Patent ID: 7171386

Claim:
A method for trading a commodity, comprising: receiving, in encoded form via a computer network, a plurality of bids and a plurality of offers pertaining to a common commodity; displaying the bids and offers on a computer monitor; generating a trading offer including a trading rate or price per unit of the commodity, and a number of units of the commodity, the trading offer additionally including identification of the stop value as a stop amount per unit of the commodity; automatically calculating a total stop amount for the trading offer, the total stop amount being a monetary amount required to cover a stop execution on the trading offer, the total stop amount including a primary quantity equal to a stop value multiplied by the number of units of the commodity included in the trading offer; automatically comparing the total stop amount with an available amount in a client or trader account; and transmitting a digital signal encoding the trading offer over the computer network for distribution to multiple traders.