Patent ID: 8452682

Claim:
A method for facilitating trading in shares of an investment fund having (i) a portfolio comprising any combination of financial instruments and cash, and (ii) a general class of fund shares tradable in a secondary market, wherein assets enter and are removed from said investment fund through a process of exchanging a designated combination of financial instruments and cash for a specified number of shares of said general class of fund shares, said process governed by a set of rules, comprising: specifying and delivering information that identifies a designated combination of financial instruments and cash that differs in composition from said fund portfolio to a specified degree; generating and publishing, with a trading cost estimation module, information calculated from data on partly undisclosed fund holdings, including at least one of (a) estimated transaction costs for purchases or sales of financial instruments included in said fund portfolio; (b) estimated transaction costs for purchases or sales of financial instruments included in said designated combination of financial instruments and cash; (c) one or more schedules of supplementary transaction fees to be added to any administrative or other fees charged for said exchange; (d) a comparison of the composition of said portfolio and said designated combination of financial instruments and cash; and (e) a comparison of performance of said fund portfolio relative to at least one of (i) said designated combination of financial instruments and cash and (ii) an index; said transaction costs calculated by a transaction cost estimation module calibrated for the specific transaction procedures the fund expects to use; receiving notice, with a notification module, of commitment to create or redeem shares of said general class of fund shares by a time prices are determined for calculating a net asset value of said general class of fund shares and calculating a value of said designated financial instruments and cash; and directing, with a transaction module, at least one of (i) purchasing one or more financial instruments, and (ii) selling one or more financial instruments included in said fund portfolio or in said designated combination of financial instruments and cash after said fund receives a notice of commitment to create or redeem shares; wherein the modules are processed by one or more computer processors.