Patent ID: 7127423

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for enabling investors to participate in a market index and preserve principal, said method comprising: offering for sale, via a host computer, an investment instrument, wherein said investment instrument includes a face value, term and date of maturity; accepting funds, via said host computer, from a purchaser for said investment instrument; allowing, via said host computer, said purchaser of said investment instrument to select a return-generating model for said investment instrument from at least two different return-generating models, at least one of said return-generating models being based on at least one of full and partial investment in a market index; calculating, via said host computer, a return earned by said investment instrument at an end of at least one of said term and said date of maturity according to said return-generating model selected by said purchaser; adding said return, via said host computer, to said face value of said investment instrument to calculate said principal of said investment instrument; guaranteeing said principal against losses; and distributing to said purchaser a monetary equivalent of at least one of said principal and said return.