WO2001054039A2 - Improved system and method for interactive processing and display of information - Google Patents

Abstract

A first and second embodiment of a system and method are described that enables network subscribers, to access and manipulate trading data information centrally available to the network subscribers, to display the trading data information in a trading friendly manner, to interactively and responsively with one or more other network subscribers to take actions with respect to certain displayed data information, to have the interrelating of trading data information from various databases for substantially simultaneous updating of various screen displays when network subscriber opens or refreshes his system, and to provide extrinsic data information that the user desires for viewing in conjunction with the data information that is centrally available that may be trading or non-trading related.

Description

Improved System and Method For Interactive Processing And Display Of Information Field Of The Invention The present invention relates to computer-based systems and methods that may be used to conduct trading transactions. More specifically, the present invention relates to improved computer-based systems and methods that may be used to conduct trading transactions in real-time.

Background Of The Invention As computer systems have become more sophisticated and robust, and coupled with greater trust computer security, there has been increased use of the computers in the

« active trading of stocks, bonds, and other securities. For example, since the 1990's computerized trading has been authorized on a 24 (twenty-four) hour a day basis. The days in which computers were being used solely for the purpose of record keeping have passed and the days of traders primarily using computers is here.

Although traders are now using computers, many of their activities follow the traditional trading methods to view a current offer at a given price and then bid on that offering. The owner or agent for the owner will then consider the offer and act upon it without, in many cases, additional information that would be helpful in his deliberations. These processes, even involving the use of computers, merely substitute a computer for that which was done through the use of telephones, facsimiles, and the other manual systems. In Europe, the Far East, as well as in the United States, there are now established electronic exchanges for the buying and selling of securities and commodities.

These exchanges permit the viewing of offers and bids for such securities and commodities on a real-time or almost real-time basis. The buy and sell information is exchanged on-line so that binding transactions may be effected in an expeditious manner.

In securities transactions, for example, the selling price of the security is available for viewing and the potential buyer will indicate the number of shares sought to be purchased at a locked in price, given that the price of such securities is constantly changing. Once the offer is accepted, the transaction will he completed by the transfer of funds from the buyer to the seller, or in the case of other transactions, such as buying on the margin, when the required payment rules are completed.

In the case of commodities transactions, the process is similar to that for securities transactions; however, there are a number of specific differences. Commodities transactions also have buyers and sellers the same as securities transactions, but the process involves more bargaining with regard to the offers and counteroffers before a deal will close. This presents challenges for electronic trading because of the amount of information that must be made available to the buyers and sellers on-line in real-time, the historical data that must be maintained, and the ability to act swiftly and accurately on-line in real-time to close the deal. Moreover, when dealing in commodities, certain markets may involve only a small number of buyers and sellers so there is the need to maintain the anonymity of the parties to prevent discriminatory practices.

Whether securities or commodities transactions are involved, there is a desire to have as much information available as possible so that intelligent buy or sell decisions may be made. However, the information that is desired in just about all of the cases far exceeds the available space on the trader's electronic display. The displayed information usually does not cater to any specific transaction but tends to be more general in nature, so the two negotiating parties do not have an opportunity to bargain in an atmosphere separate and apart from others. Even in light of the drawbacks mentioned above and others that have not been mentioned, electronic trading of securities and commodities is here to stay and increasing in popularity. Electronic trading is not only being carried out internationally on large and small exchanges by traders, but now individuals are trading electronically through brokers and in some cases directly themselves. Given the plethora of electronic trading at all levels, there is the need for not only large amounts of information being readily available for on-line securities and commodities trading, but also for filtering of this information so that it can be effectively used on a real-time basis. Further, there is the need to be able to interactively manipulate the trading information so that changing conditions can he easily and readily seen so that the buyers and sellers may react in a timely and appropriate manner. Trading in securities and commodities is not an exact science. Buyers and sellers will consider information that is directly related to the security or commodity being considered for selling or buying, and also peripherally related extrinsic information. This information preferably will be displayed with the securities or commodities information as the buyer or seller desires. This information can have a great impact on whether a buyer or seller will enter, proceed with, or desire to close any particular transaction.

Traders also may desire that non-trading data be provided along with the trading information. This may be information from a separate source but of great interest to the trader. The receipt of the information may simply make life easier for the trader and nothing more. There is need for a system and method for the processing and display in realtime, large amounts of trading information in an interactive manner along with extrinsic information desired by the system user. The totality of this information is usable by the system user for the purpose of making trading decisions.

Summary Of The Invention

The present invention is a system and method that enables network (or system) subscribers (or users) to access and manipulate trading data information centrally available to the network subscribers, to display the trading data information in a trading friendly manner, to interact responsively with one or more other network subscribers to take actions with respect to certain displayed data information, to have the interrelating of trading data information from various system databases for substantially simultaneous updating of various screen displays, and to provide extrinsic data information that the user desires to view in conjunction with the data information that is centrally available on the system. In at least first and second embodiments of the present invention, the system has a "hub and spoke" configuration. The system may include a plurality of system subscribers connected in a network. The network medium preferably is the Internet. Through the Internet, the system subscribers connect to Web servers, such as an Internet information server and a transaction server. The Web servers connect to one or more database servers, which may be SQL (structured query language) database servers. The network servers connect to the system databases.

The method of the first and second embodiments of the present invention involves the interaction and display of various trading data information that is stored on the system. The first and second embodiments of the present invention also involve the retrieval and display of trading and non-trading data information from other services which may be used by the system subscriber for any desired purpose, such as information for trading decisions.

At least the first and second embodiments of the present invention may be used for on-line commodities trading. The first and second embodiments have an interactive display screen that will present data information with respect to the totality of bids and offers for the commodity that have been posted by the system subscribers. This data information is retrieved from system databases. Access to these databases is through a system application layer software that is resident at the system Web servers. This totality of bids and offers is provided to each system subscriber. These system subscribers may directly interact on-line to respond to any of listed bids and offers, add bids or offers to those already existing on the system for others to respond to, and remove any of their own bids or offers so they will no longer be available for action by others. However, the method of the first and second embodiments differ in implementation and application. To this end, the second embodiment of the present invention provides for improved trading operations with regard to the first embodiment.

With regard to both the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the data information that is presented for each bid or offer may include information with respect to the time period the bid or offer is effective, the type of bid it is from a defined class of the bid or offers, the type of product that is at issue from a defined set of products, the amount of the product that is issued in the bid or offer, the unit price of the product, the delivery location of the product, and a rating for each bidder or offerer from a defined set of ratings.

The first and second embodiments of the present invention will permit access to information through the system Web servers which is singularly desirable by a particular system subscriber. This information may be appropriately displayed as the system subscriber desires. This second set of information is available to each system subscriber via a plurality of discrete separate feeds. The information that is received via the separate feeds may be information that will assist in effecting reasoned trading decisions or have nothing to do with the trading in any way. The method by which this second set of information is provided is different for the first and second embodiments.

According to the first embodiment of the present invention, when a system subscriber takes an action with respect to a bid or offer that is currently being presented to all of the system users for action, the transaction data information is interactively placed in a retrievable database files that is accessible only by the system subscribers who are parties to the trade. Although this information may be displayed by the negotiating parties, the other system subscribers will not have access to the negotiations thread.

Following this first embodiment, when a system subscriber does display the data information with regard to new bids and offers he or she has created, or actions he or she has taken with respect to bids or offers of other system subscribers, the information displayed may include the data information discussed above with respect to the general display of information about a particular bid or offer (i.e., the time period the bid or offer is effective, the type of bid, the type of product, the amount of the product, the unit price of the product, the delivery location of the product, and the private rating), and also real-time action information with respect to each bid or offer. This display will also include the negotiation thread for each bid or offer which will show the negotiation history in real-time. For example, for a particular bid, the entries may consist of the initial offer, a counteroffer, a counteroffer to the first counteroffer, and an acceptance of the counteroffer to the first counteroffer. The first embodiment of the present invention also is capable of alerting the user whenever another system subscriber takes some action with regard to the bids or offers the system subscriber created, or when additional actions are taken with regard to bids or offers currently being negotiated. The means for providing such an alert includes, for example, a blinking indicator light or audible alarm. Per the first embodiment of the present invention, when the system subscribers have negotiated a transaction and agreement is reached, i.e., in its simplest form, there was an offer, an acceptance, and a confirmation, the transaction is considered "Done." Upon completion of the transaction, there is an interaction of the databases and the screen displays to make the transaction information available for retrieval with other data of this type. Accordingly, once the transaction is completed, the general screen display, which displays the totality of bids and offers, will be updated to remove the bid or offer that was accepted and confirmed from presentation on the screen display. The completed transaction will also be removed from the screen displays of the two system subscribers who negotiated the deal by a specific procedure. The data information with regard to the completed transaction is stored in a separate database. This data information is available for access by the system subscribers who are the parties to the completed transaction. The screen display that displays the completed transaction data information will include, but not be limited to, the transaction number, time period the bid or offer was effective, the type of bid it is from a defined class of the bid or offers, the type of product that is at issue from a defined set of products, the amount of the product that is at issue in the bid or offer, the unit price of the product, the delivery location of the product, whether the system subscriber bought or sold the commodity, and the date the transaction was completed. Each line item may be expanded to show all of the terms and parties to the deal. The second embodiment of the invention, like the first embodiment, provides the system subscriber with a display screen of all the outstanding bids and offers of the various system subscribers. When an action is taken with regard to those bids and offers, the transaction data information is interactively placed in a retrievable database file that is accessible by the parties to the trade and other specific classes of system subscribers under certain circumstances. When a system subscriber does display data information with regard to new bid or offers that he or she has created, or actions he or she has taken with respect to bids or offers of other system subscribers, like the first embodiment, the information displayed may include data information such as the time period of the bid or offer is effective, the type of bid, the type of product, the amount of the product, the unit price of the product, and the delivery location. The negotiating thread for each bid or offer will be on a separate messaging screen of the transacting parties and the tread will be displayed in real-time. This system messaging screen will show, for example, the bid, a counter offer, a counteroffer to the first counteroffer. The separate messaging screen will also show modifications that a system subscriber makes to his or her own bids or offers and other pertinent information regarding the action taken with respect to the bid or offer.

The second embodiment of the present invention has a second message screen that is used to report all of the transactions that are taking place on the system. What is reported in this second messaging screen will just be that there is a specific amount of the commodity that is being traded at a specific price followed by information with the type of action being undertaken, e.g., creation of a bid or offer and, modification of a bid or offer. Accordingly, all of the system subscribers will be informed of all system trades in real-time.

The second embodiment of the present invention will permit a system subscriber to initiate a negotiation with the best posted bids or offers in the system. This is accomplished by the system subscriber selecting his or her bid or offer that is currently displayed for action by all system subscribers and presenting it to the best posted bids or offers with a request to negotiate. The negotiation request will then set forth the price and amount that the system subscriber desires to start a negotiation. These negotiations values will be sent to every system subscriber(s) who matches the best bid or offer. Any of these best bidders or offers, as it may be, may enter into negotiations.

In accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention, unlike the first embodiment, it is not necessary to wait for an acceptance for a transaction to be completed. Once there is acceptance of the terms of transaction by one of the parties, the transaction is completed. In the second embodiment of the present invention, each system subscriber rates each of the other system subscribers. Once the rating process is completed, it will impact on the automatic completion of transactions. If the system subscriber who attempts to accept or take any other action with regard a bid or offer is a system subscriber who has an unfavorable rating, the unfavorably rated system subscriber will not be able to take any action with regard to that bid or offer.

The second embodiment of the present invention will allow system subscribers who wish to purchase or sell more than the displayed amount for a particular bid or offer to do so by building on the bid or offer. When there is an interest to build by the system subscriber who posted the bid or offer, or the system subscriber who responded, it will allow other system subscribers to enter into the transaction to meet the increased amounts.

Moreover, the second embodiment of the present invention will permit system subscribers to enter into spread transactions to trade simultaneously in two markets. An object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between users of a network system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between subscribers of a network system that includes a plurality of users connected to a network. The network connects to one or more system servers, through a firewall, and the system servers connect to one or more database servers, which may be sequential database servers, and the database servers connect to a plurality of databases.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between subscribers of a network system that includes a plurality of users connected to a network, a central information server, a central transaction server, one or more databases servers, and one or more databases.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between subscribers of a network system in which the operating application layer is object-oriented. Another object of the system and method of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between subscribers of a network system in which there is an interaction of the databases for the retrieval and display of data information that will be provided generally to all network users, the retrieval and display of data information that will be available only for a particular user, and the retrieval and display of historical data information.

An object of the system and method of the present mvention is to provide a computer-based system and method for effecting transactions between subscribers of a network system in which data information from system databases that is retrieved and displayed may be displayed with information that is provided from one or more separate feeds that may or may not have a relation to the information that is in the system databases.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a computer-based system method for effecting trading transactions in real-time with greater flexibility for system subscribers to enter into and complete such trading transactions more ex editiously and efficiently.

These and others objects of the system and method of the present invention will be explained in greater detail in the remainder of the specification including the claims referring to the drawings.

Brief Description Of The Drawings

Figure 1 is a diagram of an embodiment of the system of the present invention.

Figure 2 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system subscribers, and data information about past trades and trades in futures, and data information that is fed to the system of the present invention from separate sources which may or may not be related to the data information retrieved for a system database.

Figure 3 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of weather data information that is obtained from a separate feed to the system of the present invention.

Figures 4 A, 4B, and 4C are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention of historical information about trades conducted using the system and method of the present invention. Figures 5A, 5B, and 5C are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention of historical information about trades in futures conducted using the system and method of the present invention.

Figure 6 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of a selectable list of links for obtaining energy information from a separate feed to the system of the present invention.

Figure 7 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of hyperlinks for obtaining information unrelated to energy. Figure 8 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of energy related news that is obtained from a separate feed to the system of the present invention.

Figure 9 is an illustrative display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of an area where a system user may enter hyperlinks for obtaining information with respect to a predetermined number of stocks.

Figure 10 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing all of the pending bids and offers of a particular system subscriber, and data information about past trades and trades in futures, and data information that is fed to the system of the present invention from separate sources which may or may not be related to the data information retrieved for a system database.

Figure 11 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention for inputting rating information into the system of the present invention. Figure 12 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing all of the completed transactions for a particular system subscriber, and data information about past trades and trades in futures, and data information that is fed to the system of the present invention from separate sources which may or may not be related to the data information retrieved for a system database.

Figure 13 A and 13B are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention for accepting to buy a commodity and confirming the acceptance to buy a commodity.

Figure 14A and 14B are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention for rejecting an acceptance or a counter and confirming rejecting an acceptance and a counter.

Figure 15 A, 15B, and 15C are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention for inputting, verifying and confirming data for creating a new bid. Figure 16A and 16B are illustrative screen displays according to the first embodiment of the present invention for canceling a bid and confirming canceling a bid.

Figure 17 is an illustrative screen display according to the first embodiment of the present invention that the system application generates when a transaction is "Done." Figure 18 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's personnel trading activities, and a transactions section for a system subscriber to input data information for creating a new bid or offer.

Figure 19 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's personnel trading activities, and a transactions section for a system subscriber to input data information for modifying an existing bid.

Figure 20 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's personnel trading activities, and a transaction section for a system subscriber to input data information for lifting an offer.

Figure 21 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present mvention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's personnel trading activities, and a transaction section for a system subscriber to input data information associated with receipt of a "Build Request."

Figure 22 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's persomiel trading activities, and a transactions section for a system subscriber to input data information associated with starting a negotiation.

Figure 23 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from the system database containing all of the outstanding bids and offers from system, messaging data information about a system subscriber's personnel trading activities, and a transactions section for a system subscriber to input data information associated with receipt of a "Negotiation Request."

Figure 24 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing information relating to the bids or offers that a particular system subscriber currently has posted on the Trading Floor. Figure 25 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing information relating to the transactions that a particular system subscriber has completed.

Figure 26 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing information relating to current trading activities of a particular system subscriber.

Figure 27 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved from a system database containing information relating to the current trading activities of all system subscribers. Figure 28 A is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of the "Trading Floor" display associated with the "Preference" display.

Figure 28B is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of the "Information Panel" display associated with "Preferences" display.

Figure 28C is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of the "Messaging/Chat" display associated with "Preferences" display.

Figure 28D is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of the "Company Wide" display associated with "Preferences" display.

Figure 29 is an illustrative screen display according to the second embodiment of the present invention of data information retrieved for a system data base relating to outstanding spread transactions for all system subscribers.

Detailed Description Of The Drawings

The present invention is a system and method that enables network subscribers to access and manipulate trading data information centrally available to the network subscribers, to display the trading data information in a trading friendly manner, to interact responsively with one or more other system subscribers to take actions with respect to certain displayed data information, to have the interrelating of trading data information from various system databases for substantially simultaneous updating of various screen displays, and to provide extrinsic data information that a system subscriber desires to view in conjunction with the data information that is centrally available on the system. Figure 1, generally at 100, shows a preferred embodiment of the system of the present invention. Preferably, the system at 100 has a "hub and spoke" configuration. The system includes 1 to N personal computer browsers that permit system access through Internet 104. "N" is an integer greater than "1" and equal to the number of system subscribers. The browsers will permit the system subscriber to access system information to conduct on-line trading transactions.

The system subscriber's personal computer does not contain the resident application software for operation according to the method of the present invention. The system application software resides at Web servers 108. Therefore, a browser is the only access and display medium that a system subscriber needs to carry out the method of the present invention.

The transmission medium for the 1 to N system users, preferably is Internet 104. Through Internet 104, each of the system subscribers may communicate with the system application and databases to retrieve needed data information to perform trading transactions. Although the transmission medium that is shown in Figure 1 is Internet 104, it is understood that other communications mediums, such as a local area network ("LAN"), metropolitan area network ("MAN"), or a wide area network ("WAN"), may also be used and still be within the scope of the present invention.

Use of Internet 104, as the transmission medium, provides the advantage of using the hypertext transfer protocol ("HTTP"), which is becoming a standard protocol available on most personal computers that are manufactured and sold today. The use of HTTP prevents the need for a new proprietary transmission protocol to be devised for the system of the present invention. However, if desired, a new proprietary protocol could be devised for transmissions according to the present invention and still be within the scope of the present invention.

Firewall 106 is shown in Figure 1. Firewall 106 will pass system data information hut will prevent other information from passing. Firewall 106 is a conventional Internet firewall.

Firewall 106 connects to the system Web servers 108. Web server 108 preferably consists of Internet information server 110 and transaction server 112. Internet information server 110 is object-oriented based and is responsible for responding to system subscriber actions and interacting with transaction server 112. Transaction server 112 also is object-oriented based and has a client-side and a server-side. The client-side objects are responsible for maintaining the system state and contains substantially all of operation rules for the system. The server-side objects are stateless and interact with the databases. The purpose of the server-side objects is to ensure transaction integrity along with enhanced system performance. Collectively, Internet information server 110 and Transaction Server 112 are referred to as the "system application." Web servers 108 connect to database servers 114. These servers preferably are structured-query language ("SQL") servers. There may be one or more SQL servers associated with the system. The database servers are used for accessing the various system databases. The respective SQL servers, which are represented by SQL server 116, are associated with specific system databases in which specific data information is stored and from which data information may be retrieved.

The system of the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, generally at 100, is preferably used for conducting buy and sell fransactions between system users. Moreover, the system and method of the present invention permit these buy and sell transactions to be conducted on-line in anonymity so that a buyer or seller will not know who the other system user is in a fransaction except with respect to certain general rating information that the system user has provided to the system. This rating information simply aids in assessing the risk in entering any particular buy or sell transaction. This rating method, as part of the method of the present invention, will be described in greater detail subsequently because it is used differently in the first and second embodiments of the present invention. The following glossary of terms will be used in describing the first and second embodiment of the system and method of the present invention:

Accept An indication that a system subscriber agrees to the terms of a bid or an offer. (First and Second Embodiments) Bal. Wk. An indication of the remainder on the week after that next business day. (Second Embodiment)

Bal. Mon. An indication of the balance of the month after the next business day.

(Second Embodiment) Bid An indication by a system subscriber that he or she is interested in purchasing a commodity at the price that he or she has indicated. (First and Second Embodiments)

Binding A binding bid or offer is one that cannot be countered and must be accepted on the terms presented. Once a binding bid or offer is accepted, the fransaction is considered Done. (First Embodiment) Cancel An indication that a system subscriber has rescinded an imtial bid or offer. (First and Second Embodiment) Counter An indication that a system subscriber is proposing new terms for a bid or an offer. (First and Second Embodiment) Counterparty The system subscriber on the opposite side of a transaction, i.e., a buyer is the Counterparty to the seller. (First and Second Embodiments) Daily An indication of a commodity that is to be delivered on the next business day. (Second Embodiment)

Delivery Point The location of the delivery point of a commodity. (First and Second

Embodiments)

Done An indication that a transaction has been successfully completed. (First

Embodiment)

Enabling Agreement An agreement between two system subscribers which defines the terms and conditions upon which the two system subscribers will execute trades between them. (First Embodiment)

Expiration Date The date after which a bid or offer is no longer valid. (First Embodiment)

Incremental (Inc.) An indication that a system subscriber is willing to buy or sell a volume or portion of the total of the commodity in the increments specified.

(First Embodiment)

Global An anonymous listing of all of the bids, offers, and transactions of all system users on the Trading Floor or have taken place. (Second

Embodiment)

Hit a Bid This is an event when a system user transacts with a bid on the Trading

Floor. (Second Embodiment)

Interest to Build An indication by a system user that he. or she wants to buy more of the commodity. (Second Embodiment) Lift an Offer This is an event when a system user responds to and offer on the

Trading Floor. (Second Embodiment) Modified A indication that a current negotiated bid or offer has been changed.

(Second Embodiment) Offer An indication by a system subscriber that he or she is interested in selling a commodity at the price he or she has indicated. (First and Second Embodiment)

Pending Transactions A pending transaction is any bid of offer that a system subscriber has responded to, has received a response to, or has posted on the Trading

Floor. (First and Second Embodiment)

Personal A listing of all of the bids, offers, and transactions of a system user that are currently on the Trading Floor or have taken place. (Second

Embodiment)

Ratings Each system user, at its discretion, assigns a rating to each of the other system users that is visible only to the system subscriber that makes the rating. (First and Second Embodiments)

Reject An indication that a system subscribe has nullified the most recent

Counter or Accept made by another system subscriber in a negotiation sequence, and a Reject of a Counter or an Accept ends a particular stream of negotiation, but the initial bid or offer remains intact on the

Trading Floor. (First and Second Embodiments)

Remove An indication that another system user has Canceled or Rejected a negotiation, and a Remove will delete the negotiation sequence from the

Pending Transactions, but the initial bid or offer will remain on the

Trading Floor. (First Embodiment)

Skip An indication of an event that starts the day after tomorrow. (Second

Embodiment) Spot An indication of an event that starts the day after a "Skip" day. (Second

Embodiment) Spread An indication of the difference between the price that a system user will buy a commodity at one delivery point or time period, and sell a commodity at a second delivery point or a time period. (Second

Embodiment)

Synthesized An indication that the bid or offer is derived by the system from two other postings on the system. (Second Embodiment)

Trading Floor A listing of all bids and offers available from the system users. (First and Second Embodiments) Trading

Regions A geographical area that consists of one or more Delivery Points. (First and Second Embodiments)

Transaction History A detailed record, on an individual system subscriber basis, of all trades completed by a system user. (First and Second Embodiment)

Transaction

ID A number assigned to a particular transaction. (First and Second

Embodiments) Withdraw An indication that a system subscriber has rescinded the most recent

Counter or Accept in a negotiation sequence, and withdrawing a Counter or Accept leaves any prior actions in that negotiation sequence intact. (First and Second Embodiments) Figures 2 - 17 relate to the first embodiment of the present invention and Figures 18 - 29 relate to the second embodiment of the present invention. The first embodiment will he described, then the second embodiment will be described. In the describing the present invention, the term "system user" and "system subscriber" have been interchangeable.

Figure 2, generally at 200, shows a representative screen display of information retrieved from system databases through a SQL server shown at 116 (Figure 1). The screen display in Figure 2 includes a full view of Trading Floor 202, Information Panel 226, and certain user selectable fields.

Bids section 204 of Trading Floor 202 contains all bids to buy a commodity, which in the case of Trading Floor 202 is energy, for all system users based on the following criteria: (i) the bid is not owned by the system user who retrieved the Trading Floor and the system user has not responded to any of the listed bids, or (ii) if is owned by the user who retrieved the Trading Floor, no other system users have responded to the bid. Offers section 206 of Trading Floor 202 contains all offers to sell a commodity, which as stated is energy, for all system users based on the following criteria: (i) the offer is not owned by the user who retrieved the Trading Floor and the system user has not responded to any of the listed offers, or (ii) it the offer is owned by the user who retrieved the Trading Floor, no other system users have responded to the offer.

Screen display 200 also shows the access tabs for Pending Transactions 244 and Transaction History 246. The selection of these tabs will provide a full view of Pending Transactions 244 and Transaction History 246, respectively. The screen display in Figure 2 has selectable region field at 248 which will permit the system user to select the region in which bid or offer information will retrieved and displayed. Although there are a specified number of regions that are selectable, it is understood that there may be one or more regions listed for selection and still be within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, there may be criteria other than region to define the bids or offers to be viewed and still be within the scope the present invention.

Bid section 204 and offer section 206 contain substantially the same formation in a line item in Trading Floor 202 representing a bid and offer. This information is in a number of information fields. The information fields that are shown for is and offers are only representative and others may be used and be within the scope the present invention.

The first information field at 208 is titled "Start-HE." "HE" is for "hour ending." This field indicates the date and time that the bid or offer started. The second information field at 210 is titled "End-HE." This field indicates the time and date that bid or offer will end. The third information field at 212 is titled "Type." This field provides the type of the commodity that is offered to be sold or requested to be purchased. In the case of Trading Floor 202, "Pk" represents peak hour energy as peak hour is defined, "ATC" represents energy to be delivered around the clock, and "Off-Pk" represents off-peak hour energy as off-peak hour is defined. It is understood that if a different commodity or a security is the item being traded, the "type" designations may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The fourth information field at 214 is titled "Prod" for product. The product this field defines the product (commodity) that is being traded. In the case of Trading Floor 202, the "E" represents energy as the product being traded. However, it should be understood that a different commodity or a security could be the item traded and the designation for such a product may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The fifth infonnation field at 216 is titled "Amt-Inc." This field is for the total amount of the commodity that is being offered for sale or being offered to be purchased. It is noted that at some of the bids or offers the amount is followed, for example, by "-10." The later designation is to indicate the increment in which the commodity is bid or offered.

Therefore, the commodity may be sold or purchased in any amount up to the total amount based on the increment indicated.

The sixth information field at 218 is titled "Price." This field provides the unit price for the commodity. The seventh information field at 220 is titled "Dlvy-Pt." This field designates the delivery point for the commodity (whether it is being sold purchased). A delivery point is associated with each bid or offer.

The eighth information field at 221 is used to provide rating information about the system user who made the bid or offer. This field is titled "FYI" ("for your information"). The rating information is private to each individual system user preserves the anonymity of the other system users on Trading Floor 202.

The ratings in this field may consist of a house of a first color, such as green, which indicates that the bid or offer has been made by you. If a bid or offer is rated with a house of a second different color, it indicates that the bid or offer has been made by someone else in the system user's company or group. The method of the present invention preferably is configured to permit a system user to view bids and offers of others in his company, but not be able to act with respect to them for transacting purposes.

The rating also may be a "+," "■/ ," and "-." The "+" is used to indicate that the system user has rated the system user who has made the bid or offer as an entity that he would be very favorably disposed to transact business. The "■ " is used indicate that the system user has rated the system user who has made the bid or offers an entity that he would transact business with but would not be as favorably disposed to do so as with an entity who is rated with a "+." The "-" is used to indicate that the system user has rated the system used that made the bid or offer as an entity that he would not be favorably disposed to fransact business with, and if he does transact business with such an entity, the system user would need further assurances from that entity before finally closing the deal.

The eighth field also may include rating of a "+," "■ ," and "-" in a flag. The flag indicates that there is an enabling agreement between the system user and the system user that posted the bid or offer on Trading Floor 202. The symbols "+," "-/ ," and "-" are defined the same as above with the only difference being that at least an enabling agreement has been entered between the two parties.

The ninth information field at 222 indicates whether a particular bid or offer is binding. In Trading Floor 202, a binding bid or offer is represented by a "lock." Then the bid or offer is binding, it means, as expressed in the glossary, that such a bid offer cannot be countered and must be accepted on the terms presented. Once a binding bid or offer is accepted, the transaction is considered "Done."

The tenth information field at 224 is the "Actions" field. This field will indicate actions that can take place with regard to each bid or offer. The actions displayed in the ninth information field on Trading Floor 202 are "Accept" to indicate that system user agrees to the terms of a bid or an offer, "Counter" to indicate that a system user is proposing new terms for a bid or an offer, and "Cancel" to indicate that a system user has rescinded an imtial bid or offer.

For each bid or offer, Trading Floor 202 takes in parameters for the region LO, the user ID, the start date, the end date, and whether it is a bid or an offer. The system application will return a record set that will contain the user LD in an hidden field to protect the anonymity of the system user that submitted the bid or offer; the independent action ID, in a hidden field, which is a table that stores independent actions, bids and offers, entered into the system application by all system users using the "Create a Bid" and "Create an Offer" screens; the start date and time; the end date and time; the product type; the amount; the increment size; the price; the delivery point; and whether the bid or offer is binding.

As stated above, the screen display, shown generally at 200, has Information Panel 226. The Information Panel may contain information to assist in interpreting the data information on Trading Floor 202 or not be associated with the Trading Floor data information in any way. Moreover, the information fields of the Information Panel may contain information that is retrieved from the system databases through SQL database servers 116 or may be provided from a separate feed through Internet 104. The information fields that are shown for Information Panel are only representative and others may be used and still be within the scope of the present invention. The first information field at 228 is titled "Weather." This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figure 3, generally at 300. The information in this information field is the weather conditions for a location that is system user selectable. The information is supplied by a separate feed through Internet 104.

The second information field of the Information Panel 226 is at 230 and titled "Houston Street Index." This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figures 4A, 4B, and 4C, generally at 302, 304, and 306, respectively. The second information is for the retrieval and display of historical information regarding transactions that have been conducted over the system. This information is a weighted average of all transactions for a specified period of time. According to the screen display at 200, the selection of the historical information may be on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. This information may be tailored to the system users needs. The information is obtained from database information on the system.

The third information field at 232 is titled "Houston Street Forwards." This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figures 5 A, 3, and 5C, generally at 308, 310, and 312, respectively. This information field is directed to futures. By futures, it is meant that these are transactions for future energy. Like the second information field at 230, the retrieved information may he tailored to the needs of the system user. The information for the third information field is obtained from database information on the system.

The fourth information field at 234 is titled "Energy Links." This includes a listing of hyperlinks to which the system user may connect to obtain desired energy information. This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figure 6, generally at 314. This listing may be system user or system defined, regardless of how the listing is defined, each of the hyperlinks will connect to a separate feed tlirough Internet 104 to a Web site. Although the links for the fourth infonnation field are directed to "energy links," it is understood that these links may be Erected to another subject area and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The fifth information field of Information Panel 226 at 236 is titled "My Links." This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figure 7, generally at 316. This information field is directed to a listing of hyperlinks which the system user may connect to get desired information. The listing is system user defined. Each of the hyperlinks listed will connect to a separate feed through Internet 104 to a Web site. The links for the fifth information field are directed to subject matter that is not particularly associated with the data information on Trading Floor 202. It is understood that these links may be directed to any other subject areas id still be within the scope of the present invention.

The sixth information field at 238 is titled "Energy News" and provides energy- related information on a regular basis. This information field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figure 8, generally at 318. This information field connected to a separate feed through Internet 104 to obtain this information. Although the sixth information field is specified for the receipt and display of energy news, it is understood that the subject matter that is received and displayed may be related to another specific subject area or just general news, and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The seventh information field indicated at 240 is titled "Stocks." This formation field is shown in greater detail in the expanded view in Figure 9, generally 320.

This field is system user definable. The system user will input a predetermined number of the names of stock he desires to track. This information field connects via hyperlink to a separate feed through Internet 104 to retrieve the requested information. It is understood that the subject matter being retrieved and displayed may be other than stock information and still be within the scope of the present invention.

Below Trading Floor 202 and Information Panel 226 is running ticker formation field 240. The information in this field are the transactions in which the particular system user is cunently involved. As changes are made, the ticker is updated (upon refresh of the system).

Figure 10, generally 400, shows a screen display that includes Pending Transactions 244 in full view. This screen display also includes Information Panel 226, cunent region field 248, ticker information field 242, as shown and described with respect to Figures 2-9. The screen display at 400, also shows the access tabs for Trading Floor 202 and Transaction History 246.

Referring to Pending Transactions 244, selling section 402 contains all offers of the particular system user to sell a commodity, which in this case is energy. The criteria by which these selling offers are included in selling section 402 are: (i) the selling offers which are owned by the particular system user but have no responses posted against them, (ii) the selling offers which are owned by the particular system user and have responses posted against them, along with the thread of negotiation for each response, and (iii) the bids owned by other system users which the particular system user has responded, along with the thread of negotiation for the response. Buying section 403 of Pending Transactions 244 contains all of the bids by the particular system user buy a commodity. The criteria by which these bids are posted in buying section 403 are (i) the bids which are owned by the particular system user but have no responses posted against them, (ii) all of the bids owned by the particular user which have responses posted against them, along with the thread of negotiation of each response, and (iii) all offers which are owned by other system users which the particular system user has responded, along with the thread of negotiation for the response.

Selling section 402 and buying section 403 contain substantially the me information about selling offers and bids to purchase a commodity. This information is in a number of information fields. The information fields that are shown for selling offers and bids to purchase are only representative and others may be used and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The first information field at 408 is titled "Region." This is to indicate the region from where the commodity is being offered for sale in selling section 402 or where the commodity is being offered to be purchased in buying section 403. The regions for which information will be displayed will depend on the selection by the stem user in region field at 440. If a single region is selected, only the selling offers and bids to purchase for that region will be displayed; however, if multiple regions, such as "All Regions," is selected, all of the selling offers and bids to purchase for these multiple regions will be displayed. The second information field at 406 is titled "Start-HE." This field is the date and time that the selling offer or bid to purchase started. The third information field at 408 is titled "End-HE." This field is the time and date that selling offer or bid to purchase will end. The fourth information field at 410 titled "Type" and is directed to the type of the commodity that is offered to be sold or offered to be purchased. The same as in Trading Floor 202, "Pk" represents peak hour energy, "ATC" represents energy to be delivered around the clock, and "Off-Pk" represents off-peak hour energy. It is understood that if a different commodity or a security is the item being sold or purchased, the "type" designations may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The fifth information field at 412 is directed to the product that is the subject of the selling offer or bid to purchase. This field is titled "Prod." The same as in Trading Floor 202, the "E" represents energy as the product being sold or purchased. However, it should be understood that a different commodity or a security could the item being sold or purchased and the designation for the product may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention. The sixth information field at 414 is the total amount of the commodity which the selling offer or bid to purchase is directed. This field is titled "Amt-Inc." It is noted that at some of the selling offers or bids to purchase the total amount is followed, for example, by "- 10." The later designation is to indicate the increments in which the commodity is being sold or may be purchased. Therefore, the commodity may be sold or purchased in any amount up to the total amount based on the increment indicated.

The seventh information field at 416 is the unit price for the commodity being sold or purchased. This field is titled "Price." The eighth information field at 418 is the delivery point for the commodity. This eighth field is titled "Dlvy-Pt." A delivery point is associated with each sell or buy transaction. The ninth information field at 420 is titled "FYI." This field contains rating information about the system user who is in negotiations with a particular system user. This information is private to each system user. The rating symbols that are presented in this field are the same as described for Trading Floor 244: a house of a first color, such as green, that indicates that the selling offer or bid to purchase has been made by particular system; a second color house for selling offers or bids to purchase for system users that is from the particular system user's company or group; a "+," ," and "-"; and "+," ," and "-" in a flag.

The tenth information field at 422 indicates whether a particular selling offer or bid to purchase is binding. A binding selling offer or bid to purchase is represented by a "lock." As stated, when the selling offer or bid to purchase is binding, it means, that it cannot be countered and must be accepted on the terms presented. Once binding selling offer or bid to purchase is accepted, the fransaction is considered Done."

The eleventh information field at 424 is the "Actions" field. This field indicates the actions that may take place with regard to a selling offer or bid to purchase. The actions that are displayed in the eleventh information field are "Accept" to indicate that a system user agrees to the terms of a selling offer or bid to purchase, "Counter" to indicate that a system user is proposing new terms for a selling offer or bid to purchase, "Cancel" to indicate that a system user has rescinded an initial selling offer or bid to purchase, "Reject" to indicate that system user has nullified the most recent Counter or Accept made by another system user in a negotiation sequence, and a reject of a Counter or an Accept ends a particular stream of negotiation.

The twelfth information field at 426 is titled "Soft Expiration." This field is to indicate an user imposed expiration date between "Start-HE" and "End-HE." This date does not control the transaction and is private to the system user. Pending Transactions 244, at 428, shows a representative negotiating sequence relating to selling a commodity. In this sequence, the initial offer by the particular system user was countered by another system user that had a "• " rating and this entity was one that had an enabling agreement with the particular system user. The first counter was then countered by the particular system user, and this second counter was accepted by the other system user. This same negotiating sequence is shown at 430 for the buying a commodity.

The expanded negotiating sequence, as it is shown at 428 and 430, is represented by the "-" preceding the first line of the sequence. In the compressed form of the negotiation sequence, as shown at 429, there will only by one line for the sequence and only the most recent activity in the sequence is shown. The compressed form is preceded by a "+." The system application will permit the toggling between these two views of a negotiation sequence as desired by the system user.

Whenever a system user creates or responds to a bid or offer, the action of the parties to the negotiation are automatically tracked in Pending Transactions 244. The system also is configured so that an audible or visual alarm is activated when any action takes place in the negotiating process for the items listed in Pending Transactions 244. In Figure 10, button 443 will blink when there has been some action that takes place with respect to a listed bid or offer. In addition to the alarm, the affected bid offer is highlighted.

Pending Transactions 244 takes in parameters for the region ID, the user LD, whether there is buying or selling, in addition to the information taken in with respect to Trading Floor 244. The following data will be returned for display on pending Transactions 244: user ID in a hidden field to protect the anonymity of the system user; the independent action ID, in a hidden field; the dependent action LD, in a hidden field; the thread ID, in a hidden field; the action type (e.g., offer, counter); the action status, in a hidden field; the region ID; the start date and time; the end date and time; the product type; the amount; the increment size; the price; the delivery point; whether the bid or offer is binding; and the soft expiration date.

The trading functionality of the data model for the system application is supported by three main tables. One of these tables has been discussed above but the her two have not. The first table is the independent actions table, which was discussed above. This table stores the bids and offers entered into the system application (all system users using the "Create a Bid" and "Create an Offer" screens, which will discussed subsequently.

The second table is the dependent action table that contains the responses that are received to an outstanding offer. This table contains information about dependent actions, such as counters, acceptances, and confirmations. Each action in the second table also contains a reference to the independent action with which it is associated, as well as a "thread" identifier to the separate multiple threads of negotiation from the same independent action. Simultaneous with information being added to the second table, information is added to the third table. The third table is the negotiation thread table. This table maintains information about the latest action in a particular thread of negotiation. There is one row for each ongoing thread of negotiation. This row is updated every time a new action belonging to the same thread is added to the dependent action table and is deleted once the thread of negotiation is completed. The table also maintains the terminal actions such as cancellations, confirmations, expirations, rejections, removals, and withdrawals, whether or not both parties to a negotiation have seen the action.

There is interaction between Trading Floor 202 and Pending Transactions 244. If a particular system user begins interacting with a bid or offer on the Trading Floor, it will be displayed on the Pending Transactions, and removed from that particular system user's Trading Floor. If the particular system user interacts with another system user's bid or offer, and the particular system user ends the transaction, then the bid or offer will be displayed again on the Trading Floor. As soon as another system user begins to interact with one of the particular system user's bids or offers, then that bid or offer will be removed from the particular system user's Trading Floor. As soon as a bid or offer expires, it will be removed from the Trading Floor. Also, if a bid or offer expires, it will be displayed in the particular system user's Pending Transactions with an expired dependent action. If a particular system , user cancels a bid or offer, the bid or offer and all of its dependent actions should no longer be displayed in Pending Transactions. If another system user cancels a bid or offer with which a particular system user was interacting, the particular system user should be able to view this in its Pending Transactions, but the other system user would not.

In describing both Trading Floor 202 and Pending Transactions 244, reference has been made to ratings by a particular system user with respect to other system users. This rating procedure is to provide the particular system user with information that will help him decide whether to enter into a deal with another system user.

The system and method of the present invention contemplate that system users will transact business on Trading Floor 202 anonymously. Therefore, to pre serve the anonymity of the system users, each system user, upon joining the network, will rate every other system user according to the rating criteria discussed above: a "+" to indicate an entity with which it would be very favorable to transact business; a "•/ " to indicate an entity with which it would be favorable to transact business but not as favorable, as with the entity rated with a "+;" a "-" to indicate an entity with which it would not be favorable to transact business; and the flag with a "+," ' V ," and "-" in it to indicate that there is an enabling agreement between the system user and the system user that posted the bid or offer (but the "+," "• ," and "-" mean the same as just described).

To ensure anonymity, when the system user rates each of the other system users, there must be at least two system users rated in any of the categories so that if a particular symbol is displayed on the Trading Floor or Pending Transactions, the system user who made the ratings would not be able to identify the negotiating party, but would only know that it was one of a number of other system users that have been rated with that symbol. The system application also will default a rating of a "* " for any system user that a particular system user fails to rate.

Figure 11, generally at 500, shows a representative ratings screen display with which a particular system user may input rating data to the system. Each system user will rate each of the other system users listed at 502 using the rating symbols at 504. Once the ratings are made, they are input to the system application. These ratings will be displayed on Trading Floor 202 and Pending Transaction 244 in the "FYI" field, as described. These ratings are an internal tool of the system user who makes them, it is to be understood that preferably rating information is being provided here for viewing only by the system user who also made the ratings, but other types of information may be provided in this fashion and still be within the scope of the present invention.

Figure 12, generally at 520, shows a screen display that includes a full view of Transaction History 246. The transactions that are shown on Transaction History 246 are the completed fransactions for a particular system user, or the company or group of which the particular system user is part. Whether the particular system user's trades or the trades of the company are displayed is controlled by the selection made at "View" at 521. The period of time for which completed transactions will be displayed is selectable through "Date Range" at 525. The selectable date ranges are defined by the system but may be user definable. The selectable "Region" field at 523 is used to select the region or regions for which completed transactions will be displayed. The selectable "Term" field at 527 is for controlling the date range of the completed transaction that will be displayed on Transaction History 426.

The screen display of Figure 12 includes Information Panel 226, current region field 248, ticker information field 242 as shown and described with respect to Figures 2-9. The screen display also shows the access tab for Trading Floor 202 and Pending Transactions 244.

Referring to Transaction History 246, the first information field at 522 is titled "Region." This is to indicate the region from where the commodity was bought or sold. The regions for which information will be presented will depend on the selection by the system user in region field at 523. If a single region is selected, only the completed transactions relating to that region will be displayed; however, if multiple regions are selected tlirough "All Regions," all of the completed transaction for these multiple regions will be displayed.

The second information field at 524 is titled "Trade #." Once a transaction is completed, the system application will assign it a trade number. It is through this number that the completed transactions are tracked.

The third information field at 526 is the date and time that the offer or bid was started. The fourth information field at 528 is the time and date that offer or bid ended. These fields are titled "Start-HE" and "End-HE," respectively. The fifth information field at 530 is the type of the commodity that was bought or sold and it is titled "Type." The same as in Trading Floor 202, "Pk" represents peak hour energy, "ATC" represents energy to be delivered around the clock, and "Off-Pk" represents energy for off-peak hours as off-peak hours are defined. It is understood that if a different commodity or a security is the item being sold or bought, the "type" designations may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The sixth information field at 532 is titled "Prod" and is directed to the product that is the subject of the offer or bid. The same as in Trading Floor 202, the "E" represents energy as the product being sold or purchased. However, it should be understood that a different commodity or a security could be the item sold or bought and the designation for the product may be different and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The seventh information field at 534 is the amount of the commodity that was bought or sold and is titled "Amt." The eighth information field at 536 is the unit price at which the commodity was bought or sold and is titled "Price." The ninth information field at 538 is the delivery point for the commodity that was bought or sold and is titled "Dlvy-Pt."

The tenth information field at 540 is titled 'TYI." This information field indicates whether the commodity was bought or sold. The eleventh information field at 542 is the date and time that the transaction was completed and is titled "Trade Date-Time."

The operation of the system and method of the present invention will now be described. A view system user may join the network through his PC to conduct frades in the specified commodity, for example, energy. As an preliminary matter, the new system will retrieve and display the screen shown in Figure 11. Once this screen is displayed, the new user will rate each of the other system users. This information will be saved to the system application so that it may be retrieved when the new system user views his Trading Floor and Pending Transactions screens.

Upon accessing the system application through his PC 102 (Figure 1) and Internet 104 (Figure 1). The first screen of data information retrieved is shown Figure 2, generally at 200. This display screen will include Trading Floor 202 and Information Panel 226. The new system user may first go to Information Panel 226 and make selections and set parameters for the information he desires to receive from separate feeds and certain historical information and information on futures related to completed fransactions. Figures 29 show the information and selections for Information Panel 226.

This first screen includes the full view of Trading Floor 202. Trading Floor 202 will contain a listing of all of the bids to sell energy (at 204) and offers to buy energy (at 206) of the other system users. It is to be noted that each of the bids and offers in column under "FYI" at 221 (Figure 2) will list the rating provided by the new system user at an earlier time. The ratings, however, are personal to the new system user and are only displayed on his screen and not on the screens of any of the other sys tern users. The new system user can update the ratings at any time.

As of the time the new system user first retrieves Trading Floor 202, he has not created any bids or offers of his own, or responded to any of the bids or offers that are cunently being displayed on Trading Floor 202. As such, both Pending Transactions 244, and Transaction History 246 will not have any transaction information posted on them. The new system user will select the cunent region at 248 according to his location. He would then set the viewing range for the time period for which he desires Trading Floor information. This is done through the "View" field at 249. Once this is accomplished, the new system user will survey the bids or offers cunently on Trading Floor 202 to determine if there are any bids to sell energy or offers to buy energy to which he would like to respond. If he does respond, after reviewing the terms of the fransaction, he will either "Accept" or "Counter" the bid or offer.

If the bid or offer is accepted on the Trading Floor, the acceptance transaction mode is started. Once the acceptance data is verified and submitted, the acceptance will appear on the anonymous system user's Pending Transaction screen and the new system user will await further negotiation action or closure. Once the acceptance is submitted, the bid or offer to which the new system user responded will be removed from the Trading Floor of the new system user and placed on the new system user's Pending Transactions screen for monitoring. If the bid or offer is binding, the transaction will be closed as soon as the new system user completes the acceptance transaction mode. The acceptance transaction mode will also have the new user specify the amount that is being accepted if there are increments offered.

Referring to Figure 13 A and 13B, for the new system user to accept the bid, he must retrieve the display screen shown in Figure 13 A at 550 and submit it to the system application. Once submitted, the system application will respond to the new system user with the display screen in Figure 138 at 551. The display screen at 551 confirms the acceptance by the new system user.

Once the new system user has accepted a bid or offer, he should periodically monitor the fransaction on Pending Transactions 244 to determine if there has been a response to the acceptance. This monitoring should even be done in light of the fact that when a response is posted to a transaction on the new system user's Pending Transactions, an alert, such as green indicator 443 blinking, will be activated to show that at least one of the fransactions on Pending Transactions 244 has been responded to in some way.

If the new system user changes his mind about the acceptance before the anonymous system user acts on the acceptance by confirming it, the new system user may withdraw the acceptance. This is done by accessing the fransaction on Pending Transactions 244 and selecting the appropriate area to initiate withdraw of the acceptance.

The other action that the new system user could take would be to "Counter" the bid or offer and propose new terms. This action will begin the counter fransaction mode. Once the counter data is verified and submitted, the counter will appear on the anonymous system user's Pending Transaction screen and the new system user will await further negotiation action or closure. If the counter is the initial counter to a bid or offer, it will be removed from the Trading Floor of the new system user and placed on the new system user's Pending Transactions screen for monitoring. In the counter transaction mode, the new system user can specify the amount of the bid or offer based on the increments indicated by which the commodity may be offered. If the new system user changes his mind about the counter, he may withdraw the counter at any time prior to the it being accepted by the other system user. This is done by accessing the fransaction through Pending Transactions 244 and selecting the appropriate area to initiate withdraw of the counter.

Once the counter transaction mode is completed, the new system user should periodically monitor the transaction on Pending Transactions 244 to determine if there has been a response to the counter. As stated, monitoring should take place even in light of alert 443. Monitoring of the transaction will reveal when the counter is accepted, rejected, or recountered.

If the counter is accepted, then the transaction will be "Done" upon confirmation. If there is a recounter, the negotiation process continues. If the counter is rejected, it indicates that the anonymous system user does not wish to negotiate any further with regard to this transaction. The reject fransaction mode is initiated through Pending Transactions 244.

Once the rejection data is verified and submitted by the anonymous system user, the rejection will appear on the new system user's Pending Transactions. Further, the bid or offer will be removed from the new system user's Trading Floor permanently. Referring to Figures 14A and 14B, in order to reject a counter or acceptance, the system user would enter the rejection fransaction made by using the screen display shown in Figure 14A at 552. Once the rejection information is submitted, the system application will return the screen display in Figures 14B at 553. The screen at 553 confirms the rejection of the specified counter or acceptance.

The new system user may also create and post his own bids and offers on Trading Floor 202. These bids and offers will be presented anonymously to the other system users. To create a bid or offer from Trading Floor 244, create bid access field 251 or create offer access field 253 is used to begin the create transaction mode. Figure 15 A, generally at 555, shows the screen that is retrieved when the new system user creates a bid. The system user is required to provide information regarding the region, term of the bid, type of energy, product, delivery point, quantity and price, and expiration date and time. The system user creating the bid also must indicate if the bid is binding. Figure 15B, generally at 556, is the next screen that is retrieved. This second screen is for verifying that the information provided at Figure 15A is accurate. If it is accurate, the bid is submitted to the system application. Referring now to Figure 15C, generally at 557, the system application will respond with a confirmation of the bid that was submitted. A substantially similar procedure is followed for the creating offers.

Once the new bid or offer is created, it will be posted on Trading Floor 202 for the other system users to respond. The new bid or offer will also be posted on Pending Transactions 244 for monitoring. The newly created bid or offer is identifiable as the new system user's bid or offer by the appropriate symbol in the FYI column, which in the prefened embodiment is a small green house.

The new system user may cancel the bid or offer if there has been no action taken on his bid or offer. Referring to Figures 16 A and 16B, the new system user, as owner, will retrieve the screen display shown in Figure 16A at 560. This screen display includes the data information with respect to the transaction to he cancelled. This information is submitted to the system application. The system application will return the display screen shown in Figure 168 at 562. This screen provides confirmation of the cancellation of the new system user's hid.

If the new bid or offer binding, it will close when it is accepted by an anonymous system user. If one of the other system users responds to the new system user's bid or offer by countering or accepting it, the action will be posted on Pending Transactions 244. The new system user may then confirm the acceptance or cancel the bid or offer.

After the new system user accepts another system user's bid, offer, or counter, or another system user accepts the new system user's bid, offer, or counter, the deal must be closed. This is accomplished by making the appropriate selection to begin the confirmation fransaction mode.

The acceptance information is verified by the system user that made the initial bid or offer, and is confirming the acceptance. After verification of the transaction, it is submitted to the system application by the system user who made the initial bid or offer to confirm the acceptance of the terms. Upon submission, Pending Transactions 244 of the new system user or the anonymous system user will indicate that the deal is "Done." At the same time, the system application will return the fransaction completed screen as shown in Figure 17, generally at 585. For the first time during the trading process, the identity of the two system users is revealed. The system application also assigns a transaction number for the completed deal at this time. The deal will now be tracked by this number. Once the deal is "Done," the transaction is removed from Trading Floor 202 but the transaction posting will remain on Pending transactions 244 until it is removed.

The removal of the completed transaction from Pending Transactions 244 is effected by making the appropriate selected to begin the remove transaction mode. Once it is removed from Pending Transactions 244, the transaction information is still available through Transaction History 246. Each completed transaction that is listed in Transactional History 246 may be expanded to provide the details of the fransaction.

Once the deal is "Done," each of the parties to the completed transaction will receive hard copy confirmation of the deal and the parties may now may make arrangements to carry out the deal.

As stated, Figures 18-29 are directed to the second embodiment of the present invention. The following will be a description of the second embodiment referring to the drawings where appropriate. Figure 18, generally at 600, shows a display screen of a second embodiment of the of the present invention. In accordance with the second embodiment, display screen 601 has three sections: first section 602, second section 604, and third section 620. The three sections are displayed adjacent one another as shown. First section 602 provides access to Trading Floor 606, My Markets display 608, Transaction History display 610, and Preferences display 612. Figure 18 shows the access icons for these displays, namely, Trading Floor icon 606A, My Markets icon 608 A, Transaction History icon 610A, and Preferences icon 612A. Second section 604 is the messaging section that provides access to Personal display 616, Global display 618 and Information display 619. Third section 620 provides access to Transactions display 621. The description of the second embodiment of the present invention will discuss the present inventive method with regard to trading fransactions on Trading Floor display, then specific discussions of the "My Markets," "Transaction History," "Preferences," "Personal," and "Global" displays. These discussions will be followed by a description of synthesized transactions according to the present invention. The Trading Floor of the second embodiment of the present invention differs from Trading Floor of the first embodiment that is shown in Figure 2. Referring to Figure 18, first section 602 of display screen 601 will display Trading Floor 606 when "Trading Floor" icon 606A is activated. Trading Floor 606 contains all of the outstanding bids and offers of all of the system subscribers that has been retrieved from the appropriate system database. The information that is displayed on a Trading Floor will now be discussed.

The first field at 632 is titled "Timeframe." The Time field indicates the time period that the offerer wants to sell the commodity and a bidder wants to purchase the commodity. The terms that may appear in the Time field are "Daily," "Skip," "Spot," "Bal Wk," Bal Mo," "Sum," "Wint," "Ql through Q4" (for three month periods), "Cal" (for the entire calendar year), and the months of the year, namely "Jan*," "Feb," "Mar," "Apr,"

"May," "Jun," Jul," "Aug," "Sep," "Oct," "Nov," and "Dec." In describing the various Figures associated with the second embodiment of the present invention, the times refened to are only representative examples of these various Time field types.

The second field at 633 is titled "Hub." The Hub refers to the delivery location of the commodity. This may be a single point or multiple points of a single entity. For the purpose of this specification both will be refened to as a "delivery point." For example, the third field may contain the designation "CLN" or "ENT." In these cases, "CLN" represents delivery into Cinergy and "ENT" represents delivery into Entergy. It is understood that these are only representative delivery points and there may be other designations for delivery points and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The third field at 634 will expand a particular entry to view the bids, offers, and fransaction histories for the time periods and hubs indicated in the first and second fields, respectively. To illustrate, the entry at 635 was activated and the entry was expanded as shown at 636. It is to be noted that there are bids and offers displayed for the time period, but no fransaction histories exist beyond the first one shown.

The next three fields, the fourth, fifth, and sixth fields, shown generally at 638, constitute the bids section of Trading Floor 606. This section of the Trading Floor contains all of the bids to purchase a commodity, which in the case of Trading Floor 606 is energy, for all system users.

The fourth field at 640 is titled "FYI." Tins field may contain certain symbols to indicate that it is a particular type of bid. The first symbol that may appear is a green or red house. The green house is to indicate that the bid was made by that system subscriber. The red house is the indicate that the bid was made by someone else in that system subscriber's company or group. The second symbol that may appear is # . This second symbol is to indicate that the system subscriber who posted the bid or offer has an "Interest to build" the quantity of the commodity traded to a greater amount than the original posting. When this symbol is present, it lets the others on the Trading Floor know that there is an interest in more of the commodity at that time period and the price given. The third symbol that may appear is forL-J j synthesized. This third symbol is to indicate that the bid is derived by the system from two other bids or offers on the system.

The two symbols just described will be associated with a particular bid when a system subscriber takes trading actions which meets the criteria for the respective symbols to be associated with that bid. Although not shown, the fourth field could include a third symbol which indicates that the associated fransaction is to be for "All or none" of the amount of the commodity that is shown on the Trading Floor. This fourth field also could include a fourth symbol which is a hybrid of the "Interest to build" and "All or none" symbols. When this hybrid symbol is shown, it indicates that it is an "All or none" bid and that there is an "Interest to build" the quantity of the bid to a greater amount. The third and fourth symbols may be associated with any bid or offer in the second embodiment.

The fifth field at 642 is titled "Bid Amt." This field is to indicate the amount of the a bid for commodity during a particular time period. The sixth field is titled "Bid Price" and it is at 644. The bid price that appears in this field is price that the bidder wishes to pay for the amount of energy for the specific period of time.

The next three fields, the seventh, eighth, and ninth fields, are directed to Offer section 648 of Trading Floor 606. The offer section displays all of the outstanding offers to sell a commodity by the system users. The seventh field is titled "Offer Price" and it is shown at 650. The offer prices that appear in this field are prices at which specific system users will sell energy for specific amounts during specific time periods. The eighth field is titled "Offer Amt" and it is at 652. The offer amounts that are shown in the field are the quantities of the commodity that are offered to be sold to other system users.

The ninth field at 654 is titled "FYI." This field may include a red or green house, and the two symbols discussed above. For convenience these symbols are ^«#^■ to indicate that there is an "Interest to build" the offer and Ls~j to indicate that the offer is "Synthesized" (it is associated with a bid or offer on a Spread floor). The synthesized symbol is associated with a bid or offer on the trading floor when a system subscriber takes actions on a Spread floor or another Trading Floor which will cause the system to make that, bid or offer part of a spread transaction. Spread transactions will be described in greater detail with regard to Figure 29.

The tenth, eleventh and twelfth fields of Trading Floor 606 at 656, 657, and 658, respectively, are directed to information regarding the last completed trade for hitting a bid or lifting an offer for a specific time period, i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc. The tenth field at 656 is titled "Last Price." The information in this field is the price for the last completed trade. The eleventh field at 657 is titled "Last Amt." This field is to indicate the amount of the commodity that was in the last completed fransaction. The twelfth field at 658 is titled "H L." When "H" is used in this column, it indicates that the last transaction was "Hitting a Bid" and when a "L" is used in the column, it is to indicate that the last transaction was "Lifting an Offer."

The thirteenth field at 660 is titled "Hi Trade," which is directed to the highest price the commodity traded for during the cunent trading day for that specific period, i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc. Similarly, the fourteenth field at 662 is titled "Lo Trade" and provides the lowest price that the commodity traded for during the cunent trading day for that specified period.

The fifteenth field is titled "Volume" and is at 664. This field is to indicate the total volume of the commodity that has been traded for during the cunent trading day for that specific time period., i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc. The sixteenth field at 667 is titled "Details" and contains the information that the particular system subscriber wants to associate with that entry.

It is to be noted that bid section 638 is adjacent offer section 648. Further, offer section 648 is adjacent the columns associated with the last transaction. Also, the columns associated with the last transaction is adjacent the high/low columns and the high/low columns are adjacent the volume column. These different sections of information are related in that reading across a row for a specific time period will give information in each category for that period. However, the adjacent positioning of information does not mean that it is related in any other way than it is information relating to that time period. For example, bid and offer infonnation that is shown adjacent to each other does not mean that the bid information is in any way a response to the offer information or vice versa.

Again referring to Figure 18, Messaging section 604 has Personal display 616, Global display 618, and Information display 619. The purpose of Personal display 616 is to display the activities that are taking place with regard to that particular system user's bids or offers that are cunently on Trading Floor 606. This will be discussed in greater detail with regard to Figure 26. The purpose of the Global display 618 is the display the activities with regard to the bids and offers on the Trading Floor that are cunently taking place for all system users. Global display 618 will be discussed in greater detail with regard to Figure 27. Information display 619 will include infonnation from discrete separate feeds and information retrieved from the system databases. The information on Information display 619 will be discussed in more detail with regard to Figure 28C.

The second embodiment of the system and method of the present invention use ratings that are assigned by system subscribers when they join the network system as a method of controlling the trading process but in a way that is different from how ratings are used in the first embodiment.

Ratings that are assigned by a system subscriber to the other system subscribers are only visible to the system user that makes them. No other system user is privy to another system user's ratings. The rating symbols that are used in the second embodiment are the "+" and "-" ratings. The "+" and "-" ratings indicate a system subscriber's preference to enter into a fransaction with another system subscriber. As before, a "+" rating indicates an entity with which he or she would be favorable to transact business, and a "-" rating is to indicate an entity with which he or she would not be favorable to fransact business. Further, a flag with a "+" or "-" in it indicates that there is an enabling agreement between the system subscriber and the system subscriber who posted the bid or offer, but the "+," and "-" mean the same as described above.

The rating system that is used ensures the anonymity of the system subscribers. As in the first embodiment, when the system subscriber rates the other system subscribers, there must be at least two system subscribers rated in each of the categories so that a system subscriber who made the ratings would not be able to identify the party with whom he or she has transacted a trade, but would only know that it was one of a number of other system subscribers who have been rated with the level that would either permit or deny the completion of a trading transaction. However, different from the first embodiment, the system application will default to the "-" rating if a system subscriber fails to rate a particular system subscriber.

When the second embodiment of the invention is used, there is not the necessity to post the ratings on the Trading Floor display because the system subscribers who have been rated with a "-" rating will not be able to transact or negotiate with the system subscriber who gave them the "-" ratings. The system and method will automatically block the transaction.

When a system subscriber desires to post a bid or offer on Trading Floor 606, that system subscriber must create that bid or offer. First, the system subscriber must decide the time period, i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc., for which he or she desires to create a bid or an offer, and highlight that time period for the desired delivery point. To create a bid or offer, the system subscriber now will activate the Create" icon at 641 which will open "Transaction" display 621 as shown in Figure 18. When Transactions display 621 opens, "Cunent Best Market" ("CBM") line 670 will include information about the best bid and offer for the selected time period. This, therefore, provides the system subscriber with the best bid and offer that he or she will have to deal with on Trading Floor 606.

Existing line 670 will include a first field for the time period selected, a second field for the delivery point for the commodity, and a third field for indicating if the bid is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" this bid. The CBM line also includes a fourth field for the bid amount, a fifth field for the bid price, a sixth field for the offer price, a seventh field for the offer amount, and an eighth field for indicating whether there is an "Interest to build" the offer. Again, this information applies to the best bid and offer that is cunently on Trading Floor 606.

"Your New Market" ("YNM") line 671 will contain information about the new bid or offer that is to placed on Trading Floor 606. Before any action is taken by the system subscriber who is placing a new bid or offer on the Trading Floor, the first and second fields of YNM line 671 is filled in with the time period and delivery point consistent with what the system subscriber highlighted on the Trading Floor. If the system subscriber desires to create a new bid to sell the commodity, he or she will go to YNM LINE 671 and enter the appropriate data. First, the system subscriber, if appropriate, at 674 will activate "Interest to build." Then, this system subscriber will enter the amount of the bid at 676 and price of the bid at 678. When the buttons in the Transaction display or other appropriate means are used to designate a price at 678, the price field will increment based on the CBM price. This applies to the price for both a bid or an offer. Once the information is entered, it will appear appropriately on the YNM line.

In similar fashion, if the system subscriber wishes to create an offer to purchase a commodity, the appropriate information is provided in YNM line 671. This information will consist of entering the price of the offer at 682, the amount of the offer at 684, and, if appropriate, at 686 whether the offer is an "Interest to build" the offer. Once the offer information is entered, it will be appropriately displayed on the YNM line.

Once the pertinent data is entered in YNM line 671, "OK" button 690 is activated and the new bid or offer or both are then displayed on Trading Floor 606 for the time period and for the delivery point indicated. However, if during the process of creating a bid or offer, the system subscriber decides that he or she no longer desires to create a bid or offer, the system subscriber may activate "Cancel" button 692 to end the create bid or offer process.

Separately below the bid and offer sections of YNM line 671 are sections titled: "Work." Work section 672 below the bid section permits the selection of "On Legs" and "As Spread only." "On Legs means that the spread bid or offer may be displayed on the system as separate but linked purchase and sale fransactions. "As Spread only" means that the bid or offer is to be considered in view of a spread transaction context only.

After a bid or offer has been placed on Trading Floor 606 and it is not in negotiations, the system subscriber who posted the bid or offer may choose to modify it. The modification of a bid or offer existing on the Trading Floor will be described referring to Figure 19.

Figure 19, at 700, shows Transaction display 621 of third section 620 opened with "Modify" display 706. Except as specified differently, items in Figure 19 that are the same as items in Figure 18 are understood to have the same reference numbers. This also applies to the other Figures used in describing the second embodiment.

When a system subscriber for any reason desires to modify one of his or her bids or offers on Trading Floor 606, that system subscriber will activate "Modify" icon 704 (Figure 18). This will cause Transactions display 621 to open third section 620 with Modify display 706. Figure 19 will be used to describe modifying a bid or offer on Trading Floor 606. According to Figure 19, the system subscriber would highlight his or her hid. For reasons known to the system subscriber he or she wants to modify this bid. By highlighting the bid at issue and activating Modify icon 704, "CBM" line 708 of Modify display 706 will show the present information about the best bid and offer on the Trading Floor. The first field on the CBM line will contain the time period of the bid and the second field the delivery point. The third field will indicate whether the bid is an "Interest to build" bid or the bid is "Synthesized." The fourth field will contain the bid amount and the fifth field the bid price. The sixth, seventh, and eighth fields relate to the best offer. The sixth field will contain the best offer price and the seventh field the best offer amount. The eighth field will indicate whether the best offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" to offer.

"Your Market" ("YM") line 710 will contain the modification information for a bid. The YM line, like the CBM line, has eight fields. The first field will contain the time period of the bid or offer, and the second field the delivery point. The third field will permit the system subscriber to indicate that the modified bid is to be an there is "Interest to build" bid. The fourth field is where the system subscriber will indicate the modified bid amount and the fifth field the modified bid price. The sixth field will contain the modified offer price and the seventh that modified amount. The eighth and final field will contain whether the system subscriber desires that the modified offer is to be an "Interest to build" offer.

Once the pertinent data is entered in YM line 710, "OK" button 726 is activated and the modified bid or offer information, or both is displayed on Trading Floor 606.

However, if during the process of modifying a bid or an offer, the system subscriber decides that he or she no longer desires to make the bid or offer, the system subscriber may activate "Cancel" button 728 to end the modify bid or offer process and, in fact, will cancel the entire bid or offer, and remove it from Trading Floor 606. Figure 20, generally at 750, shows Transaction display 621 of third section 620 opened with Hit/Lift display 752. Figure 20 will be used for describing "Lifting an offer" and "Hitting a bid." Lifting an offer takes place when a system subscriber who views an offer on the Trading Floor is willing to buy the commodity under the terms set forth on Trading Floor 606. Hitting a bid, on the other hand, is when a system subscriber views a bid on the Trading Floor and is willing to sell the commodity under the terms set forth on Trading Floor 606. First, the method of Lifting an Offer will be described referring to Figure 20, then Hitting a Bid will he described in the context of Figure 20.

Referring to Figure 20, there may come a time when a system subscriber in reviewing Trading Floor 606 will view an offer that he or she desires to con tract for. When this is the case, the system subscriber will highlight the offer, such as the offer at 602 and activate "Act" icon 57 1. This will cause Transactions display 621 to open third section 620 of display screen 601 with "Hit/Lift" display 752. Hit/Lift display 752 will have Hit/Lift line 754. According to Figure 20, if an offer is being lifted, Hit/Lift line 754 will contain information relating to the offer being lifted. Hit/Lift line 754 has eight fields. The first field will contain the time period of the offer and the second field the delivery point. Since what has been highlighted is an offer, the third, fourth, and fifth fields that relate to a bid will not be used. The sixth field will contain the offer price and the seventh field the offer amount. The eighth field will be used to indicate that there is "Interest to build" the offer if the system subscriber who is making the purchase increases the amount to be purchased and wants to contract on the basis of the increased amount. The eighth field may also indicate that the offer is "Synthesized." The third, fourth, and fifth fields are associated with the best bid that is on the Trading Floor for the specified time period given an offer is being lifted. Since the bid is not being hit, there are no further actions with regard to the bid information.

The system subscriber who is lifting the offer has the option to change the offer in a very limited way. This limited way is carried out through the "Try to buy more" section at 761. This section at 760 provides a location where the system subscriber who is lifting the offer may enter the amount that he or she would like to increase the amount purchased. That is, here, the system subscriber will specify the amount of the commodity in addition to what is shown in the offer that he or she would like to purchase.

Once any additional information is added to Hit/Lift line 754, the "OK" button 770 is activated and the lifted offer is sent to the system subscriber who posted it for acceptance, counteroffer, or rejection. However, if during the process of lifting the offer the system user decides that he or she no longer desires to lift the offer, the system user may activate "Cancel" button 772 to end the lifting an offer process.

The "Hit a Bid" method will now be described. When a system subscriber views a bid to sell a commodity on Trading Floor 606 with which he or she would like to enter into a contract, that system subscriber should highlight the bid and activate "Act" icon 571. This will cause Transactions display 621 to open third section 620 of display screen 601 to open with Hit/Lift display 752.

After highlighting the bid on Trading Floor 606 and activating "Act" icon 751, "Hit/Lift line 754" will show the present information about the bid and additional information. The first field on the Hit/Lift line will contain the time period of the offer and the second field the delivery point. The third field will indicate whether the bid is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the bid. The fourth field will contain the bid amount and the fifth field the bid price. Although only the highlighted bid is being hit, the Hit/Lift line may also contain infonnation about the best offer for the specified time period. The information about best offer will be contained in the sixth, seventh, and eighth fields. The sixth field will contain the best offer price and the seventh field the offer amount. The eighth field will indicate whether the best offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the offer. When it is desired to "Hit a bit," Hit/Lift line 754 will contain the pertinent information about the highlighted bid. This pertinent information fields are the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth fields. The first field will contain the time period of the bid and the second field the delivery point. The third field will indicate whether the bid being hit is "Synthesized" or there is "Interest to build" the bid. The fourth field will contain the bid amount and the fifth field the price of the bid being hit. Since only a bid is being hit, the sixth, seventh, and eighth fields that relate to the best offer will not be used.

As was the situation in lifting an offer, there are only limited changes that may be made to a bid being hit. Those changes are effected through "Try to sell more" section 757 of Hit/Lift display 752. The system subscriber who is hitting a bid may indicate that he or she desires to sell more of the commodity than the amount set forth in the bid. This is accomplished at a "Try to sell more" section. Here, the system subscriber will specify the amount of the commodity in addition to what is shown in the bid that he or she would like to sell. This amount is entered into the box provided.

Once the additional information is added at 759 of the Hit/Lift display 752, a "OK" button is activated and the hit bid is sent to the system subscriber who posted it for acceptance, counteroffer, or rejection. However, if during the process of hitting a bid, the system subscriber decides that he or she no longer desires to hit the bid, the system subscriber may activate "Cancel" button 772 to end the "Hitting a bid' process.

In the cases described above for "Lifting an Offer" and "Hitting a Bid," the system subscriber who lifted the offer or "Hit the bid" had the option of requesting that the offer or bid include additional amounts of the commodity for purchase or sale respectively. The party who posted the offer or bid will receive from the system subscriber who increased the amount of the offer or bid a "Build Request" that must be acted upon. A "Build Request" for a bid will be described with reference to Figure 21 and then a "Build Request" for an offer will be described in the context of Figure 21.

Figure 21, generally at 775, shows the display screen associated with a system subscriber receiving a "Build Request" from another system subscriber who is "Hitting a bid." This system subscriber would have "Build Bid Request" display 812 in Transactions display 621 in third section 620. Transaction display 621 will be described as it applies to an "Incoming Build Request." First, an "Incoming Build Request" now will be described with regard to a bid being hit referring to Figure 21, and then it will be described with regard to lifting an offer in the context of Figure 21. Transaction display 621 of a system subscriber will open with Build Bid

Request display 812 when another system subscriber "Hit the bid" of the system subscriber who posted the original bid. The Transaction display will state the bid and indicate the additional amount to be sold as shown at 814.

The system subscriber who posted the bid that has received the Build Request has certain options which must be taken in a specified period of time, usually within a predetermined number of seconds, from the time the Build Request is sent. If Request in the specified time window, the Build Request will expire and the terms of the transaction will be based on the original bid that was hit and other system subscribers will be permitted to enter the transaction and fulfill the Build Request. If the system subscriber who posted the bid to purchase the commodity that was hit does desire to act positively upon the request to build, he or she must take this action within the specified time window after the request to build was sent. For example, if System Subscriber A posted a bid to purchase 200 MW at $37.00 and that bid was hit by System Subscriber B who wanted the sell an additional 150 MW of energy, upon the sending of this request to build, System Subscriber A would have 15 seconds to act upon the build request or it would expire and others could join in to meet the increased amount of the bid which is unsatisfied.

The Build Bid Request display 812 sets forth the actions that the system subscriber, such as System Subscriber A, may take. The system subscriber who posted the original bid may accept any or all of the request to build amount by so indicating at 814. The price for the build amount will be posted next to the amount on the commodity that has to be accepted. This price will be consistent with the price of the original bid. Assuming that the system subscriber who posted the original bid has decided to accept some or all of the amount that was included in the request to build, he or she would indicate that amount and activate "Accept" button 822 which would complete the transaction.

The system subscriber who posted the original bid for which he or she has received a request to build may also choose to increase the amount of the build request. This is done by properly indicating so at 823 which states: "Try to sell more." The amount to be added will be in addition to the total amount of the build request. After the system subscriber has made this change, he or she would activate "Accept" button 822 to accept the amount. This will transmitted to the system subscriber who transmitted the request to build who now must take some action. The system subscriber who posted the bid may also choose to build the amount without specifying the amount. This is indicated at 826 where it states: "Indicate interest to build without specifying amount." The system subscriber who has made this indication would now activate "Accept" button 822. Upon activation of the Accept button, the new request will be transmitted to the system subscriber who sent the original request to build as an Incoming Build Request and that system subscriber will have 15 seconds to take some action or this second request to build will expire.

The remaining option that the system subscriber who posted the original bid may take is to actuate "Reject" button 828. The button normally is activated when the incoming Build Request is received and the system subscriber wishes to reject the build request. When the Reject button is activated in response to a Build Request, the fransaction is accepted in the terms of the bid as hit without consideration of the Build Request. In other words, the rejection is directed to the Build Request not hitting the bid.

The activities that take place with regard to Build Requests are posted on Trading Floor 606. This is so other system subscribers may participate in the transaction on those occasions where either the bidder who receives the incoming Build Request and accepts only part of the build amount, the Build Request is rejected, the bidder requests a specific additional amount, or there is an open additional amount that cannot be satisfied by the system subscriber who sent the original Build Request. Each of these actions will be described. Under the circumstances in which the system subscriber receives a Build Request, for example, for 100 MW of energy and desires to accept 50 MW only, he or she would place 50 at 814 and activate Accept button 822. It will be posted on Trading Floor 606 that the fransaction was completed for the posted price with the additional amount of 50 MW over the bid. Once the transaction is completed under these terms, it is to noted that the system subscriber who sent the build request still wanted to sell 50 MW more of energy but this amount was not accepted by the system subscriber who received the Build Request.

The present invention will indicate on Trading Floor 606 that there remains an outstanding amount that would like to be sold, namely 50 MW of energy. The Trading Floor indicates this by flashing the fransaction that was just completed with this amount remaining unsatisfied. The other system subscribers who were not a party to the fransaction will have a specified period of time, for example, 15 seconds, to indicate that he or she will purchase the outstanding 50 MW of energy. The price at which this outstanding 50 MW of energy will purchased will be the price of the commodity in the Build Request. If there are a number of system subscribers who desire to purchase 50 MW of energy, these system subscribers will be ranked on a first come, first serve (FCFS) basis until the entire 50 MW of energy is purchased.

The second situation is one in which the system subscriber receives the Build Request and rejects it by activating Reject button 828. This action will be noted by the fransaction flashing on Trading Floor 606 to show that the fransaction is completed but there is an outstanding amount of the commodity that is desired to be sold at the price in the transaction that has just been completed. Therefore, if the Build Request had been for 100 MW of energy, the Trading Floor would indicate that there was 100 MW outstanding that could be purchased. If there are a number of system subscribers who desire to purchase the 100 MW of energy, these system subscribers will be ranked on a FCFS basis until the entire 100 MW of energy is purchased.

The third circumstance is one in which the system subscriber who received the Build Request indicates that he or she would like to purchase, for example, 200 MW more of energy by so indicating at 818 and inputting that amount at 824. If the system subscriber who sent the Build Request accepts this new amount, then the transaction will be completed. On the other hand, if the system subscriber does not accept this new amount, then the transaction will be completed according to the amount that existed before the final additional amount was added. Moreover, if the system subscriber accepted only a portion of this new amount, then the fransaction will be completed with that amount. In either of these two situations, Trading Floor 606 will indicate that there remains an outstanding amount of the commodity that wants to be purchased by flashing at the appropriate fransaction. Once the transaction is completed, other system subscribers will have the opportunity within a specific time window to provide the commodity for sale at the price in the transaction that was just completed. The system subscribers who desire to sell the commodity to meet the outstanding request will be handled on a FCFS basis. In the fourth situation, the system subscriber who received the Build Request requests an unspecified amount of the commodity that is more than the amount set forth in the Build Request. This is indicated on Trading Floor 606 by the transaction flashing. When this type of response is provided, the system subscriber who made the Build Request, in all likelihood, will accept with respect to all of the commodity that he or she has to sell, however, other system subscribers may make offers to sell the commodity and the system subscriber will treat them on a FCFS basis until the desired amount is met.

In each of the four situations just described, it was understood that one or more system subscribers may choose to respond to the bid on a FCFS basis. It is also to be noted that in Build Request situations, the system subscribers who respond may, in fact, be ones providing offers to purchase the commodity. In the case of responses that are both bids or offers, each will be at the transaction price of the Build Request. When both bids and offers are submitted in response to a build request, on a FCFS basis, the present invention will match up the sellers and purchasers until there is an excess on the side of the sellers or purchasers. Accordingly, a single transaction may result in a number of transactions that are based on the price in the Build Request. The ability of these bidders and purchasers to enter into the transaction is contingent on their inclusion at the transaction price and meeting the time period threshold to enter the transaction, i.e., a certain period of time after the transaction is completed. In the case of Lifting an Offer, display screen 601 associated with a system subscriber receiving a Build Request from another system subscriber will have Transactions display 621 open with a "Build Offer Request" display in third section 620. This will happen when another system subscriber lifts the offer of this system subscriber. The Transaction display will state the offer and indicate the additional amount to be purchased. The system subscriber who posted the offer that has received the build request has certain options that must be taken within a specified period of time, which is usually a predetermined number of seconds after it is sent. If there is no action on the build request in the specified time window, the build request will expire and the terms of the transaction will be based on the original offer that was lifted, but other system users may enter the transaction to fulfill the build request on a FCFS basis.

If the system subscriber who posted the offer to sell the commodity that was lifted does desire to act positively upon the request to build, he or she must take this action specified time window after the request to build was sent. For example, if System Subscriber A posted an offer to sell 200 MW at $37.00 and that offer was lifted by System Subscriber B who wanted the purchase an additional 150 MW of energy, upon the sending of this request to build, System Subscriber A would have 15 seconds to act upon the build request.

The section of the Build Offer Request display where the original offerer will indicate his or her actions is under the Acceptance Terms section. This section sets forth the actions that the system subscriber, such as System Subscriber A, may take. The system subscriber who posted the original offer may accept any or all of the requested build amount by so indicating. The price for the build amount will be posted next to the amount on the commodity that has to be accepted. This price will be consistent with the price of the original offer. Assuming that the system subscriber who posted the original offer has decided to accept some or all of the amount that was included in the request to build, he or she will indicate the amount and then activate the "Accept" button, that is similar to Accept button 822, which will complete the fransaction.

The system subscriber who posted the offer for which he or she has received a request to build may also choose to increase the amount of the build request. This is done by properly indicating this where it states: "Try to buy more." The amount to be added will be in addition to the total amount of the build request. After the system subscriber has made this change, he or she would activate the "Accept" button to accept the amount. This will be transmitted to the system subscriber who transmitted the request to build to take some action. The system subscriber who posted the original offer may also choose to build the amount to an unspecified level. This is indicated where it states: "Indicate interest to build without specifying amount." The system subscriber who has made this indication will now activate the "Accept" button. Upon activation of the Accept button, the new request will be transmitted to the system subscriber who sent the original request to build as an incoming Build Request and that system subscriber will have a predetermined number of seconds to take some action or the request to build will expire.MW

The remaining option that the system subscriber who posted the original offer may take is to activate the "Reject" button which is similar to Reject button 828. The Reject button is normally activated when the incoming Build Request is received and the system subscriber wishes to reject the build request. When the Reject button is actuated in response to a Build Request, the transaction is accepted on the terms of the offer as lifted without consideration of the Build Request.

The activities that take place with regard to Build Requests are posted on Trading Floor 606. This is so other system subscribers may participate in the transaction on those occasions where either the offerer who receives the incoming Build Request accepts only part of the build amount, or the Build Request is rejected, or the offerer requests a specific additional amount, or there is an open additional amount specified, and these additional amount are unsatisfied.

Similar to the bid situation, under circumstances in which the system subscriber receives a Build Request, for example, for 100 MW of energy and desires to accept 50 MW only, he or she would place 50 in the appropriate location and actuate "Accept" button. This would be posted on Trading Floor 606 that the transaction was completed for the posted price with the additional amount of 50 MW over the offer. Once the fransaction is completed under these terms, it is to noted that the system subscriber who sent the Build Request still wanted to sell 50 MW more of energy but this amount was not accepted by the system subscriber who received the Build Request. The present invention will indicate on Trading Floor 606 that there remains an outstanding amount that would like to be sold, namely 50 MW of energy. The Trading Floor indicates this by flashing the transaction that was just completed with this amount remaining unsatisfied. The other system subscribers who are not parties to the transaction will have a specified period of time, for example, 15 seconds, to indicate that he or she will sell the outstanding 50 MW of energy. The price at which this outstanding 50 MW of energy will be sold will be the price of the commodity in the Build Request. If there are a number of system subscribers who desire to sell 50 MW of energy, these system subscribers will be ranked on a first come, first serve (FCFS) basis until the entire 50 MW of energy is sold.

The second situation is one in which the system subscriber receives the Build Request and rejects it by activating the Reject button. The action will be noted by the transaction flashing on Trading Floor 606 to show that the transaction is completed but there remains an outstanding amount of the commodity that is desired to be sold at the price in the transaction that has just been completed. If there are a number of system subscribers who desire to sell the 100 MW of energy, these system subscribers will be ranked on a FCFS basis until the entire 100 MW of energy is sold.

The third circumstance is when the system subscriber who received the Build Requests indicates that he or she would like to sell, for example, 300 MW more of energy by so indicating at the appropriate location. If the system subscriber who sent the Build Request accepts this new amount, then the fransaction will be completed. On the other hand, if the system subscriber does not accept this new amount, then the transaction will be completed according to the amount that existed before this final additional amount was added. Moreover, if the system subscriber accepted only a portion of the amount of this new amount, then the transaction will be completed with this amount. In either of these two situations, Trading Floor 606 will indicate by flashing that the fransaction still has an outstanding amount of the commodity that wants to be sold. Accordingly, once the transaction is completed, other system subscribers will have the opportunity within a specific time window to provide the commodity for sale at the price in the fransaction that was just completed. The system subscribers who desire to purchase the commodity to meet the outstanding amount will be handled on a FCFS basis.

In the fourth situation, the system subscriber who received the Build Request requests an unspecified amount of the commodity that is more than the amount set forth in the Build Request. This is indicated on Trading Floor 606 by the transaction flashing. When this type of response is provided, the system subscriber who made the Build Request, in all likelihood, will accept with respect to all of the commodity that he or she has to purchase, however, other system subscribers may make, seek to enter the transaction and will be treated on a FCFS basis until the desired amount is met. In each of the four situations just described, it was understood that one or more system subscribers may choose to respond to the offer on a FCFS basis when there is an excess. Moreover, the response may include bids and offers which will be traded at the transaction price of the Build Request. In this situation, on a FCFS basis, the present invention will match up the sellers and purchasers until there is an excess on one side. Accordingly, a single transaction may result in a number of transactions that are based on the price in the Build Request. The ability of these bidders and purchasers to enter into the transaction is contingent on their inclusion at the transaction price and meeting the time- period threshold in which to respond.

Figures 22 and 23 relate to negotiations that take place between two system subscribers with regard to the bids to purchase or offers to sell commodities that are listed on Trading Floor 606. Figure 22 relates to starting a negotiation with regard to a bid or offer that is on Trading Floor 606. Figure 23 relates to negotiation requests that are submitted to best posted bids or offers for a particular time period.

Referring to Figure 22, generally at 875, Transaction display 621 is shown opened with Negotiate display 880. The method by which a system subscriber may initiate a negotiations request with regard to best posted bids or offers on Trading Floor 606 will now be described. The system subscriber who posted a bid or offer may find one or more system subscriber(s) who posted the best bid or offer with whom he or she would like to negotiate. The system subscriber should highlight the chosen bid or offer and activate "Negotiate" icon 883. The activation of the Negotiate icon will cause Transaction display 621 to open Negotiate display 880.

Negotiate 880 has "CBM" line 882 that has eight fields which are associated with the best bids and offers. The first field will contain the time, period of the bid or offer, and the second field the delivery point. The third field will indicate whether the bid is

"Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the bid. The fourth field will contain the bid amount and the fifth field the bid price.

The information about the offer will be contained in the sixth, seventh, and eighth fields. The sixth field will contain the best offer price and the seventh field the best offer amount. The eighth field will indicate whether the offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the offer.

Negotiate 880 also has "Send Negotiation Request" ("SNR") line 884. This line will show the amount and price of the system subscriber will intend to send to the system subscriber that posted the best bid or offer for the designated time period and delivery point SNR line 884, like CBM line 882, has eight fields. The first field will contain the time period of the bid and the second field the delivery point. The third field will indicate whether the bid is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the bid. The fourth field will contain the bid amount and the fifth field the bid price. The sixth field will contain the offer price and the seventh field the offer amount. The eighth field will indicate whether the offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the offer.

As is shown in SNR line 884, there are only entries relating to a bid and an offer. This means that the system subscriber that seeks to negotiate, seeks to do so with regard to the best bid and offer for the time period.

Once the system subscriber has selected and highlighted his or her bid and offer and activated "Negotiate" icon 883, Transaction display screen 621 will open with Negotiate display 880. When this is done, CBM line 882 will display an entire line of infonnation with regard to the best bids as well as the offers for the cunent trading day for the "Mori/Tue" time period for delivery point "Southern." The system subscriber must now determine the negotiation amount and price that he or she wants to present to the best posted bid and offer. I At 887, the system subscriber will input the negotiation bid amount and at 888, the negotiation bid price. At 889, it will indicate if the bid is "Synthesized" and if there is an "Interest to build." Further, at 890, the negotiation offer amount is input, at 891, the offer price is input, and at 892, it indicates if the offer is "Synthesized" or there is an Interest to build." Once the negotiation information is properly input, it now must be sent. If the system subscriber that is seeking to initiate a negotiation is not satisfied with the price or amount that he or she has entered, it may be readily changed. If that system subscriber decides that he or she no longer desires to initiate a negotiation, he or she may activate "Cancel" button 894 to cancel the negotiation process. On the other hand, if the system subscriber has input the negotiation information and still desires to initiate a negotiation, he or she will activate "OK" button 896. The activation of the OK button will send a negotiation request to the system subscribers who posted the best offers. It will now be up to the system subscribers who posted best offers to take some action. The Negotiation Request has a time window for action on the request. In Figure 22 it is 15 seconds.

Referring to Figure 23, Transactions display 621 will be described with regard to an "Incoming Negotiation."

There may come a time when a system subscriber who has posted the best bid or offer for a specific time period will receive a request to negotiate a bid or an offer that he or she has placed on Trading Floor 606. This will be evidenced when Transaction display 621 of the system subscriber who posted this best bid or offer sees it open with Negotiation Request screen 906 displayed. When Negotiation Request screen 906 opens, it will be the first time the best bidder or offerer is informed of the negotiation request.

Negotiation screen 906 will have "CBM" line 908 and "Request" line 910 displayed. CBM line 908 will contain information with regard to the best bid or offer that have posted on the Trading Floor for the time period and if the recipient is the best bidder or offerer, his or hers will be shown. There is also a field associated with the bid and offer information to indicate if the bid or offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the bid or offer. Request line 910 will show the terms of the Negotiation Request with regard to the selected bid or offer. Therefore, if the negotiation request is to a bid to sell the commodity, the Request line will show the time period of the bid, e.g., Daily/Skip Day, the bid amount, and the bid price, If, on the other hand, that is an offer to purchase the commodity that is sought to be negotiated, the Request line will show the time period of the offer, the offer amount, and the offer price. As before with respect to the CBM line, there also is a field associated with the bid and offer to indicate if the bid or offer is "Synthesized" or there is an "Interest to build" the bid or offer.

The system subscriber who has received the request to negotiate one of his or her bids or offers that have been deemed the best for a time period at a specified delivery point may take one of three actions that are found under "Are you sure you want to do this?" at 912. These actions are: (i) accept the bid or offer (ii) provide a counteroffer, or (iii) reject the bid or offer. If the bid or offer is accepted, it may be accepted in whole or in-part. This is accomplished by the best bidder or offerer selecting "Accept" at 914 and indicating the quantity of the commodity that he or she desires to accept ranging from some fraction to the total amount. The bid or offer price is already displayed and is based on the price set forth in the request to negotiate.

If the best bidder or offerer decides to provide a counteroffer, he or she will select "Counter" at 916, and fill in the bid or offer amount, and price of the counter bid or offer. Lastly, the original bidder or offerer may simply reject the request by selecting "Reject" at 894, which will end the negotiation.

Once either of these actions is taken by the original bidder or offerer, the negotiation request will be sent. The response to the negotiation request will be sent to the system subscriber that initiated it. It will be up to that other system subscriber to take any further action with respect to the bid or offer, which is either: (i) accept the new terms for the bid or offer (ii) provide a new counteroffer, or (iii) reject the new terms of the bid or offer to end the negotiation. The rounds of negotiation will continue until the parties reach agreement or one of them decides not to negotiate any further and quits the negotiation. In the course of the negotiation, either party may include a request to build the amount of the bid or offer. As shown at 917, the Negotiation expires 15 seconds after it is sent.

Referring to Figure 24, generally at 608, screen display 601 is shown with first section 602 with "My Markets" screen display 608 open. This screen is opened by activating "My Markets" icon 608A. The "My Markets" screen display when appropriately opened will show the pending bids and offers of a system subscriber that have been posted on Trading Floor 606.

build" or the bid is "Synthesized." This field also may include a red or green house. The ninth field at 947 is for the time that the transaction took place.

Now reviewing the entry at 927, it would be understood that the time frame of the bid is Wednesday and for delivery point is Southern. According to the third field at 935, the bid is one in which there is an "Interest to build" and a green house. The bid amount is 400 MWs at a bid price $31.10. Since the entry at 927 is for a bid, the sixth, seventh, and eighth fields at 941, 943 and 945, respectively, do not contain entries.

Similarly, the entry at 929 is related to a pending offer of the system subscriber. The time frame of the offer is Wednesday, for delivery at Southern. The offer price is $32.85 and the offer amount is 150 MWs. There also is an "Interest to build" the offer. This field also includes a green house. Since the entry at 929 is for an offer, the third, fourth, and fifth fields at 935, 937 and 939, respectively, do not contain entries.

Referring to Figure 25, generally at 950, "Transaction History" screen display 610 is shown opened. This screen display is opened by activating the Transaction History icon 610A.

This screen display is opened when the appropriate icon or button is activated. Transaction History screen display shows information regarding each of that system subscriber's completed transactions. Once transactions reach the Transactions History display, they are removed from Trading Floor 606. Transaction History screen display 610 has ten fields. The first field that is indicated at 952 is titled "Time Frame" and is for the time period of the transaction, e.g., Daily. The second field is titled "Hub" and at 954. This is to indicated the delivery point of the of the commodity. The third field is titled "Buy/Sell" is at 956. The fourth field at 958 seventh field is for the bid or offer amount, and fifth field at 960 is for the price of the transacted bid or offer. The sixth field is shown at 962 and titled "Company." The seventh field is shown at 964 and titled "Counterparty." These two fields indicate the party dealt with in the transaction and his or her company. The eighth field is at 966 and titled "CP Aggressor?" This is to indicate whether the system subscriber was the initiator of the transaction on another system subscriber's posting or just the recipient of a request from another system subscriber to transact a trade on their own posting. The ninth field is shown at 968 and titled "Timestamp." This field is for time when the fransaction was completed. The final field, the tenth field, is at 970 and titled "Details." This field is to provide the details regarding the parties to the transaction and the transaction terms. A representative entry is shown at 972. According to this entry, the fransaction was one in which the commodity was sold and the system subscriber was the aggressor in the transaction. The time period is Sum 2000/2001 and the delivery point is Southern. The party with whom the system subscriber conducted the transaction was Lois Lane from BayCorp. The offer amount was 999,000 MWs at an offer price of $999,000.50 The date that the fransaction was completed was January 1, 1999 at 6:45 p.m.

If the Details icon at 971 is activated, it will open Details display 971 in Transaction display 621. The information that is displayed at 971 is the infonnation about the buyer and seller of the selected fransaction. Figure 26, generally at 975, shows "Personal" display 616 open in second section 604 of screen display 601. As stated previously, Personal display 616 shows the activities that are cunently taking place with regard to a particular system subscribers bids and offers on Trading Floor 606. Examples of transactions that may be reported on Personal display 616 are shown at 976-982 and each will be now be briefly discussed. At 976, it indicates that the system subscriber created and posted a bid on

November 1, 1999 at time 13:30. This bid was $65.00 for 50 MW of energy. The time period is June and the delivery point is ENT. If the system subscriber has the best bid, as here, it will he noted as it is here.

At 977, it indicates that the system subscriber created and posted an offer on November 1, 1999 at time 13:32. The offer was $67.00 for 100 MW of energy. The time period is June and the delivery point is ENT. This offer was the best offer posted.

At 978, it indicates that the system subscriber sold energy on November 1, 1999 at time 13:35. The sale was for 100 MW of energy at a price of $69.00. The time period is June and the delivery point is ENT. The Counterparty in the sale was Lois Lane of Enron. Similarly, at 979, it indicates that the system subscriber bought energy on November 1, 1999 at time 13:35. The purchase was for 50 MW of energy at a price of $31.00. The time period is January and the delivery point is ENT. The energy was purchased from Duke.

At 980, it indicates that the system subscriber sold energy on November 1, 1999 at time 13:37. The sale was for 50 MW of energy at aprice of $31.00. The time period is January and the delivery point is ENT. The energy was sold to Duke. It also indicates that there was an interest to build. This is noted where it states that the system subscriber is trying to sell 25 MW more at a price of $31.00.

At 981, it indicates that the system subscriber bought energy on November 1, 1999 at time 13:40. The purchase was for 100 MW of energy at aprice of $69.00. The time period is June and the delivery point is ENT. The Counterparty in the sale was Lois Lane of Enron. It also indicates that there was an interest to build. This is found where it states that the system subscriber is trying to buy 50 MW more at a price of $69.00.

At 982, it indicates that the system subscriber modified a bid on November 1, 1999 at time 13:4 1. The June bid for delivery of energy at ENT was changed to 100 MW at a price of $70.00. Further, there is an indication that the modified bid is the best bid.

Besides the examples discussed above, it is understood that other fransactions of a system subscriber may be shown on his or her Personal display 616.

Figure 27, generally at 985, shows "Global" display 618 opened in second section 604 of screen display 601. Global display 618 is used to display the activities that taking place with all of the system subscribers except for the system subscriber whose Global display it is. Examples of transactions that may be reported on Global display 618 are shown at 986992 and each will be now be briefly discussed.

At 986, it indicates that a bid was posted on November 1, 1999, at 13:30. The bid was for energy at $26.00. The amount will be shown on Trading Floor 606. The time period is May and the delivery point is ENT. At 987, it indicates that an offer was posted on November 1, 1999, at 13:32. The offer is for energy at $32.00. Similarly, the amount will be shown on Trading Floor 606. The time period is September and the delivery point is CIN.

At 988, it indicates that a bid was hit on November 1, 1999, at 13:35. The bid that was hit was for 200 MW at a price of $105.00. The time period is August and the delivery point is CLN. At 989, it indicates that an offer was lifted on November 1, 1999, at 13:35. The offer that was lifted was for 50 MW at a price of $72.00. The time period is June and the delivery point is TVA.

At 990, it indicates that a bid was hit on November 1, 1999, at 13:37. The bid that was hit was for 50 MW at a price of $31.00. The time period is January and the delivery point is CIN. The entry also indicates that there is an interest to build the transaction.

At 991, it indicates that an offer was lifted on November 1, 1999, at 13:40. The offer that is lifted was for 100 MW at a price of $69.00. The time period is June and the delivery point is ENT. It also indicates that there was an interest to build the transaction. At 992, it indicates that a transaction was completed on November 1, 1999, at

13:41. The transaction that was completed was for 200 MW at a price of $69.00.

Besides the examples discussed above, it is understood that other transactions of the system subscribes may be shown on Global display 618. Figures 28A, 28B, 28C, and 28D show the displays for Preferences display 612. Each of these displays provides selections for the operations of the system and method of the present invention.

Referring to Figure 28 A, generally at 1000, Trading Floor Preferences display 1002 is shown opened. Trading Floor Preferences display 1002 has three sections. The first section, titled "Hub/Spread Floors to Display," is at 1010 and permits the system subscriber to select the floors that may be display on Trading Floor 606. The selected floors will be available for access on Trading Floor 606 at 622, 624, 626, 628, and 630 (see Figure 18).

The second section, titled "Optional Columns to Display," is at 1012. This section permits the system subscriber to select informational columns to be displayed on

Trading Floor 606. For example, a system subscriber may choose to display or not to display the "High" column at 660 in Figure 18.

The third section, titled "Transactions," is at 1014. This section will permit the system subscriber to show confirmation screens if desired and set certain defaults for hitting a bid and lifting an offer.

The fourth fields at 1015 is titled "Time frame." This field is to select how many years forward the system subscriber would like to see displayed on the system.

As shown in Figures 26 and 27, second section 604 o display screen 601 has "Information" display 619. This display, when opened, will show infonnation that is supplied and available to each system subscriber via a plurality of discrete separate feeds. The information that is to be displayed on Infonnation display 619 is selected through Information Panel Preferences display 1004 shown generally at 1020 in Figure 28B.

Refening to Figure 28B, Information Panel Preferences display 1004 has four sections. The first section at 1022 is titled "Weather," the second section at 1024 is titled "Houston Street Index and Forwards," the third section at 1026 is titled "Energy Links," and the fourth section at 1028 is titled "My Links." The information that is associated with the first, third and fourth sections of the display is information that is received via separate, discrete feeds that may assist in effecting reasoned trading decisions or have nothing to do with the trading in any way. In the second embodiment, the information for Information display 619 is retrieved from the system databases through SQL database servers 116 or may be provided from separate, discrete feeds through Internet 104. The infonnation that is shown in Infonnation display 619 is only representative and other information may be used and still be within the scope of the present invention. The first section at 1022 titled "Weather" of Information Panel Preferences display 1004 permits the selection of the default location for which weather information will he supplied by a separate feed through Internet 104.

The second section at 1024 titled "Houston Street Index and Forwards" permits the system subscriber select a default huh for which information will be supplied on Trading Floor 606, the selection of the number of indices to display on the Information display, and the number of forwards to display on the Information display.

In referring to indices, it is referring to historical information regarding transactions that have been conducted over the system. This information is a weighted average of all transactions for a specified period of time (See, for example, Figures 4A, 4B, and 4C). The information from these links will be displayed on Information display 619. The selection of the historical information may be on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. This information may be tailored to the system subscribers needs. The information is obtained from database infonnation on the system. In referring to forwards, it is referring to futures. By futures, it is meant that these are transactions for future energy (See, for example, Figures 5 A, 5B, and 5C). The information from these links will be displayed on Information display 619. This retrieved information may be tailored to the needs of the system subscriber. The information also is obtained from database information on the system. The third section at 1026 titled "Energy Links" permits the system subscriber to select hyperlinks to energy information locations via the system communication medium, e.g., Internet 104. Each of the hyperlinks will connect to a separate feed through Internet 104 to a Web site. The information from these links will be displayed on Information display 619. Although the links are directed to "energy links," it is understood that these links may be directed to another subject area and still be within the scope of the present invention.

The fourth section at 1028 titled "My Links" will permit the system subscriber to input hyperlinks that he or she would like to be connected. The information that is placed here will establish a hyperlink connection through a separate feed through Internet 104 to a Web site. The information from these links will be displayed on Information display 619. The hyperlinks that are included here may be directed to subject matter that is not particularly associated with trading information. It is understood that these links may be directed to any other subject areas and still be within the scope of the present invention. The results of the inputs of the separate feeds and retrievals from the system data bases is shown in Figure 18 at 619. The system subscriber may access this information through Information Panel 619.

Referring to Figure 28C, generally at 1029, "Messaging/Chat Preferences" display 1006 is shown open. The Messaging/Chat Preferences display has two sections. The first section at 1030 is for selecting the hubs for which transaction information will be displayed on Global display 618. This first section also is for selection of the time periods for which transaction information will be displayed on Global display 618.

The second section of Messaging/Chat Preferences display 1006 at 1032 is for chatting purposes with a party specified at 1033. The chatting is through text messages and the other party involve in the chat may be a system subscriber or other individual tlirough a hyperlink connection.

Referring to Figure 28D, generally at 1035, shows "Company Wide" display 1008 open. At 1037, the system subscriber is permitted to make a selection which will require that all traders for a trading entity to use a multiple step procedure for confirming trades. When this selection is made, the multi-step method that is activated will cause a separate screen to appear before any transaction may be completed. The system subscriber must then confirm the purchase or sale through this separate screen before the transactions is completed.

Figure 29, generally at 1050, shows a display screen associated with the spread transactions. When a system subscriber does this type of trading, it will mean that in a single action, the system subscriber may buy in one market and sell in another market in the same transaction. As an example, a system subscriber would select a specific period of time, e.g., January, at delivery point CLN. The system subscriber would choose to buy 100 MWs of energy at $30.00 for January at CIN and desires to sell that 100 MWs at $28.00 for January at ENT. This would provide a $2.00 spread for the fransaction. This may be refened to as a $2.00 spread transaction.

Again referring to the Figure 29, Spread display 1050 will be described. The first field at 1052 is for the Time Frame of the spread. The second field at 1054 is for the spread delivery points. The third at 1056 is an anowhead for expanding the associated entry to show multiple bids or offers if they exist. The fourth field at 1058 is not titled and is used to indicate whether there is an "Interest to build" or the bid is "Synthesized". When a bid is shown to be "Synthesized," it is derived from a bid and offer on other floor(s). The fifth field at 1060 is for the bid amount and the sixth field at 1062 is for the bid price. The seventh field at 1064 is for (lie offer price and the eighth field at 1066 is for the offer amount. The ninth field at 1068 is to indicate that there is an "Interest to build" or that the offer is "Synthesized."

As applied to a bid, when an offer is shown to be "Synthesized," it is derived from a bid and offer on other floor(s).

The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth fields of Spread display 1050 at 1070, 1072, and 1074, respectively, are directed to information regarding the last completed spread trade for hitting a bid or lifting an offer for a specified period of time. The tenth field at 1070 is titled "Last Price." The information in this field is the price for the last completed spread trade. The eleventh field at 1072 is titled "Last Amt." The information in this field is the amount for the last completed spread trade. The twelfth field at 1074 is titled "H/L." When "H" is used in this column, it indicates that the last spread fransaction was "Hitting a Bid" and when a "L" is used in the column, it is to indicate that the last spread transaction was "Lifting an Offer."

The thirteenth field at 1075 is titled "Hi Trade," which is directed to the highest price the commodity traded for during the current trading day for the specified period, i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc. Similarly, the fourteenth field at 1076 is titled "Lo Trade" and provides the lowest price that the commodity traded for during the current trading day for the specified period.

The fifteenth field is titled "Volume" and is at 1080. This field is to indicate the total volume of the commodity that has been traded for a specified period., i.e., Daily, Skip, Spot, etc. The sixteenth field is titled "Details" contains information that the system subscriber wants to associate with that particular entry.

The terms and expressions that are employed herein are terms or description and not of limitation. There is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding the equivalents of the feature shown or described, or portions thereof, it being recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims

Claims

1. A computer-based method for conducting trading transactions, comprising the steps of:

(a) connecting to a network system that includes 1 to N network subscribers, with N being an integer;

(b) each network subscriber rating each of the other 1 to N-l network subscribers, according to predetermined criteria for a probability that a particular network subscriber will fulfill terms of a trading transaction;

(c) accessing a central system application and central system databases that are accessible by each of the network subscribers;

(d) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen a first screen display containing a listing of all outstanding bids to buy and offers to sell posted by all of the network subscribers, with each bid and each offer being listed in a manner that does not identify the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer;

(e) selecting a bid or offer from the first screen display by responding to the bid or offer from a predetermined number of responses and saving the selected bid or offer with the response in the system databases;

(f) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen in a second screen display actions taken by that network subscriber with respect to the selected bid or offer, the second screen display being for displaying all actions taken by the network subscriber with regard to bids and offers being negotiated by that network subscriber and bids and offers created by that network subscriber;

(g) simultaneously and automatically with step (e), indicating on a third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to, and indicating on the third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display the type of response by the network subscriber that selected the bid or offer;

(h) automatically completing a transaction between network subscribers according to ratings assigned at step (b) by each network subscriber to the transaction;

(i) saving terms of the completed fransaction in the system databases;

(j) automatically removing the bid or offer that is the subject of the completed fransaction from the listing in the first screen display; (k) removing the bid or offer from the second screen displays of the network subscribers that are parties to the completed transaction; and

(1) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a fourth screen display of the network subscriber terms of the completed transaction, with the fourth screen display for displaying all of the completed fransactions of the network subscriber.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein conducting trading fransactions includes conducting commodity trading fransactions.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein conducting trading fransactions includes conducting securities-type trading transactions.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor at the first screen display containing a listing at step (d) is in substantially real-time.

5. The method as recited in claim I, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor screen in the second screen display the selected bid or offer at step (f) is in substantially real-time.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on a numerical scale.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on predetermined categories.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the predetermined categories include favorable and not favorable.

9. A computer-based method for conducting trading transactions, comprising the steps of:

(a) connecting to a network system that includes 1 to N network subscribers, with N being an integer;

(b) each network subscriber rating each of the other 1 to N-l network subscribers, according to predetermined criteria for a probability that a particular network subscriber will fulfill terms of a trading transaction;

(c) accessing a central system application and central system databases that are accessible by each of the network subscribers;

(d) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen a first screen display containing a listing of all outstanding bids to buy and offers to sell posted by all of the network subscribers, with each bid and each offer being listed in a manner that does not identify the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer; (e) selecting a bid or offer from the first screen display by responding to the bid or offer from a predetermined number of responses and saving the selected bid or offer with the response in the system databases;

(f) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen in a second screen display actions taken by that network subscriber with respect to the selected bid or offer, the second screen display being for displaying all actions taken by the network subscriber with regard to bids and offers being negotiated by that network subscriber and bids and offers created by that network subscriber;

(g) simultaneously and automatically with step (e), indicating on a third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to, and indicating on the third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display to the type of response by the network subscriber that selected the bid or offer;

(h) the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to, responding by at least increasing a quantity of the bid or offer to a quantity greater than an original posted quantity of the bid or offer;

(i) the network subscriber that selected the bid or offer accepting the increased quantity of the of the bid or offer;

(j) automatically completing a fransaction between network subscribers according to ratings assigned at step (b) by each network subscriber to the transaction;

(k) saving terms of the completed fransaction in the system databases;

(1) automatically removing the bid or offer that is the subject of the completed transaction from the listing in the first screen display;

(m) removing the bid or offer from the second screen displays of the network subscribers that are parties to the completed transaction; and

(n) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a fourth screen display of the network subscriber terms of the completed transaction, with the fourth screen display for displaying all of the completed fransactions of the network subscriber.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting commodity trading transactions.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting securities-type trading fransactions.

12. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor at the first screen display containing a listing at step (d) is in substantially real-time.

13. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor screen in the second screen display the selected bid or offer at step (f) is in substantially real-time.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on a numerical scale.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on predetermined categories.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the predetermined categories include highly favorable and not favorable.

17. A computer-based method for conducting trading transactions, comprising the steps of:

(a) connecting to a network system that includes 1 to N network subscribers, with N being an integer;

(b) each network subscriber rating each of the other 1 to N-l network subscribers, according to predetermined criteria for a probability that a particular network subscriber will fulfill terms of a trading transaction;

(c) accessing a central system application and central system databases that are accessible by each of the network subscribers;

(d) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen a first screen display containing a listing of all outstanding bids to buy and offers to sell posted by all of the network subscribers, with each bid and each offer being listed in a manner that does not identify the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer;

(e) selecting a bid or offer from the first screen display by responding to the bid or offer and in the response increasing the quantity of the bid or offer and saving the selected bid or offer with the response in the system databases;

(f) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen in a second screen display actions taken by that network subscriber with respect to the selected bid or offer, the second screen display being for displaying all actions taken by that network subscriber with regard to bids and offers being negotiated by the network subscriber and bids and offers created by that network subscriber; (g) simultaneously and automatically with step (e), indicating on a third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to, the response with the increased quantity of the bid or offer;

(h) the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to accepting the increased quantity of the of the bid or offer;

(i) automatically completing a fransaction between network subscribers according to ratings assigned at step (b) by each network subscriber to the transaction;

(j) saving terms of the completed transaction in the system databases;

(k) automatically removing the bid or offer that is the subject of the completed transaction from the listing in the first screen display;

(1) removing the bid or offer from the second screen displays of the network subscribers that are parties to the completed transaction; and

(m) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a fourth screen display of the network subscriber terms of the completed transaction, with the fourth screen display for displaying all of the completed transactions of the network subscriber.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting commodity trading fransactions.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting securities-type trading transactions.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor at the first screen display containing a listing at step (d) is in substantially real-time.

21. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor screen in the second screen display the selected bid or offer at step (f) is in substantially real-time.

22. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on a numerical scale.

23. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on predetermined categories.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the predetennined categories include favorable and not favorable.

25. A computer-based method for conducting trading fransactions, comprising the steps of:

(a) connecting to a network system that includes 1 to N network subscribers, with N being an integer;

(b) each network subscriber rating each of the other 1 to N-l network subscribers, according to predetermined criteria for a probability that a particular network subscriber will fulfill terms of a trading transaction;

(c) accessing a central system application and central system databases that are accessible by each of the network subscribers;

(d) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on a network subscriber monitor screen a first screen display containing a listing of all outstanding bids to buy and offers to sell posted by all of the network subscribers, with each bid and each offer being listed in a manner that does not identify the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer;

(e) selecting a bid or offer from the first screen display by responding to the bid or offer and in the response increasing the quantity of the bid or offer and saving the selected bid or offer with the response in the system databases;

(f) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor screen in a second screen display actions taken by the network subscriber with respect to the selected bid or offer, the second screen display being for displaying all actions taken by the network subscriber with regard to bids and offers being negotiated by the network subscriber and bids and offers created by the network subscriber;

(g) simultaneously and automatically with step (e), indicating on a third screen display of the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to, the response with the increased quantity of the bid or offer;

(h) the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer in the listing displayed on the first screen display that another network subscriber has responded to accepting none or a portion of the increased quantity of the of the bid or offer;

(g) network subscribers that are not parties to the transaction responding to the unaccepted portion of the increase in the quantity of the bid or offer;

(i) automatically completing transactions between network subscribers according to ratings assigned at step (b) by each network subscriber to the fransactions;

(j) saving terms of the completed fransactions in the system databases; (k) automatically removing the bid or offer that is the subject of the completed transactions from the listing in the first screen display;

(1) removing the bid or offer from the second screen displays of the network subscribers that are parties to the completed transactions; and

(m) retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the fourth screen displays of the network subscribers terms of the completed transactions, with the fourth screen display for displaying all of the completed transactions of respective network subscribers.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting commodity trading transactions.

27. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein conducting trading transactions includes conducting securities-type trading transactions.

28. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor at the first screen display containing a listing at step (d) is in substantially real-time.

29. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein retrieving from the system databases and displaying on the network subscriber monitor screen in the second screen display the selected bid or offer at step (f) is in substantially real-time.

30. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on a numerical scale.

31. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein predetermined criteria for rating a network subscriber is based on predetermined categories.

32. The method as recited in claim 31 , wherein the predetermined categories include favorable and not favorable.

33. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the network subscribers that enter the transaction at step (g) to respond to the unaccepted portion of the increase in the quantity of the bid or offer become transacting parties for the unaccepted portion of the increase in the quantity of the bid or offer on a predetermined basis.

34. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein the predetermined basis is first come, first serve.

35. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the responses to the unaccepted portion of the increase in the quantity of the bid or offer include bids and offers.

36. The method as recited in claim 35, wherein the system forms fransactions for the unaccepted portion of the increase in the quantity of the bid or offer first then matches remaining responding network subscribers that are bidders and offerers until there is a excess quantity from a network subscriber bidders or offerers.

37. The method as recited in claim 1, 9, 17, or 25, wherein the third display screen may include displaying a best bid.

38. The method as recited in claim 1, 9, 17, or 25, wherein the third display screen may include displaying a best offer.

39. The method as recited in claim 2, 10, 18, or 26, wherein the trading transaction includes a commodities spread trading transaction.

40. The method as recited in claim 1, 9, 17, or 25, wherein the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer may modify the bid or offer.

41. The method as recited in claim 1, 9, 17, or 25, wherein the network subscriber that posted the bid or offer may initiate a negotiation with network subscribers that posted the best bid or offer on the first display screen.