Patent ID: 8332324

Claim:
A method for operating an exchange coupled to a communications network and including a control unit, an offer-to-sell database configured to store specific offers to sell, and an offer-to-buy database configured to store offers to buy, the method comprising: upon receipt of one or more offers to buy from one or more potential buyers, downloading the offers to buy into the offer-to-buy database; upon receipt of one or more offers to sell from one or more potential sellers, downloading the one or more offers to sell into the offer-to-sell database; comparing parameters of the offers to buy stored in the offer-to-buy database with parameters of the offers to sell stored in the offer-to-sell database; facilitating, by the control unit, dynamic bidding by the one or more potential sellers, including enabling the one or more potential sellers to change a price associated with an offer to sell, to achieve a lowest-price offer to sell in response to a particular offer to buy; and communicating to a potential seller only offers to buy within a designated geographic region.