System and Method for Simulating an Electronic Trading Environment

Abstract

Market data is recorded from a real live exchange. The recording data can be played back in real time or delayed, in any manner, to simulate the recorded market. Moreover, one or more users can participate in the simulated market just as if they were participating in a real-live market. The system provides a realistic trading environment without the associated risks of trading in a live-market such as losing money and the cost of making trades. The system may be used for training purposes and for purposes of testing and analyzing various trading strategies. Software developers and testers may also utilize the realistic environment to develop trading products or applications. Additionally, the system provides a means for demonstrating trading application products.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A computer readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by a processor, wherein the instructions are executable to:
 retrieve stored market information corresponding to a tradeable object that has been obtained from a live electronic exchange;   update a market order book to reflect a next state of the stored market information;   update a simulated order book based on order information and fill information received from a simulated electronic exchange to reflect a current state of a simulated market;   compare the updated market order book and the simulated order book;   generate one or more orders to equalize the simulated order book with the updated market order book; and   communicate the one or more generated orders to the simulated electronic exchange, wherein the simulated electronic exchange is configured to receive orders from one or more client devices and to match the orders received from the client devices and the orders received from a market simulator to simulate the operation of the live electronic exchange to enable simulated electronic trading in a market corresponding to the live electronic exchange.   
     
     
         3 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the instructions are further executable to record the market information corresponding to the tradeable object from a data feed received from the live electronic exchange. 
     
     
         4 . The computer readable medium of  claim 3 , wherein the instructions are further executable to receive data updates from the data feed and store the data updates in a data file to record the market information, wherein each data update is stored with a timestamp to provide time synchronization. 
     
     
         5 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the instruction are further executable to:
 determine any differences between quantities pending at prices in the updated market order book and the simulated market order book; and   generate one or more orders comprising at least one of a delete transaction, an add transaction and a change transaction having values based on the determined differences to equalize the simulated market order book with the updated market order book.   
     
     
         6 . The computer readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the at least one of delete, add transaction, and change transaction are applied to orders at the end of a queue at the simulated electronic exchange. 
     
     
         7 . The computer readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the add transaction comprises one of adding a trade order to increase a quantity at a price or adding an opposing order to cause a trade to occur at a price. 
     
     
         8 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein market data associated with the live electronic exchange is stored in a data file. 
     
     
         9 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the simulated electronic exchange implements a user configurable matching algorithm. 
     
     
         10 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the simulated electronic exchange disseminates market information to a market simulator and to the one or more client device. 
     
     
         11 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein a first client device and a second client device communicate orders to the simulated electronic exchange, wherein the one or more generated orders, orders from the first client device, and orders from the second client device are matched at the simulated electronic exchange.