Patent ID: 8521635

Claim:
A method of negotiating trades on an electronic trading system, comprising the steps of: storing by the electronic trading system in an order book memory bids and offers for an instrument entered by users at respective user terminals; receiving by the electronic trading system a trade negotiation request with respect to a selected order selected by one of the users and having a priority position in the order book; forwarding by the electronic trading system, prior to the selected order being matched, the trade negotiation request to a submitter of the selected order, wherein a match occurs when a bid order price for the instrument equals or exceeds an offer order price for the instrument; receiving by the electronic trading system an accept or a reject to the trade negotiation request from the submitter; and initiating by the electronic trading system an intra-trading-system negotiation procedure between the user and the submitter for the selected order when the negotiation request is accepted by the submitter, where the intra-trading-system is within the electronic trading system and the intra-trading-system negotiation procedure uses a control unit in the electronic trading system to control the negotiation procedure; setting the selected order in the order book to a frozen state at the priority position in the order book, wherein the frozen order cannot be matched by the electronic trading system while the negotiation procedure is active; and setting the selected order at the priority position in the order book to a non-frozen state when the negotiation results in a non-agreement to trade between the user and the submitter and allowing the electronic trading system to match the selected order at the priority position in the order book with other orders.