INSTINET COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR EFFECTUATING THE SALE OR EXCHANGE OF FUNGIBLE PROPERTIES BETWEEN SUBSCRIBERS

摘要

1304421 Transacting sales of fungibles INSTITUTIONAL NETWORKS CORP 24 Feb 1970 [24 Feb 1969] 8827/70 Heading G4A A computer is arranged to transact sales of fungible properties, e.g. stocks and shares, and comprises a central processor, and a number of peripheral subscriber stations each comprising a typewriter input and a printer output. The computer receives incoming buy and sell offers from the subscriber stations and arranges these in buy and sell offer lists ordered by price, offers bearing the same price being ordered according to their time of arrival. The system automatically compares each incoming buy offer with the ordered sell offers and vice versa. Each match causes a transaction to be completed and the parties concerned, identified by a bit field associated with each offer, are informed. The procedure repeats until either the incoming offer is fulfilled or the list exhausted, any remaining part of the incoming offer being placed in the appropriate list. Each offer may be broadcast to all the subscribers via a separate channel. Each subscriber may call for a print out of the lists and may respond either to this print out or to a "broadcast". If the reply "matches" an offer a transaction is completed otherwise the offering subscriber is informed of the reply which he may accept, causing a transaction to be effected, or make a further offer. The subscribers are preventing from accessing the subscriber offer identifications and each offer is also referred to by a reference number. Data keyed in at a subscriber station may be displayed for checking and rekeyed if erroneous. Printouts may include the date and time of the corresponding action. The Specification contains a detailed description of flow drawings which describe the procedures followed by the computer.