Opening price process for trading system

A computer program product for removing a lock/cross condition to allow opening of trading in a security said computer program product residing on a computer readable medium comprising instructions for causing a computer to:

• identify the oldest of interest at the most aggressive price on each side of the market;
• select the older interest of the identified interest to designate as initial interest;
• match initial interest against all contra side interest;
• remove the lock/cross condition to allow opening of trading in the security;
• and
• disseminate electronically over a distributed computer system network, opening bid and offer prices as the prices of quotes that remain at the top of the bid and offer sides of the market.

A system for determining an opening price for products traded over a distributed, networked computer system, said system comprising:

• a plurality of workstations for entering orders for a financial product into the distributed, networked computer system;
• and
• a server computer coupled to the workstations for the orders, said server computer executing a server process that removes a lock/cross condition to allow opening of trading in the financial product and determines an opening price for the financial product, the server process comprising instructions that cause the server to:
• identify the oldest of interest at the most aggressive price on each side of the market;
• select the older interest of the identified interest to designate as initial interest;
• and
• match initial interest against all contra side interest;
• disseminate opening bid and offer prices as the prices of quotes that remain at the top of the bid and offer sides of the market.