Patent ID: 8744949

Claim:
A method for processing option orders, comprising: establishing customer routing rules, wherein said customer routing rules specify a preference for an option exchange; receiving, by a processor, an option order, said option order comprising a customer identifier, and a security underlyer and quantity to be purchased or sold according to said option order; comparing, using the processor, terms of said option order with said customer routing rules to determine whether said customer routing rules apply to said option order based on said customer identifier, said security underlyer and said quantity; wherein, when said customer routing rules lack explicit routing instructions for said option order: retrieving current national best bid and offer (NBBO) pricing data for said option order; retrieving a specified tolerance between said option order and said current NBBO pricing data within which said option order can be routed to a specialist, wherein said specialist is associated with specialist pricing; comparing said current NBBO pricing data to said specialist pricing for said option order to determine if said option order can be routed to said specialist; routing said option order to said specialist when said specialist pricing is within said specified tolerance; wherein, when said customer routing rule applies to said option order; routing, using the processor, said option order to a selected option exchange according to said customer routing rules; executing, using the processor, said option order; monitoring, using the processor, routing data and execution data of said executed option order; determining an execution quality of said executed option order by comparing execution quality requirements to said execution data; and reporting said routing data and execution quality to said customer.