Systems and methods for providing investment opportunities

Abstract

The invention relates to methods and systems for providing investment competitions. In one aspect, trading algorithms that automatically generate trading instructions in response to market data are developed by and received from a distributed plurality of independent trading algorithm developers. The algorithms are periodically executed against market data and generate trading instructions, which, based on an association of investment accounts with the trading algorithms, initiate correlative trades in the investments accounts.

1 . A method for providing an investment competition in which at least one trading algorithm and at least one human trader participate, the method comprising: 
 providing a trading algorithm development application to a plurality of trading algorithm developers via a communications network;    receiving one or more trading algorithms from a subset of the plurality of trading algorithm developers;    facilitating an investment competition among the one or more received algorithms and one or more human traders by assigning an investment portfolio to each of the received algorithms and each of the human traders, and automatically generating trading instructions for the one or more received algorithms in response to market data and receiving trading instructions from the one or more human traders in response to the market data;    determining a performance metric for each of the received algorithms and each of the human traders during the competition;    selecting a winner of the investment competition from among the received algorithms and each of the human traders based at least in part on the performance metric.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the generated trading instructions and received trading instructions are executed against their respective portfolios.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the algorithm development application comprises a structured domain-specific language for developing algorithms that initiate trading instructions in response to market data.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing a database of historical market data against which the algorithms may be tested.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein at least one of the plurality of trading algorithm developers is one of the human traders.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the assigned investment portfolio comprises cash.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the performance metric is calculated periodically during the investment competition.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising publishing the performance metrics, thereby facilitating public viewing of the performance metrics.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the market data comprises one or more of live market data, historical market data, and simulated market data.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising rating one or more of the received algorithms, the algorithm developers, and each of the human traders based on at least one of the performance metrics.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the rating further comprises calculating the rating based on ratings from previous competitions.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising executing the trading instructions.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the execution of the trading instructions represents the execution of actual trades.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the execution of the trading instructions represents the execution of virtual trades.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the facilitation of the investment competition further comprises publishing parameters describing attributes of the investment competition.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the attributes comprise a minimum rating.  
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising facilitating the registration of developers to participate in the competition.  
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising facilitating the registration of algorithms to participate in the competition by algorithm developers.  
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising facilitating the registration of traders to participate in the competition as human traders.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the algorithms are executed autonomously during the competition.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein the autonomous execution of the algorithms is based at least in part on attributes of each algorithm.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 20  wherein the autonomous execution of the algorithms is based at least in part on attributes of the competition.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the investment competition comprises a series of competitions.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising providing a prize to the winner of the series of competitions.  
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, if a received algorithm is selected as a winner, awarding a prize to the developer of the received algorithm, and if a human trader is selected as a winner, awarding the prize to the human trader.  
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing the results of the competition to one or more investment professionals, thereby facilitating the selection of one or more of the algorithms as a basis for generating trading instructions in an investment portfolio.  
   
   
       27 . A method for providing an investment competition, the method comprising: 
 receiving from at least one of a plurality of traders one or more algorithms for initiating trading instructions in response to market data;    facilitating a competition between the received algorithms and one or more human traders;    determining a performance metric for the performance of the received algorithms and the human traders during the competition; and    selecting one of the received algorithms and the human traders as a winner of the competition based at least in part on the performance metric.    
   
   
       28 . A method for providing an investment competition among trading algorithms, the method comprising: 
 providing a trading algorithm development application to a plurality of trading algorithm developers via a communications network;    receiving one or more trading algorithms from a subset of the plurality of trading algorithm developers;    facilitating an investment competition among the one or more received algorithms by assigning an investment portfolio to each of the received algorithms and automatically generating trading instructions for the one or more received algorithms in response to market data;    determining a performance metric for each of the received algorithms;    selecting a winner of the investment competition from among the received algorithms based at least in part on the performance metric.    
   
   
       29 . A system for providing an investment competition, the system comprising: 
 a communication server for receiving from at least one of a plurality of traders one or more algorithms for initiating trading instructions in response to market data;    a competition system for holding a competition among received algorithms and one or more human traders; and    a performance module for determining a performance metric for the performance of the received algorithms and the human traders during the competition; and    a selection module for selecting one of the received algorithms and the human traders as a winner of the competition based at least in part on the performance metric.