Patent Publication Number: US-2015073964-A1

Title: Market data handling based on derivative contract specifications

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This disclosure relates to modeling real world events. More particularly, this disclosure relates to a system and data model for collecting information about commodity trading. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Manufacturing businesses typically require raw materials to produce products. Sometimes these raw materials are obtained through a commodity market. Other business may not directly trade in commodity raw materials, but may watch commodity trading to obtain information to make business decisions. It may thus be important to track commodity trading information. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates commodity trading and providing information to business decision makers. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a representative data model for tracking commodity trading. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates relationships between a representative user interface and a representative data model. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a representative user interface according to one embodiment. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a representative user interface according to one embodiment. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a representative user interface according to one embodiment. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates representative mechanisms for entering pricing information. 
         FIG. 8  is a block diagram of a computer processing system, within which a set of instructions for causing the computer to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The description that follows includes illustrative systems, methods, techniques, instruction sequences, and computing machine program products of illustrative embodiments. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding of various embodiments of the inventive subject matter. It will be evident, however, to those skilled in the art that embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In general, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures, and techniques have not been shown in detail. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates commodity trading and providing information to business decision makers. Commodities  102  are traded at a market  104  usually according to a derivative contract specification  106 . Commodities refer to materials or products and may include harvested products like wheat, coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, soybeans, fruit, etc., extracted materials like metals, rubber, oil, etc. or processed or produced products like pork bellies, recycled steel, etc. Sometimes commodities may be grouped into large classes such as energy, agricultural including livestock, precious metals, industrial metals, etc. A commodity market is defined by physical or virtual transactions of buying and selling involving commodities. Often such transactions are accomplished using a financial derivative meaning a financial instrument whose value is derived from a commodity. Financial derivatives include forward contracts (an agreement between two parties to exchange at some fixed future date a given quantity of a commodity at a price defined today), futures contracts (a standardized forward contract in which the buyer and the seller accept the terms in regards to product, grade, quantity and location and are only free to negotiate the price), swaps (an agreement where parties exchange cash flows of one party&#39;s financial instrument for those of another party&#39;s financial instrument), options (the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a commodity in the future at a price fixed today), and so forth. Examples of commodity markets include Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the London Metal Exchange (LME), etc. A derivative contract specification  106  defines the terms of the transaction (e.g., a futures contract). 
     Once raw materials  108  are obtained, production  110  may product goods  112  that are sold by a business. Often, there are fixed (or reasonably fixed) production costs, goods are sold at a fixed price, but raw materials can fluctuate, depending on what is happening in the commodities market  104 . To minimize business risk, many companies have departments that track purchases, market variations, and so forth. These departments rely on information regarding the company and/or market activities. In  FIG. 1 , these departments are represented by treasury  120 . Additionally, in many companies logistics departments  118  such as purchasing, etc. actually manage and/or purchase materials. These departments may also need information about purchases actually made and/or market activities.  FIG. 1  illustrates a market data management system  114  that can capture and track such information and provide appropriate information  116  to both treasury  120  and logistics  118 , allowing them to coordinate more effectively. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a representative data model  200  for tracking commodity trading. This data model may be used, for example, by the market data management system  114  of  FIG. 1 . The data model  200  is designed to not only make it easy to represent real world commodities, commodity markets, derivative contract specifications, trades, etc. but also to easily capture real world data to make it easy to set up and maintain the information in the system. 
     The data model  200  may include a plurality of objects (e.g., physical commodity object  202 , contract specification object  206 , etc.). In this disclosure, object means a location in storage (memory, disk, etc.) having a value and referenced by an identifier. Objects may be a variable, function, or a data structure, such as a data table or other structure. It may also refer to a particular instance of an object class. 
     The data model  200  may include physical commodity object  202 . The physical commodity object  202  may comprise a plurality of data fields to represent the underlying commodity that is traded. For example, the fields may comprise a physical commodity name (e.g., the name of the physical commodity used in the object), a physical commodity description, and a physical commodity unit of measure. The physical commodity name may be created and/or modified by a user and/or may be selected from a drop down list or some combination thereof. The physical commodity name may be used in the system to refer to the underlying commodity. The physical commodity description may contain text, other descriptive information, or combinations thereof. The physical commodity unit of measure may be a unit of measure used to trade the commodity, such as tons, barrels, metric tons, and so forth. 
     The data model  200  may also include a market identifier object  204 . The market identifier object  204  may comprise one or more data fields to represent a commodity market. Commodity markets have Market Identifier Codes (MIC) that uniquely identify them. These MIC are published in the ISO 10383 standard. For example, the London Metal Exchange has the MIC of XLME and the CME Globex has the MIC of GLBX. Additional fields may include a description field containing text, other descriptive information, or combinations thereof, a country field containing an identifier of the country where the commodity market is located, a city field containing an identifier of the city where the market is located, a status field containing status information such as active, inactive, etc. to identify the status of the market, a URL for the market, the trading platform (electronic, open outcry, etc.), and so forth. 
     The data model may also include a contract specification object  206 . A contract specification object  206  may include a plurality of fields that identify information from a derivative contract specification. A derivative contract specification identifies the terms of the transaction. Depending on the type of derivative contract specification, it may include such information such as the underlying commodity, the grade of the underlying commodity, the product symbol, the market the derivative contract applies to, the hours of the market, the contract unit or lot size (e.g., the quantity of the commodity to be traded, the option to be purchased, and so forth), the currency units for price quotation (e.g., US dollars, US dollars and cents), clearable currencies (e.g., what currencies are acceptable for settling the contract), minimum price fluctuation per unit (e.g., the “tick size” or quantized change of price such as $10.00 US, $0.50 US, and so forth), the last trading day (e.g., last day for trading a particular contract), the settlement type (e.g., physical), location of settlement, delivery terms (location, time period, and so forth), and other information. A contract specification object  206  may include data fields to capture some or all of this information. Some data in the derivative contract specification like contract size, or quotation unit of measure are time dependent, and can be changed by an exchange from time to time. 
     It should be noted that a derivative contract specification is particular to a given market or set of markets. Thus, the information in a particular derivative contract specification may not only depend on the type of derivative contract specification, but also on the commodity market and the underlying commodity. In accordance with this, the data fields of a particular contract specification object  206  may vary somewhat by the commodity market, the type of derivative contract specification, the underlying commodity, or combinations thereof. 
     A given market has a plurality of derivative contract specifications for a plurality of commodities. A given derivative contract specification may apply to a plurality of markets. A given commodity may be traded according to a plurality of derivative contract specifications. Thus, the data model  200  may account for these possibilities. A single physical commodity object  202  may be associated with multiple contract specification objects  206  as indicated by the 1:n relationship link  216 . A single contract specification object  206  may be associated with multiple market identifier objects  204  and a single market identifier object  204  may be associated with multiple contract specification objects  206  as indicated by the n:m relationship link  218 . 
     Relationships between a physical commodity object  202 , a contract specification object  206  and a market identifier object  204  may uniquely define a particular commodity traded at a particular market according to a particular derivative contract specification. Thus, such a combination may be used to track information about a particular commodity traded at a particular market according to a particular derivative contract specification. 
     In some embodiments, the data model  200  of  FIG. 2  may also comprise a pricing location object  208 . As previously discussed, a market identifier object  204  may include a country field that contains an identifier of the country where the commodity market is located, a city field containing an identifier of the city where the market is located, and other fields. The fields that relate to pricing location may be placed into a pricing location object  208 , if desired. In many instances, a given location (country, city) may have different markets such as an electronic market and an open call market, each with its unique MIC. In those embodiments that use a pricing location object  208 , placing the location information into a pricing location object  208  allows a single pricing location object  208  to be associated with all market identifier objects  204  relating to that particular location as indicated by the n:1 relationship link  220 . 
     Additionally, in some embodiments the commodity object hierarchy may be a bit more detailed if desired with a generic commodity object  210  representing the general commodity (oil, copper, wheat, etc.) and a real commodity object  212  representing a specific commodity (such as a particular grade of oil, copper, wheat, etc.) as represented by the 1:n relationship link  224 . The real commodity object  212  may then be associated in a 1:n type of relationship  222  with a pricing location object  208  (e.g., multiple commodities at a particular pricing location). Since a real commodity object  212  may represent a particular grade of commodity, it is similar (or has similar information to) a contract specification object  206 . Thus, there may be an effective logical (rather than actual) link between a real commodity object  212  and a contract specification object  206  as indicated by the logical n:m relationship link  226 . 
     Since the particular grade of commodity is represented in the contract specification object  206  when coupled with a physical commodity object  202 , the physical commodity object  202  is effectively a generic commodity and for those embodiments that use a generic commodity object  210 , a 1:1 relationship  228  may exist between a physical commodity object  202  and a generic commodity  210 . 
     Finally commodity objects may be collected into a physical commodity group object  214 . A given commodity may belong to multiple groups and a given group may have multiple commodities. Thus, an n:m relationship link  230  may exist between a physical object  202  and a physical commodity group object  214 . This creates an effective logical (rather than actual) link between a physical commodity group object  214  and a generic commodity object  210  as indicated by logical n:m relationship link  232 . 
     In one embodiment, pricing location object  208 , real commodity object  212  and generic object  210  may comprise existing data models of the embodiment and the relationship links between them and physical commodity object  202 , contract specification object  206  and market identifier object  204  may represent integration of an existing data model with a new data model comprising physical commodity object  202 , contract specification object  206  and market identifier object  204 . In other embodiments, there may be no existing data model and desired commodity and market information may be represented by a data model comprising physical commodity object  202 , contract specification object  206  and market identifier object  204 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates relationships between a representative user interface  300 , information received or retrieved from a network  318 , and a representative data model  314 . A market data management system (such as market data management system  114  of  FIG. 1 ) may have different mechanisms to help enter and maintain information utilized in conjunction with a data model  314 . In some embodiments it may be desirable to employ automatic data entry. In such a situation, information  316  may be retrieved from a network  318 . For example derivative contract specifications for appropriate commodities may be retrieved from websites that publish derivative contract specifications of interest. In such embodiments, information  316  may represent the derivative contract specifications. Information in such derivative contract specifications may be “scraped” or otherwise extracted in an automated fashion. For example, website pages containing appropriate derivative contract specifications maybe downloaded and the html associated with the webpage parsed to identify information of interest and the information of interest may be extracted. 
     Table 1 below may represent, for example, some information associated with a derivative contract specification for crude oil traded on the CME Globex market that may be obtained from a web page containing the appropriate derivative contract specification. The information is not meant to be exhaustive, simply illustrative, so actual derivative contracts may have either more or less information accordingly. 
     From this table (perhaps included in a web page), key information may be extracted, such as the commodity (crude oil), a description (light sweet crude oil), a product symbol (CL), a market (CME Globex), the contract unit (1,000 barrels), price quotation currency (dollars and cents per barrel), the “tic” size ($0.01 per barrel), special rules, such as limits on price fluctuation ($10.00 per barrel), the type of settlement (physical), and various delivery information. Such information may be placed in the appropriate data objects of data model  314 . 
     By way of example, an appropriate physical commodity object  308  may be created and appropriate fields such as a physical commodity name (crude oil), a physical commodity description (light sweet crude oil), and a physical commodity unit of measure (barrel) may be populated. An appropriate contract specification object  310  may also be created and appropriate fields, such as the underlying commodity (crude oil), the grade of the underlying commodity (light sweet crude oil), the product symbol (CL), the market the derivative contract applies to (CME Globex), the lot size (1,000 barrels), the currency units for price quotation (US dollars and cents), tic size ($0.01 per barrel), the settlement type (physical), delivery terms (location, time period, and so forth) may be populated. Note that fields such as the underlying commodity and commodity grade may not reside in the contract specification object  310 , but may be part of the physical commodity object  308  and a link may be established between the two objects ( 310 ,  308 ) to define that information. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                 Light Sweet Crude Oil Futures 
               
            
           
           
               
               
            
               
                 Product Symbol 
                 CL 
               
               
                 Venue 
                 CME Globex, CME ClearPort, Open Outcry (New York) 
               
               
                 Contract Unit 
                 1,000 barrels 
               
               
                 Price Quotation 
                 U.S. Dollars and Cents per barrel 
               
               
                 Minimum 
                 $0.01 per barrel 
               
               
                 Fluctuation 
                 Initial Price Fluctuation Limits for All Contract Months. At the 
               
               
                   
                 commencement of each trading day, there shall be price 
               
               
                   
                 fluctuation limits in effect for each contract month of this futures 
               
               
                   
                 contract of $10.00 per barrel above or below the previous day&#39;s 
               
               
                   
                 settlement price for such contract month. If a market for any of 
               
               
                   
                 the first three (3) contract months is bid or offered at the upper or 
               
               
                 Maximum Daily 
                 lower price fluctuation limit, as applicable, on Globex it will be 
               
               
                 Price Fluctuation 
                 considered a Triggering Event which will halt trading for a five 
               
               
                   
                 (5) minute period in all contract months of the CL futures 
               
               
                   
                 contract, as well as all contract months in all products cited in the 
               
               
                   
                 Associated Products Appendix of rule 200.06. Trading in any 
               
               
                   
                 option related to this contract or in an option contract related to 
               
               
                   
                 any products cited in the Associated Products Appendix which 
               
               
                   
                 may be available for trading on either Globex or on the Trading 
               
               
                   
                 Floor shall additionally be subject to a coordinated trading halt. 
               
               
                 Settlement Type 
                 Physical 
               
               
                   
                 Delivery shall be made free-on-board (“F.O.B.”) at any pipeline  
               
               
                   
                 or storage facility in Cushing, Oklahoma with pipeline access to 
               
               
                   
                 Enterprise, Cushing storage or Enbridge, Cushing storage. 
               
               
                   
                 Delivery shall be made in accordance with all applicable Federal  
               
               
                   
                 executive orders and all applicable Federal, State and local laws 
               
               
                   
                 and regulations. 
               
               
                 Delivery 
                 At buyer&#39;s option, delivery shall be made by any of the following  
               
               
                   
                 methods: (1) by interfacility transfer (“pumpover”) into a 
               
               
                   
                 designated pipeline or storage facility with access to seller&#39;s 
               
               
                   
                 incoming pipeline or storage facility; (2) by in-line (or in-system) 
               
               
                   
                 transfer, or book-out of title to the buyer; or (3) if the seller 
               
               
                   
                 agrees to such transfer and if the facility used by the seller allows 
               
               
                   
                 for such transfer, without physical movement of product, by in- 
               
               
                   
                 tank transfer of title to the buyer. 
               
               
                 Delivery Period  
                 (A) Delivery shall take place no earlier than the first calendar day 
               
               
                   
                 of the delivery month and no later than the last calendar day of 
               
               
                   
                 the delivery month. 
               
               
                   
                 (B) It is the short&#39;s obligation to ensure that its crude oil receipts, 
               
               
                   
                 including each specific foreign crude oil stream, if applicable, are 
               
               
                   
                 available to begin flowing ratably in Cushing, Oklahoma by the 
               
               
                   
                 first day of the delivery month, in accord with generally accepted 
               
               
                   
                 pipeline scheduling practices. 
               
               
                   
                 (C) Transfer of title-The seller shall give the buyer pipeline  
               
               
                   
                 ticket, any other quantitative certificates and all appropriate  
               
               
                   
                 documents upon receipt of payment. 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Thus, by obtaining information  316  such as derivative contract specifications from network  318 , the information may be parsed and appropriate data objects may be created and fields in those data objects populated in an automated fashion as indicated by arrow  320 . 
     Rather than automatically creating and populating appropriate data objects, information may be entered from the retrieved information  316  through an appropriate user interface  300 . An appropriate user interface  300  may take a variety of forms, but such an interface may typically have a plurality of regions  302 ,  304 ,  306  where information may be displayed, entered, and/or combinations thereof. As information is entered, appropriate data objects may be created and fields populated as indicated by arrow  324 . To the extent that information already exists in the system, it need not be reentered, simply retrieved and/or linked to. As an example, if a market identifier object has already been crated for CME Globex, the object may simply be linked to in an appropriate manner. 
     Combinations of the automatic creation/population and user interface approaches may also be used. This is indicated by arrow  322 . As an example, suppose appropriate physical commodity object  308  and market identifier object  312  already exist. Also suppose that a derivative contract specification for the commodity described in physical commodity object  308  from the market described in market identifier object  312  is retrieved as information  316 . Further suppose that parsing the retrieved information  316  identified the commodity associated with the physical commodity object  308  and the market associated with market identifier object  312 . The information in these objects ( 308 ,  312 ) may be retrieved and placed in the appropriate locations in use interface  300  to “pre-populate” the user interface  300  with information that already exists in the system. Furthermore, other information retrieved from the derivative contract specification may be populated into user interface  300  to aid in entry of the appropriate information. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a representative user interface  400  according to one embodiment. The user interface  400  may be used, for example, in entering and/or displaying information associated with a derivative contract specification. The representative user interface may comprise a plurality of regions,  402 ,  404 ,  406 ,  408 ,  410 ,  412 ,  414 ,  416 , and  418 . Some regions may contain information related to one or more objects, such as a physical commodity object  308 , contract specification object  310 , and/or market identifier object  312  of  FIG. 3 . 
     Region  402  may comprise a title, such as a window title. If the user interface  400  is used to display or enter information about a derivative contract specification, the title may be something like “Display Derivate Contract Specification.” 
     Region  404  may comprise a plurality of icons, text labels, and/or combinations thereof that indicate various actions a user may take. Representative actions may include functions like “create” to create a new derivative contract specification, “save” to save the information into the appropriate object(s), “copy” to copy the information to a different location, etc. 
     Region  406  may comprise a plurality of fields that identify the contract specification object such as a derivative contract specification identifier field to identify the contract specification object, a description field containing a description of the derivative contract, a derivative category field containing the type of derivative contract (such as futures, option, etc.), a status field containing the status of the contract specification object (e.g., released, etc.). In one embodiment, region  406  may be continuously displayed even if other regions of the user interface change when, for example, a new tab is selected as described below. However, this may not be reflected in all embodiments. 
     Region  408  may comprise a plurality of tab controls that cause different regions containing different fields to be displayed in the area underneath the tabs. One tab may be highlighted, brought to the front, and/or otherwise distinguished from the other tabs to indicate which tab is being displayed in the remainder of the regions of the display. In one embodiment, the tabs may contain basic data, derivative details, periods, and administration. Some of these are described in conjunction with other figures below. When the basic data tab is selected, region  410 ,  412 ,  414 ,  416 ,  418  and/or combinations thereof may be displayed. Each region may contain a title indicating the information displayed in the region. 
     Region  410  may contain general data, such as a filed containing a product symbol and a URL for the contract specification. Labels and/or descriptive text may also be displayed, along with a title indicating the data in the region. 
     Region  412  may contain information about the physical commodity such as a physical commodity name (e.g., the name of the physical commodity used in a physical commodity object in the system), a physical commodity unit of measure and/or combinations thereof. Labels and/or descriptive text may also be displayed, along with a title indicating the data in the region. 
     Region  414  may contain information related the determination method associated with the derivative contract specification. Each market has rules for derivative contract determination such as when the commodity can be traded according to the contract, the contract period, the settlement period, the quotation period, etc. The information in the region  414  may be used by a market data management system to calculate this information. In an example embodiment, region  414  may include the market rules to be used in the period determination (e.g., London Metal Exchange, CME Globex, etc.), the security identifier determination (e.g., manual input or with pattern YYYYMMDD), the prompt date calendar to be used (e.g., the calendar used by the London Metal Exchange), the logic to be used for the expiration date (e.g., the last trading day or the last quotation date), the logic to be used for the reporting date (e.g., the last trading day, the last contact date), and/or combinations thereof. Labels and/or descriptive text may also be displayed, along with a title indicating the data in the region. 
     Region  416  may contain market identifier code information, such as the market identifier code of a selected market identifier object(s) (since multiple market identifier objects may be linked to a single contract specification object according to a data model like model  314  of  FIG. 3 ), or a list of relevant market identifier codes. Labels and/or descriptive text may also be displayed, along with a title indicating the data in the region. 
     Region  418  may contain a field related to archiving market data such as a retention period field indicating the time frame for which market data should be retained in the system. Labels and/or descriptive text may also be displayed, along with a title indicating the data in the region. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates a representative user interface  500  according to one embodiment. The user interface  500  may be used, for example, in entering and/or displaying information associated with a derivative contract specification. The representative user interface may comprise a plurality of regions,  502 ,  504 ,  506 ,  508 ,  510 ,  512 ,  514 , and/or  516 . Some regions may contain information related to one or more objects, such as a physical commodity object  308 , contract specification object  310 , and/or market identifier object  312  of  FIG. 3 . 
     Region  502  may be substantially similar to region  402  of  FIG. 4  and may comprise a title, such as a window title. If the user interface  500  is used to display or enter information about a derivative contract specification, the title may be something like “Display Derivate Contract Specification.” 
     Region  504  may be substantially similar to region  404  of  FIG. 4  and comprise a plurality of icons, text labels, and/or combinations thereof that indicate various actions a user may take. Representative actions may include functions like “create” to create a new derivative contract specification, “save” to save the information into the appropriate object(s), “copy” to copy the information to a different location, etc. Some or all of the icons/text labels displayed and actions may be different from those in region  404  to represent functionality that applies to regions  506 ,  508 ,  510 ,  512  and/or  514 . 
     Region  506  may be substantially similar to region  406  of  FIG. 4  and may comprise a plurality of fields, labels, and/or descriptive text that identify the contract specification object such as a derivative contract specification identifier field to identify the contract specification object, a description field containing a description of the derivative contract, a derivative category field containing the type of derivative contract (such as futures, option, etc.), a status field containing the status of the contract specification object (e.g., released, etc.). In one embodiment, region  506  may be continuously displayed even if other regions of the user interface change when, for example, a new tab is selected as described below. However, this may not be reflected in all embodiments. 
     Region  508  may be substantially similar to region  408  of  FIG. 4  and may comprise a plurality of tab controls that cause different regions containing different fields to be displayed in the area underneath the tabs. One tab may be highlighted, brought to the front, and/or otherwise distinguished from the other tabs to indicate which tab is being displayed in the remainder of the regions of the display. In one embodiment, the tabs may contain basic data, derivative details, periods, and administration. Some of these are described in conjunction with other figures below. When the derivative detail tab is selected, region  510 ,  512 ,  514 ,  516  and/or combinations thereof may be displayed. Each region may contain a title indicating the information displayed in the region. 
     Region  510  may comprise one or more fields and/or descriptive text (labels, etc.) such as a field to indicate a date from which the derivative contract is valid. Other information may also be displayed, if desired. 
     Region  512  may comprise an area where a title is displayed and one or more fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text or combinations thereof displayed to indicate the contract size such as the contract quantity and/or unit of measure. For example, the contract size of the crude oil of Table 1 above is 1,000 barrels. The contract size and unit of measure will depend on the commodity of the contract. As another example, a contract for metal, such as copper or aluminum may have a unit of measure of tons, metric tons, etc. with a contract size of 25 tons, metric tons or however the contract is specified. The unit of measure may also be pulled from (or congruent with) another field, such as that specified in region  412  of  FIG. 4 , which describes the underlying commodity. 
     Region  514  may comprise an area where a title is displayed and one or more fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text or combinations thereof displayed to indicate quotation information of the derivative contract specification. For example, fields, labels and/or other descriptive text may comprise currency, to indicate the currency (such as US Dollars, Japanese Yen, etc.) of the derivative contract specification, the currency unit (such as US Dollars, US Dollars and Cents, etc.) of the quotation, the unit of measure for the quotation (e.g., Ton, Barrel, etc.), the Commodity Pricing Engine (CPE) unit of measure (such as Ton Copper or Barrel Oil, etc.), and decimal places to indicate how many decimal places should be tracked for the quotation (e.g., 6, 2, etc.) 
     Region  516  may comprise an area where a title is displayed and one or more fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text or combinations thereof displayed to indicate the tick information of the derivative contract specification. For example, fields, labels, descriptive text, and/or combinations thereof may comprise the market identifier code for the market, the tic size, the currency unit, the tick value and the currency of the tick value. Information in these fields, labels, descriptive text, etc. may come from, or be congruent with, other places, such as region  514 , or regions of  FIG. 4 . For example, if copper is being traded and the unit of measure is ton with a contract size of 25 tons, 6 decimal places, and currency unit of US dollars, traded on the London Metal Exchange (MIC of XLME), the MIC may be XLME, the tic size 1.000000, the currency unit USD, the tick value 25.000000, and the tick currency of USD. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a representative user interface  600  according to one embodiment. The user interface  600  may be used, for example, in entering and/or displaying information associated with a derivative contract specification. The representative user interface may comprise a plurality of regions,  602 ,  604 ,  606 ,  608 ,  610  and/or  612 . Some regions may contain information related to one or more objects, such as a physical commodity object  308 , contract specification object  310 , and/or market identifier object  312  of  FIG. 3 . 
     Region  602  may be substantially similar to region  402  of  FIG. 4  or  502  of  FIG. 5  and may comprise a title, such as a window title. If the user interface  600  is used to display or enter information about a derivative contract specification, the title may be something like “Display Derivate Contract Specification.” 
     Region  604  may be substantially similar to region  404  of  FIG. 4  or  504  of  FIG. 5  and comprise a plurality of icons, text labels, and/or combinations thereof that indicate various actions a user may take. Representative actions may include functions like “create” to create a new derivative contract specification, “save” to save the information into the appropriate object(s), “copy” to copy the information to a different location, etc. Some or all of the icons/text labels displayed and actions may be different from those in region  404  or  504  to represent functionality that applies to regions  606 ,  608 ,  610  and/or  612 . 
     Region  606  may be substantially similar to region  406  of  FIG. 4  or  506  of  FIG. 5  and may comprise a plurality of fields, labels, and/or descriptive text that identify the contract specification object such as a derivative contract specification identifier field to identify the contract specification object, a description field containing a description of the derivative contract, a derivative category field containing the type of derivative contract (such as futures, option, etc.), a status field containing the status of the contract specification object (e.g., released, etc.). In one embodiment, region  606  may be continuously displayed even if other regions of the user interface change when, for example, a new tab is selected as described below. However, this may not be reflected in all embodiments. 
     Region  608  may be substantially similar to region  408  of  FIG. 4  or  508  of  FIG. 5 , and may comprise a plurality of tab controls that cause different regions containing different fields to be displayed in the area underneath the tabs. One tab may be highlighted, brought to the front, and/or otherwise distinguished from the other tabs to indicate which tab is being displayed in the remainder of the regions of the display. In one embodiment, the tabs may contain basic data, derivative details, periods, and administration. Some of these are described in conjunction with other figures below. When the periods tab is selected, region  610 ,  612  and/or combinations thereof may be displayed. Each region may contain a title indicating the information displayed in the region. 
     Region  610  may comprise one or more fields and/or descriptive text (labels, etc.) such as a field to indicate a date from which the period should be started. These fields and/or descriptive text may be congruent with other information in other places, such as region  510  of  FIG. 5 . Other information may also be displayed, if desired. 
     Region  612  may comprise an area where a title is displayed and one or more fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text or combinations thereof displayed to indicate periods of the derivative contract specification. These fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text or combinations thereof may be displayed as individual fields or as a table with appropriate columns/rows. The region  612  may also comprise various icons, text labels, and/or combinations thereof illustrating table tools to invoke underlying functionality that can be performed on a table such as sorting, filtering, printing, inserting rows and/or columns, deleting rows and/or columns, and so forth. Table 2 below represents an example table that may be displayed in region  612 . 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 Derivative Contract Specification Periods 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 Key Date  
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 Key Date 
                 Description 
                 Period Type 
                 Start 
                 End 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
                 Daily—  
                 Contract Period 
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
               
               
                   
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
                 Cash Settlement Period 
                 Jun. 25, 2013 
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Physical Settlement Period 
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
                 Jun. 27, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Trading Period 
                 Mar. 27, 2013 
                 Jun. 25, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Quotation Period 
                 Mar. 27, 2013 
                 Jun. 25, 2013 
               
               
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
                 Daily— 
                 Contract Period 
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
               
               
                   
                 Jun. 27, 2014 
                 Cash Settlement Period 
                 Jun. 26, 2013 
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Physical Settlement Period 
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
                 Jun. 28, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Trading Period 
                 Mar. 28, 2013 
                 Jun. 26, 2013 
               
               
                   
                   
                 Quotation Period 
                 Mar. 28, 2013 
                 Jun. 26, 2013 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     The fields of Table 2 include a key date, a description of the key date, what type of period it is, when the start and end dates of the period are. Note that these fields may be calculated or determined from information entered elsewhere. A key date is a date in combination with a derivative contract specification that identifies, for example, individual futures with a defined last trading and settlement date in a market. Each exchange may have its way of calculating these type of period dates. It may also be that different commodities may influence the dates and the way the dates are calculated. It may further be that a derivative contract specification may influence the dates and the way the dates are calculated. Thus, information such as that entered in region  414  of  FIG. 4  relating to period determination methods may be used to select logic to calculate some or all of the information in Table 2 (and consequently in region  612 ). 
     Other tabs in Regions  608  of  FIG. 6 ,  508  of  FIG. 5 , and/or  408  of  FIG. 4  may display, allow entry and/or combinations thereof for other information. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates representative mechanisms for entering pricing information. Commodities  702  are traded at a commodity market  704  according to a derivative contract specification  706 . Embodiments of an example market data management system  700  may comprise various mechanisms for obtaining pricing information. In one embodiment, a market or other entity may publish electronic information about pricing in the form of a data feed  708  or other format. In such an embodiment, the market data management system  700  may consume the electronic data feed and extract the desired pricing information. 
     The pricing information may be extracted by a price extraction module  722  adapted to take in the data feed  708  and extract from the data feed information that corresponds with the physical commodity objects  724 , contract specification objects  726 , and market identifier objects  728  active in the system. As previously mentioned, the combination of a commodity  702 , a market  704  and a derivative contract specification  706  uniquely specifies the terms and price of a commodity. Thus, the relationships between commodities represented physical commodity objects  724 , the markets represented in market identifier objects  728  and the derivative contract specifications represented in contract specification objects  728  identify the information that should be extracted from data feed  708 . Pricing information about the commodity may be extracted from a data feed  708  and the information captured in an appropriate data object or combination of data objects. The price may be captured as part of an existing object (e.g., a commodity object  724 , a market identifier object  728 , a contract specification object  726 , and/or combinations thereof), or the price may be captured as part of a separate pricing object  730  and relationships between other objects may be made. In one example, the pricing object may have a 1:1 relationship with a combination of a physical commodity object  724 , a contract specification object  726  and a market identifier object  728 . 
     Pricing object  730  may comprise a plurality of data fields to identify the price of a commodity traded at a market according to a derivative contract specification. Thus, the pricing object  730  may comprise such fields as price date, price time, price type (e.g., the type of pricing information such as the spot price, etc.), the key date, the time to maturity, the quotation price, the currency of the quotation price, the quantity of the quotation price, and so forth. Time to maturity is the amount of time left until the settlement data of a future, for example, is reached. Time to maturity may be expressed in years, months or days. The pricing object may contain fields for many such quotations. 
     The method used by price extraction module  722  to extract information from data feed  708  may comprise a plurality of operations. One operation may identify information related to a commodity traded at a market according to a derivative contract specification. Other operation may locate within the system  700 , information matching the commodity, the market and the derivative contract specification such as by identifying a contract specification object  726 . Alternatively, locating information matching the commodity, the market and the derivative contract specification may be accomplished by identifying a relationship between a contract specification object  726  and another object, such as a physical commodity object  724 , a market identifier object  728  or combinations thereof. Another operation may be to extract desired price information from the data feed  708  and place it in an appropriate object or combination of objects, such as pricing object  730  and/or physical commodity object  724 , contract specification object  726 , market identifier object  728 , or combinations thereof. 
     As alternative to capturing information from data feed  708 , market data management system  700  may allow manual entry of pricing information. A user may obtain price information  710  via various mechanisms or in a variety of formats. The market data management system  700  may then present an appropriate user interface, such as price user interface  720  and allow the user to enter the pricing information. Price user interface  720  may pull information from a variety of sources, such as physical commodity object  724 , contract specification object  726 , market identifier object  728 , pricing object  730 , and/or combinations thereof and present known information to the user. Appropriate objects and other information may be selected by the user from the user interface so that the information can be retrieved. For example, the user may be presented with a dialog allowing a user to identify a contract specification object  726  and information may then be retrieved from related objects in some embodiments. Additionally, or alternatively, the pricing user interface may include fields, labels and/or other descriptive text to allow a user to enter appropriate pricing information, such as price type, price date, price time, key date, time to maturity, etc. Note that date and time fields may include a starting and ending date, if desired. 
     Although not shown, market data management system  700  may also have a user interface to present commodity prices. As with the user interfaces of  FIGS. 4-6 , the user interface may comprise a plurality of regions. One region may include a title, such as “Commodity Prices: Display” or “Display Commodity Prices.” Another region may comprise icons, text labels, or combinations thereof associated with functionality that the user may select by clicking or otherwise activating the related icon, text label, or combination thereof. Another region may comprise general data and contain fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text such as an identifier associated with a derivative contract specification (or a contract specification objet), a market identifier, a derivative category, a physical commodity identifier (or physical commodity object identifier), and so forth. Another region may comprise a plurality of fields, labels, and/or other descriptive text that summarizes the pricing information such as yearly high, yearly low, historic high, historic low and currencies related to each. Functionality may also be indicated by icons, labels, or a combination thereof to allow a user to search, filter, set date ranges, etc. Yet another region may comprise pricing detail associated with the other information such as price date, price time, price type, key date, time to maturity, quotation price, currency, quantity or unit of measure, etc. Some or all of the regions may be set off and labeled in some fashion so a user can identify the type of information, functionality, etc. that is contained in a region, if desired. 
     As an alternative to capturing information from a data feed or manual data entry, market data management system  700  may import pricing information from a document  714  containing pricing information. For example, all the appropriate information may be collected into a spreadsheet and the spreadsheet document imported into the system as shown by arrow  716 . 
     Price extraction module  718  may be adapted to extract information from a spreadsheet and place it in appropriate data object(s). Price extraction module  718  may be the same as, or different from price extraction module  722 . The method used by price extraction module  718  to extract and import price information may comprise a plurality of operations. One operation may identify information related to a commodity traded at a market according to a derivative contract specification by parsing the input file. Other operation may locate within the system  700 , information matching the commodity, the market and the derivative contract specification such as by identifying a contract specification object  726 . Alternatively, locating information matching the commodity, the market and the derivative contract specification may be accomplished by identifying a relationship between a contract specification object  726  and another object, such as a physical commodity object  724 , a market identifier object  728  or combinations thereof. Another operation may be to extract desired price information from the pricing document  714  and place it in an appropriate object or combination of objects, such as pricing object  730  and/or physical commodity object  724 , contract specification object  726 , market identifier object  728 , or combinations thereof. 
       FIG. 8  is a block diagram of a computer processing system  800 , within which a set of instructions  824  for causing the computer to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed. 
     As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present disclosure may be illustrated and described herein in any of a number of patentable classes or context including any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented entirely hardware, entirely software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or combining software and hardware implementation that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” “component,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable media having computer readable program code embodied thereon. 
     In addition to being sold or licensed via traditional channels, embodiments may also, for example, be deployed by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Application Service Provider (ASP), or utility computing providers. The computer may be a server computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, or any processing device capable of executing a set of instructions  824  (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that device. Further, while only a single computer is illustrated, the term “computer” shall also be taken to include any collection of computers that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions  824  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     The example computer processing system  800  includes a processor  802  (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), advanced processing unit (APU) or some combination thereof), a main memory  804  and static memory  806 , which may communicate with each other via a bus  808 . The computer processing system  800  may further include a graphics display  810  (e.g., a plasma display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT) or other display). The processing system  800  may also include an alphanumeric input device  812  (e.g., a keyboard), a user interface (UI) navigation device  814  (e.g., a mouse, touch screen, or the like), a storage unit  816 , a signal generation device  818  (e.g., a speaker), and/or a network interface device  820 . 
     The storage unit  816  includes machine-readable medium  822  on which is stored one or more sets of data structures and instructions  824  (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions  824  may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory  804  and/or within the processor  802  during execution thereof by the computer processing system  800 , with the main memory  804  and the processor  802  also constituting computer-readable, tangible media. 
     The instructions  824  may be transmitted or received over a network  826  via a network interface device  820  utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP). 
     While the machine-readable medium  822  is shown in an example embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions  824 . The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions  824  for execution by the computer and that cause the computer to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present application, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such a set of instructions  824 . The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. The term “machine-readable storage medium” does not include signals or other intangible mechanisms. Such intangible media will be referred to as “machine-readable signal media.” The term “machine-readable media” will encompass both “machine-readable storage media” and “machine-readable signal media.” 
     While various implementations and exploitations are described, it will be understood that these embodiments are illustrative and that the scope of the claims is not limited to them. In general, techniques for maintaining consistency between data structures may be implemented with facilities consistent with any hardware system or hardware systems defined herein. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. 
     While the embodiments are described with reference to various implementations and exploitations, it will be understood that these embodiments are illustrative, and that the scope of claims provided below is not limited to the embodiments described herein. In general, the techniques described herein may be implemented with facilities consistent with any hardware system or hardware systems defined herein. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. 
     The term “computer readable medium” is used generally to refer to media embodied as non-transitory subject matter, such as main memory, secondary memory, removable storage, hard disks, flash memory, disk drive memory, CD-ROM and other forms of persistent memory. It should be noted that program storage devices, as may be used to describe storage devices containing executable computer code for operating various methods, should not be construed to cover transitory subject matter, such as carrier waves or signals. “Program storage devices” and “computer-readable medium” are terms used generally to refer to media such as main memory, secondary memory, removable storage disks, hard disk drives, and other tangible storage devices or components. 
     Plural instances may be provided for components, modules, operations, or structures described herein as a single instance. Finally, boundaries between various components, modules, operations, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary, and particular operations are illustrated in the context of specific illustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality are envisioned and may fall within the scope of the claims. In general, structures and functionality presented as separate components in the exemplary configurations may be implemented as a combined structure, module, or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single module or component may be implemented as separate modules or components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of the claims and their equivalents.