Importance

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Abstract

A distributed processing on-line automated trading system uses structured messages to represent each stage in the negotiation between a market maker (quoter) and a potential buyer or seller (requestor). Such a system is subject to uncertainties caused by the fact that a variable time is required for an order (buy or sell) message to be transmitted from the requestor to the quoter, or for a cancel (quote interrupt) message to be transmitted from the quoter to the requestor. Furthermore, it is possible that an equipment failure in the network, either in a communication link or even at the workstation of one of the traders, will prevent a small fraction of such order messages and cancel messages from reaching their intended destination within the relatively short time-frame typically associated with an on-line transaction system. An electronic log maintained by the quoter's workstation provides a reliable and impartial mechanism for automatically verifying whether an order was actually received by the quoter, and for thereby resolving whether the quoter is committed to accept an order that was placed during the small (typically only a few seconds) window of uncertainty after an order is placed and before the requestor would have been notified that the order was accepted or the quote was interrupted or a failure had occurred in the relevant communication link. In addition, the system regularly reviews a second transaction log maintained by the requestor's workstation for any 'doubtful' transactions (i.e., those designated as 'order in process' for more than a few minutes), including 'doubtful' transactions which were not resolved when any network failure message was originally received, and those which were the result of a failure associated with the requestor's workstation.

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First Claim