Patent ID: 7739174

Claim:
A method for handling a price inquiry via at least one market process operating on a computer, wherein the price inquiry identifies an item for trading, the method comprising: automatically performing, via a computer, auction mode discovery for the item at a market provided by the at least one market process, wherein the market process has an order book of prices for trading the item that is published to a plurality of trading processes that are participating in the market, the item having a book buy price that is the highest price in the order book for buying the item and a book sell price that is the lowest price in the order book for selling the item, and wherein the amount mode discovery comprises: providing the book buy price or book sell price for the item to a set of trading processes among the plurality of trading processes, wherein the trading processes are computer-implemented processes executing on a computer; and inviting the trading processes in the set of trading processes to provide an improved price for the item, the improved price being a price that is higher than the book buy price for buying the item or lower than the book sell price for selling the item but is not posted in the order book; and if a response with an improved price is received from a trading process in the set of trading processes, automatically acting upon the price inquiry by treating the price inquiry and the response as orders for the item and pairing the price inquiry with the response for execution in accordance with the received improved price.