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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 - 22 . (canceled) 
     
     
         23 . A method for providing an investment competition, the method comprising:
 providing an algorithm development application to a plurality of traders, the algorithm development application comprising a language for implementing algorithms for initiating trading instructions in response to market data;   providing access to a database of historical market performance data, thereby facilitating the testing of the algorithms;   receiving one or more of the algorithms from at least one of the plurality of traders;   determining a performance metric for each of the received algorithms;   selecting one of the algorithms as a winning algorithm based at least in part on the performance metric.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising attributing a rating to the algorithm based at least in part on the performance metric. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising attributing a rating to each trader having submitted an algorithm based at least in part on the performance metric for each trader's respective algorithm. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25  wherein the rating attributed to each trader is further based on a previous rating attributed to each respective trader. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25  further comprising selecting at least one trader to invest a pool of assets on behalf of investors based at least in part on the trader's rating. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 24  further comprising selecting an algorithm to programmatically determine trading instructions for a pool of assets on behalf of investors based at least in part on the algorithm's rating. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising compensating the trader that submitted the winning algorithm. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 23  wherein the performance metric is determined over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 30  wherein the predetermined time period is selected from a period of an hour, a day, a week, two weeks, a month, two months, a quarter, six months, and a year. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising facilitating the allocation of one or more algorithms to investors accounts based on allocation instructions received from individual investors. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising storing the selected algorithm in a library of algorithms. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 33  further comprising providing access to the library of algorithms. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34  further comprising charging a fee for access to the library of algorithms. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 34  wherein the access is limited to access to trading instructions generated by one or more of the algorithms in the library of algorithms in response to market data. 
     
     
         37 . A system for providing an investment competition, the system comprising:
 a web server for communicating an algorithm development application to a plurality of client machines, the client machines being operated by one or more traders and the algorithm development application comprising a language for implementing trading instructions in response to market data;   a client interface server communicating with the algorithm development application, the client interface server for receiving at least one algorithm;   a parser in communication with the web server and the client interface server for interpreting the algorithm;   and a performance module in communication with the parser for executing the algorithm, testing the algorithm, and calculating a performance metric for the algorithm.   
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 37  further comprising a database server for providing historical market data to the performance module on which the performance metric may be based. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 37  further comprising a trading module for receiving the trade instructions and initiating one or more trades in response thereto. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 39  further comprising an allocation module for facilitating selection of algorithms by individual investors and allocating individual investors accounts among algorithms selected by the individual investors. 
     
     
         41 . The system of  claim 40  wherein the trading module is further configured to execute trades in the individual investor accounts based on the received trade instructions. 
     
     
         42 . The system of  claim 37  wherein the performance module further identifies one or more algorithms as winning algorithms, and further comprising a compensation module for determining compensation for traders who submitted the winning algorithms. 
     
     
         43 . The system of  claim 37  wherein the performance module further identifies one or more algorithms as winning algorithms, and further comprising an algorithm library for storing the winning algorithms. 
     
     
         44 . The system of  claim 43  further comprising an access module for enforcing access rights to the library of algorithms. 
     
     
         45 - 71 . (canceled)