Electronic securities marketplace having integration with order management systems

Abstract

An electronic trading marketplace (ETM) communicates with interfacing modules interfacing directly with order management systems (OMS's) at trading institutions. The interfacing modules automatically transmit orders from the OMS databases to the ETM and update the OMS databases in response to orders executed at the ETM. Traders can communicate with the ETM to anonymously negotiate trades of securities.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method executed by at least one processor, the method comprising:
 receiving a non-binding indication reflecting open orders in the order management system, in which the open orders include at least one first order;   receiving at least one second order;   determining that the second order matches the at least one first order;   in response to determining that the second order matches the at least one first order, transmitting a request for acceptance of a trade fulfilling at least part of the first order and at least part of the second order;   receiving the acceptance by the trading firm;   in response to receiving the acceptance, facilitating execution of the trade without a negotiation between the trading firm and an originator of the second order regarding the trade; and   suppressing evidence of the determination that the second order matches the at least one first order and the acceptance until after facilitating execution of the trade.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , in which suppressing evidence of the determination and the acceptance includes at least one of: performing at least some actions as if the determination and the acceptance were not made, transmitting misleading information regarding the determination and the acceptance, and transmitting no information regarding the determination and the acceptance. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the first order includes an indication of a price range in which the trading firm agrees to execute the trade. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the execution of the trade includes an execution at a price determined by at least one of a midpoint pricing model and a volume weighted average pricing model. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the request for acceptance includes a request to which a response may be made for a limited amount of time, in which the trading firm may only accept the request during the limited amount of time. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the first order matches the second order if the first order and the second order are for opposite sides of a trade for the same financial instrument. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 receiving an indication of one or more criteria to use for filtering orders for the trading firm; and   before transmitting the request for acceptance, determining that the second order meets the one or more criteria, in which transmitting the request for acceptance includes transmitting the request for acceptance in response to determining that the second order meets the one or more criteria.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , comprising suppressing evidence of the determination of whether the second order meets the one or more criteria. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , in which the one or more criteria include a time-related criteria. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , in which the one or more criteria include an industry-related criteria. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , comprising suppressing evidence of the one or more criteria. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 charging a fee to an originator of the second order for the execution of the trade, and   providing at least a portion of the fee to the trading firm.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the originator of the second order is a sell-side participant and the trading firm is a buy-side participant. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , in which the computer system is configured to receive a selection, by the trading firm, of the open orders from a larger set of open orders before sending the non-binding indications to the electronic marketplace, and in which sending the non-binding indications includes sending the non-binding indications in response to receiving the selection. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , in which transmitting the request for acceptance includes transmitting the request for acceptance to the trading firm and a plurality of additional trading firms in an order based on a priority mechanism. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , in which the priority mechanism identifies that requests should be sent to trading firms associated with larger orders before trading firms associated with smaller orders. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising: maintaining confidentiality of the trading firm and the open orders until after the execution. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising: in response to facilitating the execution, offering an additional product related to the trade to the trading firm. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , in which the additional product includes a hedging mechanism related to an underlying item traded through the trade.