Patent ID: 7778913

Claim:
A method of securing an ownership interest in a publicly traded corporation, wherein the method comprises: receiving a request to open a brokerage account; remotely providing account application information to an online brokerage; electronically signing an account agreement authorizing the establishment of an online brokerage account with said online brokerage; opening said online brokerage account; authorizing an online real-time transfer of investment funds to said online brokerage account; automatically, via a computer, initiating an online transfer of investment funds to said online brokerage account; using said online brokerage account to place an online real-time trading order using an abbreviation associated with said publicly traded corporation; using said online brokerage account to complete an online real-time trading order; and principalling, via a computer, said online brokerage account, wherein the principalling process includes: obtaining an account type selection; presenting electronically a list of new brokerage accounts having the selected account type to at least one principal; obtaining from the at least one principal an individual status designation for each of the new brokerage accounts listed, wherein said designation is indicative of acceptance or non-acceptance of the new brokerage accounts; obtaining a password from the at least one principal; and if the password is valid, updating records of the new brokerage accounts to reflect the individual status designations.