Patent ID: 7437323

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining a spot price for a commodity on a spot market, comprising: generating market states using historical data, wherein the historical data includes transactional data and non-transactional data, wherein the transactional data includes prices and quantities of the commodity and date sold in past transactions, wherein the non-transactional data includes non-transactional information or conditions that affect the spot price or demand of the commodity, wherein the market states include market stat attributes, and wherein the market state attributes include product- or service-based data, customer-based data, competitor-based data, seasonal variations, and special events; calculating a forecast of the market states for a next pricing period, wherein the forecast includes a forecast price for the commodity on the spot market during the next pricing period; generating a clustering index for each of the past transactions and each of the forecasted market states; comparing clustering indices of the past transactions and the forecasted market states for the next pricing period; and generating a price-demand curve for the commodity on the spot market for the next pricing period using records from the past transactions having clustering indices that are the same or comparable to the cluster index of the forecasted market states for the next pricing period.