Electronic completion of cash versus futures basis trades

An apparatus comprising:

• a server operative to communicate with a plurality of workstations and receive bids and offers for at least one item, the server comprising:
• a server storage device;
• a server processor connected to the server storage device, the server storage device storing a server program for controlling the server processor;
• the server processor operative with the server program to determine a measure of availability of a pre-determined quantity of a derivative instrument, the derivative instrument being based on the item, the measure of availability being based on bids and offers for the derivative instrument, a risk size that defines the pre-determined quantity of the derivative instrument, a risk factor that defines an excess amount of the derivative instrument over which availability is tested, and a risk tick that further tests whether the risk size plus the excess amount is obtainable within a threshold number of ticks from the best available bid/offer for the derivative instrument.