Abstract:
Methods and systems for reconciling firm account data and exchange account data are provided. Firm account data and exchange account data are compared and discrepancies are displayed on a display device. A user may receive additional information about the data that does not match by selecting appropriate hyperlinks or other navigational items. The user may also enter adjustments.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to trading systems and methods. More particularly to methods and systems that reconcile exchange account data with firm account data and that provide adjustment mechanisms.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Brokerage houses receive orders from clients and have those orders filled by executing trades at exchanges. Brokerage houses maintain records showing firm account data that includes a list of all of the positions held by clients of the brokerage house. Periodically exchanges provide records that include exchange account data to brokerage houses. Exchange account data includes a list of all of the positions, including cash positions, held by the brokerage house or firm at the exchange. Human error, system problems and other factors sometimes result in firm account data being different from exchange account data. In order to meet regulatory requirements brokerage houses must periodically reconcile firm account data and exchange account data.  
         [0005]     Prior art approaches to reconciling firm account data and exchange account data have included generating paper reports for each exchange or brokerage house. After reviewing a report, a user must then investigate the matter and access the appropriate record systems to make necessary adjustments.  
         [0006]     There are several drawbacks to the conventional systems and methods for reconciling firm account data with exchange account data. For example, when a brokerage house conducts transactions at several exchanges, the variety of formats and media used by exchanges to report exchange account data has made it burdensome for the brokerage houses to reconcile all of the trading data. Moreover, systems that generate the reports used to reconcile data have not provided a mechanism for users to investigate discrepancies or correct those discrepancies.  
         [0007]     Therefore, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that allow brokerage houses to reconcile trading data received from a plurality of exchanges and brokerage houses. There is also a need in the art for reconciliation systems and methods that facilitate the correction of discrepancies in firm account data and exchange account data.  
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
       [0008]     The present invention overcomes one or more of the problems and limitations of the prior art by providing methods and systems that allow brokerage houses to reconcile trading data and enter adjustments. A match system compares firm account data to exchange account data and generates a list of discrepancies. A user interface is generated that displays the discrepancies and that facilitates entering adjustments.  
         [0009]     In one embodiment, advantages of aspects of the present invention are provided by a computer-implemented method of reconciling firm account data with exchange account data received from at least one exchange. The method includes receiving exchange account data that lists positions held by clients of the firm at at least one exchange and receiving firm account data that lists positions held by the clients of the firm at the exchange. The exchange account data is compared to the firm account data. Positions included in the exchange account data and the firm account data that do not match are displayed on a display device. As used herein, “positions” includes cash positions. Next, an input for additional information relating to the positions that do not match is received from a user. In response to the input, additional information is displayed on a display device.  
         [0010]     In another embodiment of the invention, a computer-readable medium containing computer-executable components is provided. The components include a matching module that compares exchange account data to firm account data and identifies positions included in the exchange account data and the firm account data that do not match. A display module that generates information to display on a display device regarding the positions that do not match and, in response to a request from a user, additional information regarding the positions that do not match is also included.  
         [0011]     Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well.  
         [0012]     The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0013]     The present invention may take physical form in certain parts and steps, embodiments of which will be described in detail in the following description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, wherein:  
         [0014]      FIG. 1  shows a system for reconciling and correcting trading data in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;  
         [0015]      FIG. 2  shows an exemplary display screen for presenting account data to a user, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary login page, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  illustrates an adjustment page, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 5  illustrates an edit page that allows a user to edit adjustments, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0019]      FIG. 1  shows a system for reconciling firm account data and exchange account data in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. A format module  102  receives exchange account data from exchanges  104  and  106 . Format module  102  may also receive exchange data from a brokerage house  108 . A firm using the system shown in  FIG. 1  may use brokerage house  108  to conduct trades at foreign exchanges or at exchanges that are seldom used by the firm. Of course additional exchanges and brokerage houses may be connected to format module  102 . Moreover, some exchanges and/or brokerage houses may transmit data directly to matching module  110  when the data is known to be in a proper format.  
         [0020]     Each exchange or brokerage house connected to format module  102  may deliver data in a different format or use a different media. For example, exchange  104  may represent the Chicago Board of Trade and have a specific format for delivering exchange account data. Exchange  106  may represent the New York Stock Exchange that may use a format that is different from the format used by exchange  104 . Moreover, exchange  104  may transmit data via email while exchange  106  may use the postal service to deliver an optical disk containing the data.  
         [0021]     After receiving exchange account data, format module  102  may transform the data into a common format that may be used by a matching module  110 . Format module  102  may perform functions such as extracting data from files having different formats, reformatting data to use a common terminology and converting currencies. Format module  102  may also translate text. The functions performed by format module  102  may facilitate processing by matching module  110 .  
         [0022]     A firm using the system shown in  FIG. 1  may perform trading services for several different clients. The firm may be a brokerage house or other entity. Client account  112  contains two trading positions. The client holds 100 contracts for May corn at the Chicago Board of Trade and 50 contracts for June wheat at the Chicago Board of Trade. A second client  114  holds 25 contracts for May corn at the Chicago Board of Trade. Two clients are shown for illustration purposes only and with the understanding that aspects of the present invention may be implemented with numerous additional clients. An aggregation module  116  may receive client account data, aggregate the data and generate firm account data. For example, aggregation module  116  may aggregate the May corn contracts held in client accounts  112  and  114  to generate firm account data showing 125 May corn contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade.  
         [0023]     Matching module  110  receives exchange account data from format module  102  and firm account data from aggregation module  116 . In one embodiment a user may provide data directly to format module  102  or matching module  110 , such as by entering the data with a keyboard or other conventional input device. This embodiment may be used, for example, when exchange data is received in a format that cannot be directly imported into format module  102  or matching module  110 . Matching module  110  then compares the exchange account data and the firm account data and identifies any discrepancies. Comparisons may be made based on parameters such as origin, commodity, month, year, price, strike price, put or call and prompt date.  
         [0024]     Inconsistent firm account data and exchange account data may then be brought to the user&#39;s attention. For example, if the number of May corn contracts included in the exchange account data for the Chicago Board of Trade do not correspond to the number of May corn contracts included in the firm account data for the Chicago Board of Trade, matching module  110  would identify this discrepancy.  
         [0025]     The identification of contracts that do not match may be transmitted to a display module  118 . Display module  118  may then generate a computer display to present to the user.  FIG. 2  illustrates one exemplary page  200  for presenting account data to a user. Page  200  only lists the contracts at are not reconciled to allow the user to quickly identify and correct discrepancies. Page  200  may include hyperlinks to allow the user to quickly access additional account information and to determine the source of errors when correcting errors. For example, a hyperlink  202  may be selected by a user to display further details of a particular contract. If the first row in page  200  corresponds to a particular contract traded at a particular exchange, hyperlink  202  may link to a page that lists all of the clients who hold positions for the contract. A variety of conventional mechanisms may be used to present information to the user. For example, selecting a client name may result in contact information for that client being displayed.  
         [0026]     Once the cause of a discrepancy has been identified, the user may then make an adjustment to firm account data and/or exchange account data. An adjustment module  120  may be included to request information from a user and make the necessary adjustments. In one embodiment, before any adjustments to firm account data for exchange account data are made, the user wishing to make the adjustments must identify himself to the system.  FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary login page. The user enters a user ID in section  302  and a password in section  304 . Requiring users to identify themselves protects the integrity of the data and creates an audit trail that may be used to determine why and when data was modified.  
         [0027]      FIG. 4  illustrates an adjustment page that may be generated by display module  118  and/or adjustment module  120 . Page  400  allows a user to identify specific contracts and make any necessary adjustments. Exemplary fields that may be included as part of page  400  include: an account number, expiration month, buy or sell identification, commodity, strike price, order number, new price, prompt date, the identification of an exchange or trading house, quantity, expiration year, identification of the contract as a put or a call, price, adjustments and transaction identification. Alternative fields may be used in addition to or in place of the fields shown in  FIG. 4 .  
         [0028]      FIG. 5  illustrates a page  500  that displays adjustments made by a user and that allows the user to edit those adjustments before saving the adjustments. Adjustments may be provided to matching module  110  and/or other modules or systems. In one embodiment in the invention, any adjustments made by user are entered directly into the firm account data or exchange account data maintained by the firm. In another embodiment of the invention, matching module  110  receives exchange account data, firm account data and adjustments provided by the user and repeats the matching process to identify any additional discrepancies.  
         [0029]     One of the advantages of aspects of the present invention is that after any adjustments are made to firm account data and/or exchange account data, the relevant data may be used by other applications or processes. An integration module  122  may convert account data into a format for use by a processing application  124 . For example, firm account data may be stored in a particular spreadsheet format and integration module  122  may extract relevant portions of the data, perform any necessary conversions, such as currency conversions, and export those portions to a word processing application that is used to generate a report. A report may be in the form of an electronic document, electronic file, physical document or some other form used to convey information. Integration module  122  may also directly process firm account data and/or exchange account data. In one particular embodiment, integration module  122  is used to populate fields of a segregated funds report.  
         [0030]     The system shown in  FIG. 1  may also include a margin account module  126 . Margin account module  126  may determine the required amounts of money that must be maintained in exchange margin accounts. For example, exchange  104  may require the brokerage house to maintain an amount of money in a margin account that is a function of the positions held by the brokerage house. A margin account module  126  may apply reconciled firm account data to the rules provided by exchange  104  to alert the user of the amount of money that must be maintained in the margin account. Margin account module  126  ensures the required funds are deposited in margin accounts so that the brokerage house may invest any access funds in other accounts.  
         [0031]     One skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of different modules may be added to the system shown in FIG.  1  to process or use account data information. Moreover, the interconnections of the modules shown in  FIG. 1  merely illustrate one exemplary embodiment of the invention. The modules shown may also be configured to perform additional functions, such as the functions performed by other modules. In one embodiment of the invention, the modules shown in  FIG. 1  are implemented in the form of computer-executable instructions recorded on a computer readable media, such as an optical or magnetic disk or memory component.  
         [0032]     The present invention has been described herein with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that a person understanding this invention may conceive of changes or other embodiments or variations, which utilize the principles of this invention without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. All are considered within the sphere, spirit, and scope of the invention.