Systems and methods for providing price axes

Abstract

The invention relates to systems and methods that provide a user interface for use with an electronic trading system. The interface displays a bid price axis and an ask price axis, as well as corresponding sizes, and an indication of the inside market. When the inside market changes in response to changing market conditions, the indication of the inside market changes locations before being restored to its original location by shifting the bid and ask prices in a direction parallel to the bid or ask price axis. The user may enter trade commands at different price levels using an input device. In order to help prevent such trade commands from being entered at erroneous price levels, the system locks a pointer associated with the input device to a price the user points to during the shifting process, unless the pointer is moved away from that price.

1 . A method for displaying market information for an item, the method comprising:
 displaying on a user interface a plurality of bid prices along a first axis and a plurality of ask prices along a second axis;   displaying on the user interface an indication of an inside market in a first location along the first and second axes;   when the inside market changes from a first bid price and a first ask price to at least one of a second bid price and a second ask price, displaying the indication of the inside market in a second location along the first and second axes; and   shifting the plurality of bid prices along the first axis and the plurality of ask prices along the second axis to restore the indication of the inside market to the first location.