Systems and methods for improving the liquidity and distribution network for illiquid items

摘要

Systems and methods that may provide speculators an opportunity to invest in items and markets that, in the past, were not liquid enough to allow for investment by the general public are provided. Systems and methods for creating indices for these items or markets are also provided. One embodiment of the systems and methods of the invention pertains to the trading of futures and/or options contracts based on an intellectual property assets index. This embodiment allows investors to invest in or hedge against the success of failure of a company's of group of companies' intellectual property assets. Another embodiment of the systems and methods of the invention pertains to the trading of futures and/or options contracts based on a bankruptcy index. This embodiment may provide investors with protection from losses associated with the bankruptcy of one or more companies.