Patent ID: 8131621

Claim:
A system for facilitating trading in shares of an investment fund having (i) a portfolio comprising any combination of financial instruments and cash, and (ii) a general class of fund shares tradable in a secondary market, wherein assets enter and are removed from said investment fund through an exchange-traded fund share creation and redemption process governed by a set of rules, comprising: a memory configured to store modules comprising: a first module configured to perform at least one of specifying and delivering information that identifies a designated combination of financial instruments and cash that differs in composition from said fund portfolio to a specified degree; a second module configured to perform at least one of delivering and receiving said designated combination of financial instruments and cash in exchange for a specified number of shares of said general class of fund shares; a third module configured to receive notice of commitment to create or redeem shares of said general class of fund shares by a specified time prior to a time prices are determined for calculating a net asset value of said general class of fund shares and calculating a value of said designated financial instruments and cash; a fourth module configured to perform at least one of (i) purchasing one or more financial instruments and (ii) selling one or more financial instruments included in said fund portfolio or in said designated combination of financial instruments and cash after said fund receives a notice of commitment to create or redeem shares, and at or prior to a time prices are determined for calculating said net asset value of said general class of fund shares and calculating a value of said financial instruments and cash exchangeable for a specified number of shares of said general class of fund shares; and a fifth module configured to publish information calculated from data on partly undisclosed fund holdings comprising at least one of (a) estimated transaction costs for said purchases or sales of financial instruments included in said fund portfolio; (b) estimated transaction costs for said purchases or sales of financial instruments included in said designated combination of financial instruments and cash; (c) a comparison of the composition of said portfolio and said designated combination of financial instruments and cash; and (d) performance of said fund portfolio relative to at least one of (i) said designated combination of financial instruments and cash and (ii) an index; and one or more computer processors configured to process the modules.