Patent ID: 7813999

Claim:
A method for operating an electronic stock exchange system comprising the steps of: establishing a client/server computer system dedicated to screen-based trading (SBT) and comprising a plurality of remote trading-member computer stations in communication with a computer server, an SBT software program running on said computer server, and a graphical user interface displayed by said SBT software on each of said remote trading-member computer stations; establishing a government regulating body to regulate said electronic stock exchange system, maintain said computer server, approve trading members for use of said plurality of remote trading-member computer stations, and implement regulations governing said exchange; transforming a future cash flow into current equity capital by the substeps of, an issuing company contracting one of said approved trading members to be an underwriter to market a fair revenue participation contract (FRPC) investment instrument to individual investors via said electronic stock exchange system, said issuing company negotiating terms of offering of said FRPC investment instrument the contracted approved trading member, said negotiated terms including a percentage of future revenue to be paid to said individual investors, a length of time for which the agreed percentage of future revenue will be paid, and an amount of current equity capital to be paid by the individual investors for ownership of each FRPC investment instrument, appraising and negotiating critical tangible assets of said issuing company to be pledged as security to a trustee company for due performance of said issuing company's negotiated percentage of future revenue payment obligations under said FRPC investment instrument, said issuing company assigning ownership of said appraised and negotiated critical tangible assets to said trustee, said trustee granting an exclusive license to use said tangible critical assets back to said issuing company, preparing an information memorandum by said contracted approved trading member and electronically distributing said information memorandum to all approved trading members and to prospective FRPC investors over said electronic stock exchange system, procuring investors, by said approved trading members, to purchase said issuing company's underwritten investment instruments whereby said investors become said investment instrument holders, and purchasing by said investment instrument holders of units of said investment instruments; and establishing a secondary market for said FRPC investment instruments by continued trading of said FRPC certificates in script-less form between approved trading members acting on behalf of buying and selling FRPC investment instrument holders over said electronic stock exchange system via their respective of remote trading-member computer stations.