Patent ID: 8417623

Claim:
A system comprising: (a) one or more first computers configured to: (i) receive, from one or more investors, data representing purchase or sell orders on a secondary market for a first class of shares issued by a single investment company that are listed for trading on a national securities exchange and that are bought and sold at negotiated market prices, wherein the single investment company has also issued a second class of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value, and wherein an owner of any share of the first or second class of shares has an undivided interest in the single investment company; (ii) maintain account data for each of the one or more investors that reflects the number of shares of the first class of shares held by the investor; and (iii) send the data representing the purchase or sell orders to a second computer; and (b) one or more second computers in electronic communication with the one or more first computers, the one or more second computers configured to: (i) maintain firm bid and offer prices in the first class of shares by automatically buying or selling shares of the first class of shares at publicly quoted prices; (ii) receive data representing the purchase or sell orders from the one or more first computers; (iii) automatically fulfill the purchase or sell orders by providing data to the one or more broker computers indicating the purchase or sale is complete; and (iv) generate data representing a basket of securities that has an equivalent monetary value to a predetermined number of shares of the first class of shares.