Methods and systems for retrieving data stored in a database

#The present application relates the retrieval of data stored in a database or as computer files. More particularly, the present application relates to methods and systems for searching or querying sequentially data stored in at least one database.

#Bonds are interest-bearing securities issued by governments, government agencies and quasi-government agencies (municipal bonds), or by commercial corporations with the promise to repay the principal at a fixed future maturity date. The present invention is applicable to the trading of municipal bonds issued by state and local municipalities and with corporate and other securities traded in a comparable manner as will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

#Securities brokers are licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to buy and sell, or trade in financial securities including commercial stocks and bonds and municipal bonds, on behalf of members of the public, for a commission. Any licensed securities broker can trade in bonds, separate licensing is not necessary, but some brokers specialize in particular types of bond. No formally organized exchange exists for trading bonds. When a securities broker needs to find a purchaser for a municipal bond to complete a sale for a selling customer or needs inventory of municipal bonds from which to make a purchase for a buying customer, the securities broker will generally go to a broker's broker who typically specializes in municipal bonds and deals only with other brokers, not with members of the public. Brokers' brokers, herein referred to as “municipal bond brokers” or simply “brokers”, act on behalf of broker dealers, herein referred to as “traders”, to maintain a market on a riskless and undisclosed basis. Traders are individuals who maintain and control a market within their firm for their sales people, but rely on brokers for transactions with the outside world, with what is known as the “street” market. Brokers maintain “books” of the highest bid a prospective purchaser is willing to make, herein referred to as “bids”, and of the lowest “ask”, or lowest price asked by a prospective selling trader, herein referred to as an “offering”, on numerous different municipal bond issues. An offering is a relatively passive listing of an agency and lot as being available for sale at the asked price. An offering lacks urgency and immediacy and lists of offering are maintained as on-hand inventory by municipal bond brokers. When a client wishes to make a quick sale of a bond lot that fact is broadcast to prospective buying traders as a “bid wanted” for a limited period of time, typically a few hours, or a day or two at most, to solicit a high bid.

#Some preferred embodiments of the invention, including the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention, will now be described in detail herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate only one specific embodiment of the invention and in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the flow of data between a bond selling trader and multiple buying traders linked via a municipal bond trading system according to the invention;

#FIG. 1A is a schematic block flow diagram of a bond trade transaction performed by the bond trading system illustrated in FIG. 1;

#The present invention relates to a computerized system providing new ways of brokering municipal bonds, thus enabling municipal bond brokers to conduct business more efficiently and enabling a municipal bond brokerage (or “broker” hereinbelow) to provide a more efficient marketplace for bonds. It provides an in-house computer system employing novel computer-implemented brokerage software. The system could be implemented on a stand-alone or multi-user dumb terminal system, but is preferably implemented on a local area network, herein referred to as a “LAN”. Enhanced embodiments of the system contemplate a wide area network, herein referred to as a “WAN”, in which remotely situated trader customers can communicate across a digital network with a central brokerage house. An alternative embodiment of the invention is to register the municipal bond trading system as a licensed exchange with the Securities and Exchange Commission, hereinafter referred to as “SEC”.

#Pursuant to the invention, the broker (broker's broker or municipal bond specialist) compiles records of all offers received from various traders and firms into a central listing of offerings. “Offerings” which have not traded (because they did not receive their ask price) or low bids made against those offerings can be easily marked for inclusion in a silent auction pursuant to the invention as “bid wanteds”. Such a “silent” auction is a novel and beneficial feature of the invention, not heretofore known in the industry.

#Traders participate in silent auctions, with secret bidding, and rely on brokers to run these silent auctions. Referring to FIG. 1, in a preferred embodiment such as that shown in the drawings, the invention comprises a software-enabled, computer-implemented municipal bond trading system 10 for use by SEC-registered municipal bond brokers firms to serve the community of SEC-registered securities brokerage firms who deal with the public, such as selling traders 14 and buying traders 12, for executing transactions in unlisted securities, especially municipal bonds, without disclosing the seller to the prospective buyer.