Method and system for implementing an investment company that issues a class of conventional shares and a class of exchange-traded shares in the same fund

A system comprising:

• (a) one or more first computers configured to:
• (i) receive, from one or more investors, data representing purchase or sell orders on a secondary market for a second class of shares issued by a single investment company that are listed for trading on a national securities exchange and that are bought and sold at negotiated market prices, wherein the single investment company has also issued a first class of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value, and
• wherein an owner of any share of the first or second class of shares has an undivided interest in the single investment company,
• (ii) maintain account data for each of the one or more investors that reflects the number of shares of the second class of shares held by the investor,
• (iii) send the data representing the purchase or sell orders to a second computer, and
• (iv) send an electronic request to the single investment company to convert a designated number or dollar value of shares of the first class of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value for a monetarily equivalent number of shares of the second class of shares that are listed for trading on a national securities exchange to the single investment company;
• and
• (b) one or more second computers in electronic communication with the one or more first computers, the one or more second computers configured to:
• (i) maintain firm bid and offer prices in the second class of shares by automatically buying or selling shares of the second class of shares at publicly quoted prices,
• (ii) receive data representing the purchase or sell orders from the one or more first computers,
• (iii) automatically fulfill the purchase or sell orders by providing data to the one or more broker computers indicating the purchase or sale is complete, and
• (iv) generate data representing a basket of securities that has an equivalent monetary value to a predetermined number of shares of the second class of shares;
• and

A system comprising:

• (a) a first processor which records a first class of shares issued by the single investment company that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value;
• (b) a second processor which records a second class of shares issued by the single investment company that are listed for trading on a national securities exchange and that are bought and sold at negotiated market prices, wherein the second class of shares are exchange-traded shares, and wherein investors may purchase or sell the exchange-traded shares on the secondary market by sending a request through one or more first computers, and wherein account data for each of investors is maintained at the one or more first computers to reflect the number of shares of the second class of shares held by the investor;
• (c) one or more second computers that maintain data of the outstanding shares of the first and second class of shares, wherein an owner of any share of any share class has an undivided interest in the single investment company;
• and
• (d) a third processor configured to:
• (i) receive and implement an electronic request for conversion of a designated number or dollar value of shares belonging to the first class of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value for a monetarily equivalent number of shares of the second class of shares that are exchange-traded shares of the single investment company, and
• (ii) update the data in the one or more second computers to reflect the new number of outstanding shares of the first and second class of shares.