Apparatus and method for intervention in electronic markets

A transaction management system for managing the purchase of products and/or services by a buyer from sellers, the system comprising:

• a data store for storing:
• seller data comprising, for each of a plurality of sellers, a seller identifier and seller offer data indicating at least one product and/or service offered for sale;
• and
• transaction data comprising, for each of a plurality of historical transactions, a transaction identifier, a seller identifier and a buyer identifier;
• a program store storing processor implementable instructions;
• and
• a processor coupled to the data store and to the program store for implementing the stored instructions, wherein the stored instructions comprise instructions for controlling the processor to:
• implement a buyer interface to receive a purchase inquiry from a buyer, the purchase inquiry comprising purchase criteria for a product and/or service;
• output seller offer data for a plurality of sellers, the sellers each being able to meet the purchase criteria for the product and/or service requirement;
• and
• receive a purchase request from the buyer accepting an offer of the product and/or service from one of the sellers, thereby creating a transaction,
• wherein the stored instructions further comprise instructions for controlling the processor to analyze the transaction data to determine stability of at least one market associated with the transaction data, the stability of the or each market being a measure of market liquidity.