Patent ID: 8600867

Claim:
A method for assigning responsibility for trade order execution to facilitate a sponsoring organization's asset management process that uses at least one asset management firm to manage the sponsoring organization's investment portfolios, the method comprising: receiving, through a computer-based communications network, orders from an asset management firm, each order comprising a number of asset units to buy or sell, wherein the orders are received through an order entry system comprising a computer-based graphical user interface and associated software program; determining, for each order, whether the sponsoring organization or the asset management firm is assigned discretion for facilitating execution of the each order, wherein the sponsoring organization is assigned discretion for low touch orders expected to have low market impact and the asset management firm is assigned discretion for high touch orders expected to have high market impact; facilitating, based on the assignment of discretion, execution of the high touch orders by at least one trading organization; and facilitating, based on the assignment of discretion, execution of the low touch orders by at least one trading organization.