Systems and methods for protecting against erroneous price entries in the electronic trading of financial and other instruments

A method for protecting against the occurrence of erroneous price entries, the method comprising:

• displaying on a user interface a plurality of bid and ask prices;
• receiving a trade command from a user to hit or lift at least one price from the plurality of bid and ask prices;
• determining whether the at least one price has changed from a first price to a second price within a predetermined period of time from the receipt of the trade command;
• and
• if the price has changed within the predetermined period of time, presenting the user with the opportunity to submit at least a portion of the trade command at the second price or cancel the trade command.

A system for protecting against the occurrence of erroneous price entries displaying market information for an item, the system comprising a server adapted to distribute a plurality of bid and ask prices associated with the item to a plurality of workstations that are coupled to the server, each of the plurality of workstations displaying a user interface, having an input device and being adapted to:

• display on the user interface the plurality of bid and ask prices;
• receive a trade command from a user to hit or lift at least one price from the plurality of bid and ask prices;
• determine whether the at least one price has changed by at least a predetermined number of increments from a first price to a second price;
• and
• if the at least one price has changed by at least the predetermined number of increments, present the user with the opportunity to submit at least a portion of the trade command at the second price or cancel the trade command.

A system for protecting against the occurrence of erroneous price entries displaying market information for an item, the system comprising a server adapted to distribute a plurality of bid and ask prices associated with the item to a plurality of workstations that are coupled to the server, each of the plurality of workstations displaying a user interface, having an input device and being adapted to:

• display on a user interface a plurality of bid and ask prices;
• receive a trade command from a user to hit or lift at least one price from the plurality of bid and ask prices;
• determine whether the at least one price has changed from a first price to a second price within a predetermined period of time from the receipt of the trade command;
• and
• if the price has changed within the predetermined period of time, present the user with the opportunity to submit at least a portion of the trade command at the second price or cancel the trade command.