in the market. In a typical embodiment five levels would be displayed. The montage also includes a quote montage  154  that would include displayed quotes from ECN&#39;s derived from the summary quote. The quote montage  154  shows for a particular stock two columns (one for bid, one for ask), under which is listed the MMIDs for each registered market maker, ECN, and UTP Exchange in the particular stock and the corresponding quote (price and size) next to the MMID. System  20  ranks the bids and offers along with the corresponding MMID in price/time priority. Accordingly, the market participant at the best bid who is first in time appears first in the montage, the market participant at the best bid (or the next best bid) who is next in time is ranked second, and so forth. A market minder window  155  is also shown.  
         [0060]    The quote montage  154  also includes a special MMID (here referred to as “SIZE”) that represents the aggregate size of all non-attributable quotes/orders at the best bid/best offer displayed in the current quote montage  154 . There is one “SIZE” MMID for the bid and offer side of the market.  
       Other Embodiments  
       [0061]    Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.