Method, Apparatus and Interface for Transaction Toggling

#The present invention is generally directed to electronic trading, and in particular, facilitates trading of any tradeable object in an electronic trading environment.

#Trading methods have evolved from a manually intensive process to a technology enabled, electronic platform. Advances in technology are having an increasingly large and broad impact on trading and the way in which exchanges conduct business. What was previously seen as just a supplement to the traditional pit trading, electronic trading platforms continue to increase in importance and popularity. The advent of electronic trading has meant that a customer can be in virtually direct contact with the market, from practically anywhere in the world, performing near real-time transactions, and without the need to make personal contact with a broker. Electronic trading systems are also convenient for floor brokers on the floor at an exchange for receiving orders electronically.

#Exchanges and auction houses that support electronic trading are generally based on a host, one or more computer networks, and clients. In general, the host includes one or more centralized computers to form the electronic heart. Its operations typically include order matching, maintaining order books and positions, price information, and managing and updating a database that records such information. The host is also equipped with an external interface that maintains uninterrupted contact to the clients and possibly other trading-related systems.

#The presently preferred embodiments are described herein with reference to the drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 shows an example host exchange, gateway, and client device that implements the trading of tradeable objects;

#FIG. 2A is an example of a trading window 200 for spread trading;

#In accordance with the presently preferred embodiments, tools are provided to assist a trader in limiting the number of transactions, e.g., orders, quotes, etc., submitted in an electronic trading environment. In this context, a trader is anyone who participates in trading tradeable objects. A tradeable object, as that term is used herein, refers simply to anything that can be traded with a quantity and/or price. It includes all types of tradeable objects, including but not limited to financial products, which can include, for example, stocks, options, bonds, futures, currency, and warrants, as well as funds, derivatives and collections of the foregoing, and all types of commodities, such as grains, energy, and metals. The tradeable object may be “real,” such as products that are listed by an exchange or auction house for trading, or “synthetic,” such as a combination of real products that is created by a trader or other user. The present embodiments, which generically may be referred to herein as a “transaction toggler,” are provided to facilitate automated trading and are, in addition, particularly suitable for the automatic trading of spreads. Other applications for the transaction toggler, however, will be apparent from the following detailed description.

#In the following sections of this detailed description, an overview of an electronic trading network is presented, followed by an illustration of spread trading over the electronic trading network. Next, the transaction toggling method is described. An embodiment of an interface for use with the transaction toggling method is thereafter presented. Finally, some alternative embodiments are described.

#FIG. 1 shows an example host exchange, gateway, and client device that implements the trading of tradeable objects. In a typical implementation, the system generally includes a host exchange 100, a gateway 102, and a client device 104. Preferably, the system can support up to X host exchanges, Y gateways 102, and Z client devices (although X host exchanges, Y gateways, and Z client devices are not shown for sake of clarity), where X, Y, and Z represent any number. In an illustrative embodiment, X and Y may be the same number such that there is a one-to-one correspondence between host exchanges 100 and gateways 102, but such numerical correspondence is not required. In addition, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art, a single physical structure (e.g., a server) may, with appropriate programming/firmware, serve as multiple gateways.