System and method and managing commodity transactions

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing the sale of commodities, such as tier-priced commodities, are described. Risk is managed by bundling with the commodity a financial instrument designed to indemnify against the risks associated with purchasing the commodity. The financial instrument may be an insurance instrument, for example. In one embodiment, bundled products are offered for sale to two or more bidders, at respective offer prices. The bidder that exceeds their respective offer price by the greatest amount is sold the bundled product. Different prices may be offered to different purchasers for respective bundled products. The offers, bids, and determination of who wins the bidding may be made by processors or computers coupled to networks, such as the Internet.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method of managing a sale of a commodity, the method comprising:
 providing, by a first processor, over a network, a respective price for a respective bundled product to respective second processors of a plurality of bidders, each bundled product comprising a commodity and a financial instrument to indemnify against loss associated with at least one risk related to purchase of the commodity by a respective bidder;   displaying to a respective bidder the respective price for the respective bidder, by a respective display coupled to each respective processor;   receiving, by the first processor, via the network, bids for respective bundled products from at least some of the respective second bidders; and   determining, by the first processor, which of the bidders exceeds their respective price by a greater amount; and   selling the respective bundled product to the respective bidder who exceeds their respective price by the greatest amount.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selling, by the first processor, over the network, the respective bundled product to a respective bidder who exceeds their respective price by the greatest amount.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 determining the respective prices by the first processor based, at least in part, on a price for the commodity for sale to each respective bidder with the at least one risk and a value for the financial instrument to indemnify each respective bidder.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein:
 the values of respective financial instruments are based, at least in part, on one or more factors associated with each respective bidder.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the commodity is chosen from the group consisting of electricity, natural gas, water, and telecommunications services. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the at least one risk includes a risk of interruptions in delivery to each bidder; and   respective insurance instruments indemnify against loss associated with the interruptions.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the financial instrument is an insurance instrument. 
     
     
         8 . A method for managing the sale of a tier-priced commodity, comprising:
 displaying to a first bidder a first price for a first bundled product comprising a commodity and a first insurance instrument to indemnify the first bidder against loss associated with at least one risk related to the purchase of the commodity, on a first display device coupled to a first processor;   displaying to a second bidder a second price for a second bundled commodity comprising the commodity and a second insurance instrument designed to indemnify the second bidder against loss associated with at least one risk related to the purchase of the commodity, on a second display device different than the first display device, coupled to a second processor different from the first processor;   receiving bids by a third processor different than the first and second processors, for the first bundled product from the first bidder and for the second bundled product from the second bidder, from the first and second processors, respectively;   determining, by the third processor, which of the first and second bidders exceeds their respective first and second prices by a greater amount; and   selling the first bundled product to the first bidder if the first bidder exceeds the first price by a greater amount than the second bidder exceeds the second price or selling the second bundled product to the second bidder if the second bidder exceeds the second price by a greater amount than the first bidder exceeds the first price.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the first price and the second price are different. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the commodity is chosen from the group consisting of electricity, natural gas, water, and telecommunications bandwidth. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein:
 the at least one risk includes a risk of interruptions in delivery; and   the first and second insurance instruments indemnify against loss associated with interruptions in delivery of the commodity to first and second bidders, respectively.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the price of the first and second insurance instruments are based, at least in part, on one or more factors associated with the first and second bidders, respectively. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the at least one risk includes a risk of interruptions in delivery; and   the first and second insurance instruments indemnify against loss associated with interruptions in delivery of the commodity to the first and second bidders, respectively.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the price of the first and second insurance instruments are based upon one or more factors associated with the first and second bidders, respectively. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 8 , comprising receiving the bids from the first and second processors, via at least one network. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the at least one network comprises the Internet. 
     
     
         17 . A method of managing a sale of a commodity, comprising:
 receiving by a first computer associated with a first party a price for a bundled product comprising a commodity and a first financial instrument to indemnify against loss associated with at least one risk related to purchase of the commodity by the first party, via a first network;   receiving by a second computer associated with a second party a second price for a bundled product comprising the commodity and a second financial instrument to indemnify against loss associated with at least one risk related purchase of the commodity by the second party, via a second network;   sending a first bid from the first computer via the network; and   sending a second bid from the second computer via the network;   wherein:   if the first party exceeds the first price by more than the second bid exceeds the second price, the first party receives the bundled product for the first price; and   if the second party exceeds the second price by more than the first party exceeds the first price, the second party receives the bundled product for the second price.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the first and second networks comprise the Internet. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein:
 the first and second prices are received from a third computer, via the Internet; and   the first and second bids are sent to the third computer, via the Internet.