Patent Publication Number: US-7904364-B2

Title: Systems and methods for auctioning access to securities research resources

Description:
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/939,087 filed on Sep. 10, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,752,103, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention generally concerns systems and methods for auctioning access to securities research resources. 
     In the securities research industry, so called “sell-side firms” provide, among other things, research regarding securities (such as stocks or bonds) to so-called “buy-side firms,” i.e. institutional investors such as mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, etc. Typically, particularly for equity research, sell-side firms employ a number of analyst teams that analyze equity securities in different industry sectors and/or geographic regions. The analyst teams typically include a primary analyst and several research associates, though some teams may have other positions as well. These research teams generate numerous different types of research touch points for consumers of the research (e.g., the buy-side firms). The research touch points may include research reports (e.g., published electronic or hard copy reports), one-to-one telephone calls or meetings with contacts at the buy-side firms, tailored or blast e-mails and voicemails to such contacts, as well as other events such as seminars, conferences, corporate road shows, and meetings with corporate management. 
     In addition, different buy-side clients may seek and/or be provided with different levels of research services from the sell-side firm. For example, some buy-side clients of a sell-side firm may be entitled to participate in certain events, such as corporate road shows or corporate management meetings with the primary analyst in attendance, while other buy-side clients may not. 
     Historically, sell-side firm analysts have in large part determined the level of service received by a particular buy-side client firm. However, this may not result in an efficient allocation of resources by the securities research department. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In one general aspect, embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for auctioning units of securities research resources of a supplier of securities research (e.g. a sell-side firm) to consumers of the supplier&#39;s securities research (e.g., buy-side firms). The method, according to the various embodiments, may be performed by the supplier of the securities research and may employ a Dutch auction-type format. The method may include the step of receiving from a plurality of potential consumers at least one bid for at least one unit of the securities research resources of the supplier in at least one bidding stage. The bids may include a specified quantity of the unit and a corresponding price for the specified quantity. The method may also include the step of allocating the units of the securities research resources of the supplier to certain of the potential consumers (i.e., the winning bidders) based on the received bids. Thus, the winning bidders would receive their allocated units of securities research resources. There may be one or more such bidding stages. The auction may be repeated periodically to accommodate changes in demand/supply, such as quarterly, annually, etc. 
     The units of securities research resources may be, for example, hours of time spent by a research team (e.g., covering a particular industry or sub-industry) of the supplier of the securities research (e.g., the sell-side firm) for the benefit of a client/buy-side firm. Thus, the auction participants (e.g., buy-side firms) may bid for research/working time of the various research teams of the supplier. The auction participants may submit different bids for different research teams of the supplier. The auction participants may submit different bids for the same research team. For example, the auction participant of the securities research may seek to buy one block of time of a particular research team for a first price and a second block of time for a second price, and so on. 
     Also, according to other variations, the units may be preferred access level positions with the various research teams (or the corresponding primary analyst for the research team). A preferred access level (or “seat”) may entitle the holder thereof to a greater level of research-related direct contact with the research team/primary analyst than consumers who do not have such a preferred access seat. For example, consumers having preferred access seats may be entitled to direct phone calls and one-to-one meetings with the primary analyst. Due to time constraints, only a number of such preferred access seats may be available for each research team/primary analyst. Consumers who do not have such preferred access seats may not be entitled to such consultative access with the primary analyst, although such consumers may still be entitled to other research work product generated by the research team, such as written reports, blast messages (e.g., blast phone messages or emails), etc. In fact, all material research views by the research team with respect to covered companies would be disseminated to all buy-side clients who are entitled to receive published research products of the analyst team. 
     According to various implementations, the auction may include a number of bidding stages so as to allow bidders to, for example, hone their bids in view of the results of previous bidding stages. If the number of units requested by the winning bids in the final allocation exceeds the number of available units (a condition referred to as “oversubscription”), the available units may be allocated to the winning bidders on a pro rata basis or some other allocation technique. Also, the auction may place caps and/or floors on the quantity and/or price of the bids. Also, non-competitive bids, i.e., bids with a specified quantity but no price, may be permitted. 
     In another general aspect, the present invention is directed to an auction system for auctioning such research resource units. The auction, as described below, may be conducted over the Internet according to various embodiments. 
     Other benefits and features of the present invention will be apparent from the description below. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       Embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of example in conjunction with the following figures, wherein, 
         FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating a process for auctioning securities research resources according to various embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of a network for auctioning securities research resources according to various embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a screen shot of a web page that may be served to prospective bidders that allows the prospective bidders to search for a particular auctioned item; 
         FIG. 4  is a screen shot of a web page that may be served to a prospective bidder who selected a particular auction; and 
         FIG. 5  is a screen shot of a web page that may be served to post the results from an auction. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for auctioning access to securities research resources. For purposes of the description to follow, the supplier of the securities research is sometimes referred to as a “sell-side firm” or as the “supplier.” The sell-side firm may be, for example, a brokerage or investment house. The consumer of the securities research may be an institutional investor, such as a pension fund, a mutual fund, or a hedge fund, or any other type of buy-side firm. A consumer of securities research is referred to herein as a “client” of a sell-side firm supplying the securities research or as a “buy-side firm,” or “consumer.” Securities research may refer to any kind of research generated by a sell-side firm regarding securities (e.g., stock or bonds). 
       FIG. 1  is a flowchart of a method  100  for auctioning securities research resources according to various embodiments of the present invention. The method  100  may be performed, for example, by the supplier of the securities research and/or a third party conducting the auction on behalf of the supplier. At step  102 , the discrete units of securities research resources to be auctioned may be determined. The research resource units are preferably limited resources. That is, for example, the units may be research/working time segments (e.g., hours) of a research team over a certain time period (e.g., one year). Such a time unit may entitle the consumer to occupy a member of the research team for an amount of time corresponding to the time unit for research-related purposes for the benefit of the consumer. Thus, the consumer may be entitled to, for example, consultative services with members of the research team during the allotted time, such as phone calls with team members, tailored emails from team members drafted in the allotted time, and other consultative communications. Accordingly, in this step the supplier would need to determine the number of working hours available from each of its research teams over the time period. This may be done, for example, by adding the projected number of hours each member of the team can devote to adequately fulfilling such consultative research-related demands of the buy-side clients over the period of time. The quantity of research time available from each of the respective research teams may vary with the capabilities of the teams. 
     The units may also be, for example, preferred access level positions (or “seats”) for research resources from the various research teams (and/or primary analyst of each team) of the supplier. Each research team/primary analyst may have a limited number of such seats available to consumers at a given time (e.g., twenty to fifty seats). Thus, in this step the supplier may need to determine the number of such preferred access seats that each primary analyst/research team can accommodate. The quantity of seats available from each of the respective research teams/primary analysts may vary with the capabilities of the teams/primary analysts. A consumer or buy-side firm in possession of such a seat may be referred to as a “seat-holder.” The seat may entitle the seat-holder to a greater level of consultative access to, for example, the primary analyst of the research team than non-seat-holders. For example, seat-holders may be entitled to direct telephone calls and/or face-to-face meetings with the primary analyst (or, for example, x number of direct research-related contacts with the primary analyst over a specified time period), whereas non-seat-holders may not be entitled to such access to the primary analyst. Also, seat-holders may be entitled to attend corporate road shows and/or corporate management meetings with the primary analyst, whereas non-seat-holders may not be entitled to attend such events. Buy-side clients of the sell-side firm that do not hold such seats, however, would still be entitled to all material research views of the primary analyst/research team with respect to covered companies that are disseminated in research products published by the primary analyst/research firm, such as published written reports (electronic or hardcopy reports), blast messages (e.g., blast phone mail or email messages), etc. 
     Also, according to various embodiments, different levels of preferred access services seats may even be used. That is, two (or more) types of such seats may be defined—one seat level providing more access to the research team/primary analyst than the other seat level (and so on). The different seat levels may be auctioned separately, as will be apparent from the description below. Also, alternatively or additionally, the units may be preferred access service seats with a junior member of the research team, rather than with the primary analyst. Thus, the sell-side firm may auction primary analyst seats as well as junior analyst seats. 
     According to other embodiments, the auctioned units may be one or more private meetings with a member of a research team of the sell-side firm. Such meetings may be face-to-face, at a location of the buy-side client and/or at a location of the sell-side research team, or the meetings may be via teleconference or videoconference. According to other embodiments, the units may entitle the holder to attend one or more conference calls, conferences or seminars conducted by a member of the research team where attendance at the event is limited to a certain number of participants. In other embodiments, the units may entitle the holder to attend one or more corporate access meetings with a member of the research team in attendance. Also, the auctioned units may be combination of these items. 
     The entity performing the auction (e.g., the supplier) may auction the units to potential consumers. The auction may be open only to certain potential consumers of the supplier&#39;s research, e.g., certain buy-side firms, or may be open to a broad community of consumers. The auction may include research units from each of its various research teams, or a number of different auctions may be conducted—one for each of the various research teams. 
     The auction may, for example, use a Dutch action-type format. In a Dutch auction-type format, the seller (i.e., the supplier of the research units) may specify a starting bid amount or range, and indicate the quantity of units available in the auction. Bidders who are interested in bidding on these items decide how many of the items they want and how much they want to pay for each item and then place their bid. When the auction ends, the bidders who place the highest bids for the items earn the right to purchase the items. The winning bidders may pay with cash or by some other means agreeable to both parties, such as soft dollar credits. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , at step  104 , the first bidding stage of the auction may be opened and correspondingly bids for units of the securities research resources may be received from bidding consumers. Each bid may include a bid quantity and a bid price. The bid quantity may refer to the number of units that the bidder would like. The bid price is the amount that the bidder is willing to pay for the specified number of units. According to various implementations, the bids may be made public by the entity conducting the auction or the bids may be held in secret (i.e., remain sealed). 
     It is envisioned that a particular consumer/bidder may make more than one bid for a particular unit. That is, a bidder may place a high value on a certain base level of units from a particular research team. The bidder may then submit a relatively high-priced bid for the base level of units in order to increase the likelihood of winning at least the base level of units in the auction. The bidder may also value additional units from the research team, and so also submit a bid for the additional units, but at a lower bid price than the bid price for the base level of units, reflecting the lower perceived value of the additional units to the bidder. 
     There may be time limits on the various bidding stages. That is, participants in the auction may be required to submit their bids within the time limit set for each such bidding stage. Participants in the auction may place their bids with the entity conducting the auction using a variety of communication channels, as described in more detail below. Also, received bids are preferably validated before processing. That is, the bids should be examined to determine whether, for example, they were submitted by eligible bidders, the price and quantity levels are positive numbers (and/or whole numbers where appropriate), whether the price and quantity levels are within the applicable ranges (described in more detail below), and so on. Invalid bids and late bids may be rejected and, consequently, not used in determining the final allocations of units to winning bidders. 
     Next, at step  106 , at the close of the bidding process, the available units of securities research resources may be allocated to the winning bidders. The winning bidders may be any bidder who submits a bid at or above the “clearing price” for the particular research unit. The “clearing price” corresponds to the highest price at which all the securities are sold in the auction. The winning bidders may be allocated the number of units requested by each of their respective winning bids, or some fraction thereof if the number of units requested by the winning bids exceeds the number of available units. For example, if the number of units requested by the winning bids exceeds the number of available units, the available units may be allocated to the winning bidders on a pro rata basis or according to some other allocation scheme. 
     In a Dutch auction, the price for the units, i.e., the price that the winning bidders pay to the supplier of units, corresponds to the clearing price from the auction. Thus, each winning bidder for a particular unit type pays the same price (the clearing price) for the units. According to other implementations of the present invention, the auction may use a variation of the Dutch auction sometimes referred to as a “Yankee” auction. In a Yankee auction, the price that a winning bidder pays corresponds to the bid price submitted by that winning bidder. As a result, in a Yankee auction winning bidders for a particular unit type may pay different prices. Also, if a particular bidder submitted two winning bids, the bidder may pay different prices for each of its winning bids in a Yankee auction. According to yet other embodiments, all winning bidders may pay a weighted average of the winning bid prices. The results of the allocation may be disclosed to all bidders or, in other variations, winning bidders will only be disclosed their respective allocation and corresponding price. 
     The auction process of  FIG. 1  may include a single bidding stage or a number of bidding stages (e.g., two or more). According to a multi-stage auction, non-final allocation determinations may be made at the close of each non-final bidding stage and bidders may analyze the results of the first (or previous) bidding stages to hone their bids for the second (or subsequent) bidding stage. The final allocation of the units may be based solely on bids from the second (or last) auction. According to various embodiments, only bidders who placed bids in a first bidding stage may participate in subsequent bidding stages, and so on. 
     According to various embodiments, the auction may caps and/or floors on the number of units that may be requested in a bid. For example, where the units are preferred access seats, bidders may be prohibited from requesting more than two seats with a particular research team. Also, where the units are research time from a research team, the minimum bid may be, for example, 10 hours for a particular team and the maximum bid may be, for example, 100 hours. Also, there may be floors and caps on the bid price. The caps/floors may be adjusted for the various bidding stages at, for example, the discretion of the supplier. 
     Also, according to various embodiments, bidders may be permitted to submit “non-competitive” bids (i.e., an auction bid that specifies a quantity but no price). With a non-competitive bid, a bidder may be guaranteed to receive a certain allocation of a certain number of units at a price determined based on the auction results. 
     If the amount of a particular auction unit requested by the winning bidders exceeds the available number of units in the auction, the available units may be allocated to the winners on a pro rata basis. In a pro rata allocation scheme, each winning bidder receives an allocation based on the ratio of the quantity requested in their winning bid to the total quantity requested by the winning bids. The following simplified example illustrates how a pro rata allocation might work in practice. For example, assume that 200 units of securities research resources are being auctioned and the sum of the bid amounts of the winning bids is 220. In that case, each bidder will be allocated 90.9% of their bid amount. For example, the units may be allocated to the winning bidders as follows: 
     
       
         
           
               
               
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Successful Bidder 
                 Bid Quantity 
                 Unit Allocation 
               
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                   
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
            
               
                 A 
                 10 
                 9 
               
               
                 B 
                 50 
                 45 
               
               
                 C 
                 15 
                 14 
               
               
                 D 
                 75 
                 68 
               
               
                 E 
                 45 
                 41 
               
               
                 F 
                 25 
                 23 
               
               
                 Total: 
                 220 
                 200 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     According to yet another allocation scheme, particularly useful in a Yankee auction format (where winning bidders may pay a different price per unit for the same unit type), the bidders who place winning bids above the lowest winning bid price (i.e., above the clearing price) receive all of their requested units, and bidders who bid the lowest winning bid price (i.e., bid the clearing price) share the remaining units on, for example, a pro rata basis or some other allocation basis. 
     The supplier may repeat the auction process periodically, such as quarterly, semi-annually, annually, etc., to thereby re-allocate the research resources of the supplier to reflect changes in supply and demand. Also, the supplier may conduct multiple auctions for different types of units. For example, a supplier may conduct an auction for seats giving preferred access to certain primary analysts as well as an auction for blocks of research time associated with certain research teams. Bidders may submit bids in each auction. Also, the supplier may conduct separate auctions for each research team/covered industry team of the supplier, or the supplier may conduct an omnibus auction in which units from multiple research teams of the supplier are auctioned. In such an auction, the bids would need to identify the relevant research team/primary analyst/industry sector. Also, where there are different levels of preferred access seats, the supplier may auction the preferred access seats separately. 
     According to various implementations of the auction, if it is determined at the close of the bidding that not enough bids have been submitted to sell all of the available units, the supplier may choose to perform the auction process again, this time with a lower minimum bid quantity and/or lower minimum bid price. The supplier may repeat this process if necessary until all of the available units are sold. 
     According to various embodiments, the auctions for the research resource units may be conducted over a data network, such as the Internet or some other type of IP network.  FIG. 2  illustrates a system  10  for conducting the auction according to various embodiments of the present invention over the Internet  11 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the system  10  may include a host computing system  8 , which may be implemented as one or a number of networked computing devices, such as servers, PCs, etc. The host computing system  8  may include an auction server  12  that may generate and host web pages pertaining to the auction. For example, the auction server  12  may generate and host pages that display information about the auction, based on data stored in a database  13 , such as a description of the units being auctioned, the number of auction stages in the auction, the time remaining in the current auction stage, etc. The auction server  12  may also generate and host pages that allow visitors, such as prospective bidders  14 , to search for particular types of units being auctioned, submit bids for auctioned items, and display the results of completed auctions. The bidders  14  may access the web pages over the Internet  11 . 
     The host computing system  8  may also include an auction compilation module  16  in communication with the auction system  12 . The auction compilation module  16  may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor (not shown) of the host computing system  8  using any type of computer instruction type suitable such as, for example, Java, C, C++, Visual Basic, etc., using, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer readable medium, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. 
     The auction compilation module  16  may verify the bids received by the auction server  12  over the Internet  11 , and determine the allocation of the auctioned units to the winning bidders based on the received bids. For example, the auction compilation module  16  may first verify the received bids by, for example, determining whether the bids are from registered bidders, ensuring that the bid quantities and prices are acceptable (e.g., not negative numbers), determining whether the bids have been submitted with the allotted time frame for the auction, etc. The auction compilation module  16  may then determine the allocation among the winning bidders based on the valid bids according to, for example, one of the allocation techniques described above. 
       FIG. 3  is a screen shot of a web page  20  that the auction server  12  may serve to the prospective bidders  14  that allows the prospective bidders  14  to search for a particular auctioned item. The web page  20  may include a field  22  where a visitor to the web site may enter a keyword(s) to search for a particular auctioned item. For example, the visitor to the web site may enter a particular industry (e.g., automotive, semiconductor, financial services, etc.) or the name of a particular analyst to find relevant auctions. Also, the web page  20  may include drop down windows  24  where the site visitor could review and select certain auctions grouped, for example, by industry, analyst or date. 
       FIG. 4  is a screen shot of a web page  30  that the auction server  12  may serve to a prospective bidder  14  who selected a particular auction. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the web page  30  may include an identification number  32  for the auctioned item, a listing  34  of the auctioned item, a link  36  to additional information about the auctioned item, and an indication  38  of the number of units available in the auction. Also as shown in  FIG. 4 , the web page  30  may indicate the minimum bid price (in this case $1,000), identify the number of auction stages (in this case 2), the current auction stage (in this case the 2nd stage), the amount of time remaining in the current auction stage, and the number of bids already submitted. Other information about the auction may also be displayed. In addition, the web page  30  may include a field  40  where the auction participant may enter the number of units requested and a field  42  for entering the bid price for each of the requested units. The auction participant may submit the bid by clicking on the SUBMIT icon  44 . 
       FIG. 5  is a screen shot of a web page  50  the auction server may host that posts the results from an auction. The web page  50  may list the auction participants who were allocated at least one of the auction units. According to various embodiments, the web page  50  posting the results of the auction may list the bid price of each winning bid, or that information may be maintained in confidence by the entity conducting the auction. 
     While several embodiments of the invention have been described, it should be apparent, however, that various modifications, alterations and adaptations to those embodiments may occur to persons skilled in the art with the attainment of some or all of the advantages of the present invention. For example, the steps of the auction process described above may be performed in various orders. It is therefore intended to cover all such modifications, alterations and adaptations without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.