Patent ID: 8494948

Claim:
A rules engine computer system, comprising: a) an interface configured to receive a plurality of transactions, each transaction containing a request either (1) for an order to be sent to a market for execution or (2) for execution of an asset transfer from an account; and b) a non-transitory storage medium having rules stored thereon, the rules being configured to determine whether or not to allow execution of a requested order or asset transfer, the rules having parameters configured to analyze the requested order or asset transfer and a plurality of preset levels of scope of application, wherein: each rule has an assigned level of scope of application selected from the plurality of preset levels, each preset level of scope of application specifies a scope of source of transactions for which a corresponding rule should apply to all transactions from any source within the specified scope, and the assigned level corresponding to each rule is adjustable from a first one of the plurality of preset levels to a second one of the plurality of preset levels based on a user setting; and c) an order/transaction processing section having access to the storage medium, the order/transaction processing section configured to apply at least one of the rules to each respective received transaction based on source and level of the respective received transaction being within the specified scope of each applied rule, to determine whether or not to allow execution of the requested order or asset transfer contained in the respective received transaction, wherein: upon determining to automatically approve execution of the requested order or asset transfer contained in a first received transaction, based on application of at least one of the rules to the request for the order or asset transfer in the first received transaction, the order/transaction processing section forwards the order or the asset transfer in the request contained in the first received transaction to an execution process for fulfillment; and upon the application of at least one of the rules to a second received transaction indicating a manual user approval is required for execution of the order or asset transfer, in the request contained in a second received transaction, the order/transaction processing section forwards the request for the order or asset transfer contained in the second received transaction to a user for possible manual approval for execution for fulfillment.