Patent ID: 7908198

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of facilitating trading, comprising: under control of instructions executed by one or more computing devices of a computer system: automatically capturing data regarding a trade between two market participants that are each parties to the trade, wherein the trade results in an exchange of items between the two market participants, wherein one of the market participants is engaged in the trade as a buyer and the other of the market participants is engaged in the trade as a seller, and wherein the captured data includes data regarding the trade for both the buyer side and seller side of the trade; automatically determining from the captured data whether each of the two market participants has gained money or lost money from the trade in which they engaged; and automatically updating a rating for each of the two market participants based on the determination of whether money was gained or lost from the trade, wherein the rating for each of the market participants is descriptive of the market participant as a trading party and is based on the outcome of trading between the two market participants.