Patent ID: 8204817

Claim:
A method for providing market data in an electronic trading environment, comprising: receiving market information for a tradeable object being traded at an electronic exchange, the market information comprising a plurality of price levels and a plurality of order quantities, wherein each price level of the plurality of price levels is associated with at least one trade order pending at the electronic exchange to buy or sell an order quantity for the tradeable object; determining by a computer device that the plurality of price levels includes a linear price level and a non-linear price level, wherein the non-linear price level is separated by more than one default tick increment from a preceding price level of the plurality of price levels; generating by the computer device an indicator sequence comprising a plurality of fields to represent the plurality of price levels, wherein each of the plurality of fields provides an indicator that indicates whether the corresponding price level is linear or non-linear; generating by the computer device a price feed message comprising the indicator sequence, the plurality of order quantities, and the non-linear price level, wherein the linear price level is not provided in the price feed message; and sending the price feed message to a receiving terminal.