Method and system for facilitating opportunistic transactions

Abstract

An automated internet based exchange system is described for controlling the exchanging of ownership interests in objects on a secondary market. The automated exchange includes one or more sub-exchanges for maintaining information representative of secondary market transactions and for controlling said transactions. The automated exchange includes a secondary portfolio auction sub-exchange, a pricing and valuation services sub-exchange, an electronic contract negotiation services sub-exchange and a delivery and auditing service sub-exchange. The automated exchange also includes a logic switch manager that creates opportunistic auctions from a transaction for a product or service so as to trigger further auctions or service sales on the same or different secondary markets.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A system for pricing a secondary market object for a transaction, said system comprising: 
 means for inputting parameters from a seller in the transaction identifying an object to be sold, said object being a secondary market object having a dynamic value affected by time-varying external factors;    means for inputting parameters representative of the external factors;    means for estimating a value of the secondary object based on the external factors; and    means for selectively providing the estimate of the value to at least one participants in the transaction.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  further comprising means for auctioning the object among the participants.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the secondary market object is selected from a group including commercial real estate loans, automobile leases, credit card financing, direct financing, home mortgages, equipment leases, bankruptcy debt, delinquent debts, and student loans.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the external factors are selected from a group including securitization factors, primary market factors, bond yields, coupon rates, money supply factors, the prime rate, currency exchange rates, economic indicators, housing starts, and consumer debt.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the means for estimating the value of the object operates to provide a current estimate of the value.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the means for estimating the value of the object operates to provide a projection of the future value of the object as a function of time.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the means for estimating the value of the object includes means for estimating the value based upon a sub-set of a total set of factors affecting the value of the object; 
 means for inputting a selection from a participant in the transaction of a particular sub-set of factors for use in the estimation; and  
 means for providing the estimate based upon the sub-set to only the participant making the selection.  
 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7  further including means for assessing a fee to the participant making the selection of the sub-set of factors, said fee based upon the sub-set of factors selected.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein means for selectively providing the estimate of the value to participants in the auction includes means for assessing a fee to each participant receiving the estimate.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9  further including means for assessing a commission if the object is sold.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein an amount of said commission is determined based upon a total amount of time the object is present for auction before it is sold.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein said amount of said commission is reduced to zero after a pre-determined amount of time.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  further including means for permitting a participant to place an escrow lock on said object.  
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13  further including means for assessing a fee to the participant placing the escrow lock on the object.  
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1  further including means for permitting a participant to place a lock on said means for estimating the value of the object.  
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  further including means for assessing a fee to the participant placing a lock on the means for estimating the value of the object.  
     
     
         17 . The system of claim  47  further including 
 means for inputting parameters representative of an object to be purchased from a participant in the auction; and  
 means for determining whether there are any objects offered for sale that conform to the parameters.  
 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein said parameters representative of an object to be purchased are selected from a group consisting of current value, geographic location, yield, risk rating, term.  
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the means for determining whether there are any objects offered for sale that conform to the parameters includes 
 means for periodically estimating the values of all objects offered for sale; and  
 means for alerting the participant when an object is identified that conforms to the requirements of the participant.  
 
     
     
         20 . A method of conducting a transaction to transfer an ownership interest in an object having a dynamic value affected by time-varying external factors in a secondary market object between a seller and at least one purchaser comprising the following steps: 
 inputting seller and purchaser parameters specific to the object to be sold;    estimating the value of the secondary object based on the external factors;    selectively providing the estimate of the value of the secondary object to a series of purchasers in the transaction so that the purchaser may take it into account when placing a bid;    receiving bid information from the purchaser;    determining whether the bid information meets seller's transaction criteria based on the dynamically priced object; and    finalizing the transaction if the buyers bid information meets seller's transaction parameters based on the dynamically priced object.    
     
     
         21 . A system for controlling an auction directed to fulfilling an order for at least one secondary market object, said system comprising: 
 means for inputting parameters from a participant in the auction identifying an object to be purchased, said object being a secondary market object having a dynamic value affected by time-varying external factors;    means for inputting parameters representative of the external factors;    means for estimating a value of the secondary object based on the external factors;    means for selectively providing the estimate of the value to participants in the auction; and    means for auctioning the option to sell objects among the participants.    
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21  wherein said means for auctioning the option to sell objects among the participants includes means to split the object into smaller components for sale in the auction.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 22  wherein said means to split the object into smaller components is be provided by the system.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 23  wherein said means to split the object into smaller components is provided by an entity listing the object on the exchange.  
     
     
         25 . A method of notifying a participant on an exchange of a possible business opportunity comprising the steps of: 
 allowing the participant to enter desired portfolio or service information;    parameterizing said information;    transforming said information into an augmented Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) construction;    inserting said GNS construction into an active auction stream;    detecting whether the GNS construction locates a suitable match; and    alerting the participant when a suitable match is detected    
     
     
         26 . A centralized system for exchanging products or providing related services accessible by a plurality of users over a computer network comprising: 
 a user interface module for allowing each user to enter information for desired product or service information;    a Gelfand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) transformation module in communication with said user interface module for transforming the user information for each user into an augmented GNS construction;    a storage module for storing the information of a plurality of products and services provided by the system;    a comparison module in communication with said GNS transformation module and said storage module for comparing the GNS construction for each user to the information contained within said storage module and determining whether the GNS construction parameters match user information within the storage module; and    an alert module in communication with said comparison module to alert the user when said comparison module detects a suitable match.    
     
     
         27 . A system accessible by a plurality of users over a computer network comprising: 
 user interface means for allowing each user to enter information for a desired product or service information;    transformation means in communication with said user interface module for transforming the user information for each user into a probe;    a storage module for storing the information of a plurality of products and services provided by the system;    a comparison module in communication with said transformation means and said storage module for comparing the probe for each user to the information contained within said storage module and determining whether the probe matches user information within the storage module; and    an alert module in communication with said comparison module to alert the user when said comparison module detects a suitable match.