Patent ID: 7979334

Claim:
A computer implemented method of determining a buying power of an investment portfolio for a given security, the method comprising the steps of: a) storing a set of compliance rules in a database, each of the compliance rules defining a limit on an amount of shares of the security that can be added to the investment portfolio based on predetermined criteria; b) calculating a transaction limit for a proposed transaction involving the security for each compliance rule in the set of compliance rules; c) sorting the set of compliance rules from most restrictive to least restrictive based on the calculated transaction limit for each compliance rule, wherein the most restrictive compliance rule has a lowest transaction limit and the least restrictive compliance rule has a highest transaction limit, and wherein the steps of calculating the transaction limit and sorting the set of compliance rules are performed by an analytical server; d) displaying a buying power message box on an output device, wherein the buying power message box displays the sorted set of compliance rules and the calculated transaction limit for each rule; and e) displaying a rule description box on the output device with the buying power message box, wherein the rule description box defines how the transaction limit was calculated.