Patent ID: 7945500

Claim:
A method for providing insurance for commodity purchasing, comprising: creating a first insurance strike price matrix corresponding to a commodity at an insurance system, wherein the first insurance strike price matrix comprises a first set of insurance strike prices and associated insurance premiums for a first set of locales, wherein each insurance strike price and associated first insurance premium is associated with a locale selected from the first set of locales; obtaining a payment associated with a first insurance strike price and associated insurance premium associated with a locale selected from the first set of locales from a first consumer; and indemnifying the first consumer for purchases of the commodity based upon the first insurance strike price, wherein the insurance strike price matrix is used to provide a price protection contract for a commodity to a second consumer based on data regarding desired price protection obtained from the second consumer, where the price protection contract has an associated time period, lock price and locale wherein the lock price is associated with the selected locale and is determined based upon the first insurance strike price and associated insurance premium for the selected locale and for a set of purchases occurring in the locale during the time period the consumer has a right to aggregately purchase the commodity and, wherein for each purchase within the locale the commodity may be purchased at the lock price associated with the locale if a first index price associated with the commodity and the locale at a first time of the purchase is above the lock price associated with the locale or at a retail price of the commodity otherwise.