System and method for facilitating trading of financial instruments

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating trading of financial instruments. According to one embodiment, an application receives an indication of interest to trade a financial instrument by a first party, provides the indication of interest to other parties without disclosing a side of trade, receives an offer to trade the financial instrument by a second party based on the provided indication of interest, a side of trade being associated with the offer by the second party but not disclosed to the first party, and receives either a rejection or an acceptance of the second party's offer by the first party.

1 . A computer-implemented method for facilitating trading of financial instruments, comprising:
 receiving an indication of interest to trade a financial instrument by a first party;   providing the indication of interest to other parties without disclosing a side of trade;   receiving an offer to trade the financial instrument by a second party based on the provided indication of interest, a side of trade being associated with the offer by the second party but not disclosed to the first party; and   receiving either a rejection or an acceptance of the second party's offer by the first party.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a side of trade is associated with the acceptance by the first party. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 completing a trade based on the second party's offer only if the side of trade associated with the second party's offer is contra to the side of trade associated with the first party's acceptance.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 sending notification of the first party's acceptance to a trading application without disclosing the side of trade associated with the acceptance.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 sending the side of trade associated with the acceptance to the trading application only upon occurrence of a specified market event condition.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the trading application completes a trade based on the second party's offer only if the side of trade associated with the second party's offer is contra to the side of trade associated with the first party's acceptance. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the trading application resides on a client machine of the second party. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the trading application completes the trade by submitting details of the trade to a trading server for execution. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the trading application resides on a trading server. 
     
     
         10 . A computer-implemented method for facilitating trading of financial instruments, comprising:
 displaying in a first portion of a graphical user interface an indication of interest to trade a financial instrument by a first party;   displaying in a second portion of the graphical user interface an offer to trade the financial instrument by a second party based on the first party's indication of interest, a side of trade being associated with the offer by the second party but not disclosed to the first party;   receiving either a rejection or an acceptance of the second party's offer by the first party; and   completing a trade based on the second party's offer only if the side of trade associated with the second party's offer is contra to the side of trade associated with the first party's acceptance.