JP2008532112A - General continuous double auction - Google Patents

Abstract

A method, system and data structure for conducting an integrated continuous double auction are described. The method includes participating in a comprehensive continuous double auction having conditional bids at multiple heterogeneous item auctions. A composite reverse auction is defined by a bid set that includes a first conditional bid at a first of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions and a second conditional bid at a second, i) from the bid set The first conditional bid is recognized as a winning bid and is substantially simultaneously ii) terminated when the second conditional bid is withdrawn as the remaining bid. The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions; b) at least one second seller associated with the second; c) Visible to at least one member selected from the group of buyers bidding at the first or second of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions.

Description

(Field of Invention)
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of auctions. Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of electronic auctions. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, systems, and data structures for conducting comprehensive continuous double auctions.

(Background of the Invention)
Current online and computer-implemented auction systems are an automated variant of traditional auction methods. These conventional methods are outlined here, followed by a description of the eBay and Amazon models.

  The common purpose of all auction methods is to help sellers and buyers agree on the “fair” market price of the item being sold. In the process of determining the price a person wants to buy or sell something, there is a tension between two very strong human characteristics. First, depending on the selfishness of all people, people want to buy at the lowest possible price or sell at the highest possible price. Second, there is a strong aversion to participating in transactions that are considered unfair to me. (Of course, in mature individuals, feeling the second attribute in others will soften the first expression.) This second attribute-the feeling that you don't want to be fooled-is so strong that Better for you, but personally worse for yourself, but unfairly profiting someone else, rather than choosing a result that deceives you or feels unfairly profitable Individuals choose consistent results. Interestingly, this feature has been experimentally demonstrated in cultures around the world and in primates-even monkeys appear to have innate justice.

(Also known as "English", "Open Cry", also known as a lift auction)
In a traditional "Open Cry" auction, a human auctioneer concentrates attention on one item at a time in the auction site, stimulates potential buyers to agree to constantly increasing prices, and who If it is no longer raised, the item is then sold to the last (highest) bidder. Auctioneers usually shout out in a characteristic language style, “Open Cry”, which is very difficult to understand at first, but very efficient in communicating the progress of the bid. Is.

  Key points of an open cry auction include the ability to observe and examine items for sale for a while before the bidding process begins. All bidders focus on one item at a time under the direction of the auctioneer. All bidders can hear the progress of the bid and know what their competitors are doing. Openness is the mechanism by which the Open Cry Auction establishes “fairness” in price. From the buyer's point of view, the price must be fair. This is because other people are bidding on similar amounts.

  An open cry auction can be advantageous to the seller when the “bidding heat” begins. This is because “bidding heat” raises the price higher than a calm evaluation justifies. However, this can also lead to a “buyer's remorse”, also known as a “winner's curse”, which is disadvantageous to the buyer. Conversely, if it can be seen that there is no competition for the buyer, the item may sometimes be purchased below its broader market value, which is more advantageous for the buyer than for the seller. The advantage over sellers or buyers driven by each of these situations is actually contrary to the fairness of traditional auctions and can lead to great disappointment and anger for both parties.

  Open Cry auctions can be named forward auctions and have the following advantages over continuous double auctions (see below for discussion of continuous double auctions): A series of such auctions (where we use the term “auction” to refer to the sale of a single item) is an effective way to sell many non-identical items. Because there is. Forward auctions do not rely on multiple pending bids and asks to establish current market prices. This is because the forward auction handles each item individually.

  Forward auctions suffer from the following disadvantages compared to continuous double auctions: Forward auctions are inherently disadvantageous for buyers. Because forward auctions are on the side of the items that are sold and create an artificial temporary monopoly-bidders compete against each other for items that are sold, but the sellers have no competition. Buyers may be interested in alternative items, but they can only bid on items that are currently auctioned, and how to bid on the next auction of other items they consider alternative There is no knowledge of what goes on. A continuous double auction, in contrast, places all (identical) alternative items in the auction at the same time. Forward auctions require buyers to look at each item that is auctioned individually. This greatly delays the progress of trading.

(Reverse auction)
A reverse auction is an auction initiated by a buyer who invites bids from multiple sellers. The price drops as the seller competes against the buyer's business, and the lowest bid is considered the winner. Companies may use reverse auctions as an alternative to the more traditional RFQ (request for quote price) or RFP (request for proposal) process. Reverse auctions have many procedural variations. For example, the buyer may not be bound to accept the lowest bid, may accept any bid, or may not be bound to accept any bid. A reverse auction is probably the most notable. This is because the sellers compete with each other to win the buyer's business. Theoretically, a reverse auction is symmetric with a lift auction and thus may have a corresponding advantage / disadvantage for the buyer / seller.

(Auction auction)
“Real” auction auctions are characterized by a lowering price mechanism. The auctioneer begins by announcing a relatively high price and repeatedly lowers the price until a “bid” is announced by one of the auction participants. The auction is then closed and the bidder wins the auction. The auction auction got its name from a Dutch flower auction where flowers are sold to merchants. These auctions tend to proceed very quickly. This is because the person who bids first wins. Unfortunately, the term “auction auction” also refers to a completely different type of auction, a “uniform second price” auction (see below).

(Sealed bid auction)
In a sealed-bid auction, a bidder simultaneously submits bids to an auctioneer without knowledge of the amount bid by other participants. Usually, the highest bidder (or the lowest bidder in a procurement or reverse sealed bid auction) is declared the winner. The winner pays either the highest bid amount ("first price" auction) or an amount equal to the next highest bid ("second price" auction-see below). The disadvantage to sealed bid auctions is that the auction itself does not provide the buyer with information to help the buyer determine a fair price. Additionally, bidders (eg, buyers) often do not have a means of ascertaining whether their bids were actually the best. Without a confirmation mechanism, the auctioneer or business may sell to any bidder that he or she believes.

(Uniform second price auction (Bickley Auction))
"Uniform second price" auctions, also known as big clay auctions, also known as auction auctions, are used both in finance and to sell multiple items of the same type . In this type of auction, sealed bids are submitted simultaneously by all buyers. If there are N such items to be sold, the N highest bidders win. However, the price they pay is the highest unsuccessful bid amount. Thus, if there is a single item, the price paid is the second highest price. If there are multiple items, the winner may have bid different prices, but they all pay the same price equal to the highest unsuccessful bid. (This seems to have a minor variant, for example, everyone pays the same price, and this price is the lowest price of any winning bid.)

  Bickley auctions actually produce both higher prices and less buyers' remorse than open cry auctions. Buyer regrets are less. Because the best bidder does not pay the price he bids-he pays the price at least he knows that the other person wanted to pay. The actual price can be higher than the open cry auction. This is because bidders bid for the maximum amount that the item is worth to them, as opposed to hiding bids and hiding their interest from other buyers. As with other sealed auctions, a disadvantage to the Bickley auction is that the auction mechanism itself does not provide the buyer with information to help the buyer determine a fair price.

(Continuous double auction)
Stocks and commodities are traded using a continuous double auction. In a continuous double auction (CDA), bids and asks can be submitted at any time during the trading period and sales can be processed. A sell offer at a particular price (“ask”) is queued with other asks at the same price. The market buy request is matched to the first “ask” in the “ask” queue, which is the lowest price, not empty. Buy offers at a particular price (“bid”) are queued with other bids at the same price. The market sell request is matched to the first “bidding” in the highest-priced, non-empty “bid” queue.

  Continuous double auctions (CDA) are at least the most fair form of auction, albeit controversial. In a continuous double auction (CDA), potential buyers of the product compete with each other for purchase, and all sellers of the product compete with each other for sale. In addition, information about bids and ask prices, as well as actual transaction prices, are usually available to both buyers and sellers and help them determine fair prices within the current situation. Open, symmetric, and fairly managed competition creates a very fluid market.

  Unfortunately, continuous double auctions can only be used for merchandise (same items or quantities of the same substance), and each such merchandise needs to have its own, separate, continuous double auction. Thus, although all types of merchandise sellers are actually competing with each other for money spent by the buyer, the auction mechanism does not directly support this. Thus, the continuous double auction technique is not directly applicable to items with variations between them, even though the variations are as simple as the wear of second-hand goods such as books. This is because the buyers of successive double auctions bid without accurately examining individual items or substance quantities because the items or substance quantities are practically interchangeable.

(EBay auction)
eBay uses the electronic form of the traditional “Open Cry” auction, but many such auctions operate simultaneously, with bidding periods for items ranging from one to ten days. The auction “ends” at a preset time, and the highest bid submitted before that moment “wins” the auction. eBay has an “auto bid” feature that allows users to bid the maximum they are willing to pay, but the only valid bid is the lowest increment from the next highest bid, and the bidder ’s maximum is Not revealed.

  In practice, only amateurs bid before the end of the auction. That's because if you do that, you will only lose to others. This execution of the last-term bid is called “sniping”. Although eBay does not directly support it, there are many software agents and websites that help users do this.

  The combination of sniping and automatic bidding means that eBay's auction mechanism is actually closer to the Bickley auction. In other words, in assessing a fair price, the windows where the bids are visible are as short as possible from the point of view of human beings-thus the bids are effectively sealed. Because of the automatic bidding mechanism, the winner gets the item at approximately the second highest price bid-actually the second highest price plus the minimum bid increment. The one to ten day period from the last few seconds until the bid is finally submitted works in much the same way that the observation period before the live auction works-this period is the future bidder Is provided to allow you to see the goods.

  Despite eBay's success, many users feel very frustrated with aspects of their approach. In particular, the buyer must wait days for the auction to “close” in order to purchase the item. eBay has a “buy now” feature, but it can only be used until the first bid is made and the price is not negotiable. The implementation of sniping essentially eliminated some important benefits of the “Open Cry” auction. In particular, future buyers cannot rely on a bidding process that gives them an idea of what the current market price should be.

(Amazon “Buy Used” Market)
Amazon's “buy second-hand” mechanism is more similar to the newspaper advertisements column than to an auction. Simply list all pending fixed price offers and sell special types of items, such as special books or DVD titles. Offers are listed in price order, with the lowest one first. The seller specifies the state of the item; all variations are mixed into the same list.

  So far, the following auction needs have not been fully met: determining fair market prices, bidding for multiple items when you want fewer than the number of items, Bidding on an item that depends on the sale of another item, bidding on an item that depends on the purchase of another item, and protecting against a Sakura bid. What is needed is a solution that addresses all of these needs, preferably simultaneously.

  There is a need for the following embodiments of the present invention. Of course, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.

  According to one embodiment of the present invention, the process includes participating in a comprehensive continuous double auction having conditional bids at a plurality of heterogeneous item auctions, wherein the composite reverse auction is a first of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. Defined by a bid set including a first conditional bid at a second auction and a second conditional bid at a second auction of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions, i) the first bid from the bid set A conditional bid is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) is terminated when the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as a remaining bid, the bid set a) the plurality of bids At least one first seller of the heterogeneous item auction associated with the first auction; and b) of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. At least one second seller associated with the second auction; and c) the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Visible to at least one member selected from the group consisting of buyers bidding on.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, the process includes participating in a standardized auction having conditional bids at a plurality of heterogeneous item auctions, wherein the conditional bidding is as a function of at least one attribute. Including price standardization, the composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set that includes a conditional bid, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set remains When it is withdrawn as a bid.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, the process includes a compound buy-sell auction having conditional bids for multiple dissimilar items that are substantially simultaneously conditioned to sell one or more other items in another auction. The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. I) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is When it is withdrawn as a remaining bid.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, the process includes a compound buy-buy auction having conditional bids for multiple dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on buying one or more other items in another auction. Participating, the composite reverse auction is a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second auction in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set including two conditional bids, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set Is terminated when it is withdrawn as a remaining bid.

  These and other embodiments of the invention will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that the following description is given for purposes of illustration and is not meant to be limiting, while illustrating various embodiments of the present invention and many specific details thereof. Many substitutions, modifications, additions and / or rearrangements may be made within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments of the present invention may include such substitutions, modifications, additions. And / or rearrangement.

  Embodiments of the present invention and its various features and advantageous details are more fully described with reference to the non-limiting embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in detail in the following description. Well-known starting materials, processing techniques, components, and instruments have been omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure the details of the embodiments of the invention. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are given by way of illustration only and not as limitations. Various substitutions, modifications, additions and / or rearrangements within the spirit and / or scope of the basic inventive concept will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

  The US patents and US patent applications referenced below disclose embodiments that are useful for their intended purpose. US Pat. No. 5,689,652, US Pat. No. 5,905,975, US Pat. No. 6,021,398, US Pat. No. 6,026,383, US Pat. No. 6,272,473 The entire contents are expressly incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. Lawrence M., published May 2, 2002. US Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0052828 by Ausubel is expressly incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. International Publication No. WO 02/097582 (PCT / US02 / 16937), published Dec. 5, 2002, is expressly incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. This application is a co-pending application, US Patent Application No. _ filed on January 31, 2006 (Attorney Case Number LIQUID 1100-1) and US Patent Application No. _ filed on January 31, 2006. (Attorney Case Number LIQUID 1110-1), US Patent Application No. _ (Attorney Case Number LIQUID 1120-1) filed on January 31, 2006, and United States Application on January 31, 2006. The entire contents of all these applications are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference for all purposes, including the disclosure contained in Patent Application No. _ (Attorney Case Number LIQUID 1130-1). Is done.

  The present invention may include a computer implemented integrated continuous double auction (SCDA) virtual market with a network of item auctions and composite reverse auctions. Within SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction), all buyers compete against each other for items sold by all sellers, and all sellers compete against each other for the business of all buyers. In various embodiments, the SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) continues specifically regardless of the establishment of individual item auctions within the SCDA. In yet another embodiment, the SCDA can span any of a variety of products and services that the seller considers an alternative to satisfy their purchasing needs.

  Integrated Continuous Double Auction (SCDA) effectively combines the sale of all types of items into a single, large, continuous double auction. Thus, all buyers compete with each other for all goods and services for sale at substantially the same time, and all sellers compete with each other at substantially the same time for all money that the buyer should spend. While this can sound complicated, in fact the presentation and mechanism from the buyer and seller perspective is very simple. This is because only a subset of the competition directly related to individual buyers and sellers is presented to buyers and sellers. For illustration purposes, we start with the eBay model and modify the eBay model.

  Suppose you want to buy an 80mm refracting telescope. eBay matched the term “telescope” to 2034 auctions, 1059 of 2034 auctions were actually either telescopes or binoculars, 685 of which were actually telescopes, etc., eventually The search is improved so that it is sufficient to find that eight of them are 80 mm refracting telescopes. The auction ends between 7 hours and 5 days from now, for example, 21 hours from now. If any of these eight telescopes is suitable for you, you are not allowed to use more than one telescope at a time, if you do not actually want more than one. It can only be a bid. Why is that? This is because eBay, on the one hand, models a traditional open-cry auction, but on the other hand, the seller tries to put pressure on the real buyer to increase bids, This is because open cry auctions are simply prohibited because they must deal with "Sakura's bid", which is a method of generating a false impression of bidding on an item. In any case, it is meaningless to bid before the end of the auction (because it only stimulates others to bid higher than you), so at an amount you are willing to pay Wait until you get the telescope, or maybe one week at a time (using manual or sniping software) to shoot the auction until you give up.

  Note that in fact, auctions for items of interest are sequential and fragmented. Therefore, the eBay model fails to reflect the important real world perspective. An important aspect of the real world is that auctions are connected by your interest in auctions. In fact, you probably prefer that the owners of these eight telescopes compete with each other to run a reverse auction for you and sell you the telescope at the cheapest price. Even if the telescope seller is willing to do a reverse auction, of course, the telescope is probably not exactly the same. Telescopes can be in different states, such as different manufacturers and having different accessories. In that regard, you can put up with a pair of good binoculars that are cheap and inexpensive. This means that any of the telescopes can suit you, but if you are not willing to pay the same price for each of the telescopes, even if the seller cooperates, The reverse auction doesn't work.

  From the seller's perspective, this fragmented sequential auction mechanism is also disadvantageous for a number of reasons: Sellers are effectively prohibited from competing until the seller's “order”. In short, sellers are hungry for potential buyers.

  Buyers tend to hesitate to bid. This is because buyers have less information about how bidding in past auctions for similar items has progressed, and how future auctions for similar items will proceed. . This is also bad for the seller. This is because uncertainty causes the buyer to lower the bid price. Sellers have no way to express their willingness to compete with other sellers. Sellers also have no direct mechanism to see competition with other sellers.

  Further, each buyer is interested, so there is no way for buyers to see competition between buyers for sets of goods that are competing with each other.

  For both buyers and sellers, one of the main functions of the auction is not fulfilled. This function is to provide good information to both buyers and sellers so that both buyers and sellers can determine a fair price. Since the final bid for only one auction only occurs once at a time, it is not satisfactory to provide good information to both buyers and sellers. The buyer does not know what buying competition will be for the next item. If there are two items of interest to the buyer, the knowledge that occurs about the second item cannot bid on the first item. Note that this is always happening in real-life auctions: “If I knew that the bid for the walnut table would be so expensive, I was bidding more on the red couch.” If I knew that cheap and walnut tables would be sold, I didn't bid that much to get a red couch. "

  History information regarding similar items is not available at all in Amazon, and it is difficult to search for history information and organize it on the eBay. Of course, this can be corrected on each site. In addition, a very new history provides a very reliable indicator of what a “fair” market price should be, and as a result, an important facilitator for closing a transaction.

  Various embodiments of SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) can solve these problems as follows.

  In SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction), individual auctions may not end in a predetermined time. The auction may end when a sale is made or when the seller withdraws the item. Note: If buyers and sellers are paying attention online, they can take advantage of automatic / advanced features that automatically do what buyers and sellers can do manually. Thus, for example, the seller chooses whether to end the auction at a particular time, or to end the auction by automatically accepting bids based on other criteria such as price, or manually Can do.

  If multiple items have different values in the bidder's subjective view, future buyers can simultaneously bid for as many different items as desired at different prices. The buyer may bid on the condition that the buyer wants only one of the items or wants as many items as possible. This forms a “bid set”. A bid set is “filled” when a specified number of actually desired items have been purchased. The bid set is also satisfied by other criteria. For example, available funds in the buyer's account, or the buyer's credit card limit does not cover any further purchases.

  Bidders can also “win” the auction by responding to the seller's offer price. This is equivalent to bidding that amount or raising an existing bid to that amount and is handled in the same way.

  When the seller of the item for which the bidder is bidding accepts the amount offered, the bidder wins the auction. With this acceptance (or other method of "filling" a bid set as described above), other bids in the bid set are automatically withdrawn as part of the same transaction, and the bid set Depending on whether or not is set, it is temporarily stopped or erased permanently. For example, when the funds in the account are low, the bid set can be temporarily suspended and automatically restarted upon receipt of additional funds. A bid set that has been temporarily suspended or deleted is termed “filled”.

The set of items in the bid set is presented as a virtual CDA (Continuous Double Auction). In other words, the seller can see the auctions in parallel and see the virtual competition between the sellers that this has created. By clarifying that the buyer buys any item in the set, the bidder turns the item into a product as follows:
Consider a first case where a bidder pays the same amount for each item. For this bidder, each item is equally valuable, so each item can be considered interchangeable, so each item is treated as a commodity and presented as a CDA.

  Conversely, if the bidder specifies different prices for different items in the set, all items except the highest priced item will represent that the item is substantially + $ X, where $ X is the bid price below the highest priced item. In other words, if you choose either $ 100 telescope A or $ 95 telescope B and you purchase B, then telescope B plus your remaining $ 5 will be Equal to the amount.

  From the seller's perspective, there can be several current bidders, and one or more of the bidders are willing to pay the current top bid amount. The top bidder of auction A is called bidder A-1. If Seller A sees only his own auction, he cannot know his position in the larger competition created by the bid set. Assume that bidder A-1 is also bidding on auctions B, C, and D. In this case, the sellers at auctions A, B, C, and D are in a virtual reverse auction and are competing with each other for the business of A-1. Presenting these auctions in parallel with Seller A reveals this very realistic competition. Because seller B, C, or D can accept bidder A-1's offer at each auction at any time, and bid A-1 disappears from auction A, at which point seller A It is because it loses to a person by sales.

  Due to the fact that bids can disappear, bids that have been overtaken and overrun by higher bids remain and remain valid. For example, if a higher bid disappears because the buyer bought a different item in the bid set, all other bids in the set will be withdrawn, and the older bid will again be the highest-pending pending It becomes a bid. Thus, if a person's top price is not valid (outbid), the auction remains an object.

  For the same reason, bidding can be done at the price of the top bid or below the top bid, and the bid can win the auction.

  Components and mechanisms for implementing various exemplary embodiments of the auction system as a continuous composite double auction are described in detail within this section. Basic mechanisms such as trading and the Internet are not described in detail. Because trading and the Internet are well understood by those skilled in the field of computer science.

(Figure 1: Auction system with communication network and client computer system)
FIG. 1 illustrates an auction system 1000 executing on a computer system 110 and coupled to a plurality of client computer systems 140 via a communication network 120 in accordance with various embodiments. Communication network 120 is typically the Internet. However, in alternative embodiments, the present invention may be implemented in other private and / or public communication networks. Typically, each system 110/140 includes one or more processors, memory, non-volatile mass storage, and one or more input / output devices (eg, keyboard, cursor control, network interface, etc.). There may be other devices in the future that may be available and improve these systems. Any one of the many servers available from many vendors can be used as the computer system 110. Any one of many desktops, notebooks, tablets, and handheld computers (including special purpose devices such as cell phones) available from many vendors can be used as the client computer system 140. .

  The purpose of the communication network 120 is to receive requests for and deliver responses from the auction system 1000 and its component objects. The use of such communication network 120 and client computer system 140 to present these requests and responses is well understood within the field of computer programming and will not be described further.

For the illustrated embodiment, the auction system 1000 is implemented in an entity relationship manner with entities having attributes and methods. In alternative embodiments, the auction system 1000 is implemented in other ways. In various embodiments, the auction system 1000 may have the following attributes:
The attribute 1010 entity is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the entities 2000 in the auction system 1000 and the entities 2000 that have these names.

  The attribute 1012 item is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the items 3000 known in the auction system 1000 and the items 3000 having these names.

  The attribute 1014 item auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the items 3000 known in the auction system 1000 and the items 3000 having these names.

  The attribute 1016 composite reverse auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the composite reverse auction 5000 in the auction system 1000 and the composite reverse auction 5000 having these names.

  In various embodiments of the present invention, the auction system 1000 may have the following methods.

  Method 1050 initialization. The method includes creating an empty map 1010 entity, an empty map 1012 item, an empty map 1014 item auction, and an empty map 1016 compound reverse auction, for initial operation, for the auction system 1000. prepare.

  Method 1052 creation entity. This method associates type and description information for an external entity with an identifier that is used to refer to that entity in the auction system 1000. In the context of the auction system 1000, the entity can be a person or a company, government, or similar organization and can own items 3000 that can be bought and sold using the auction system 1000.

  Method 1054 entity present. The method checks whether the entity 2000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter to the method is known to the auction system 1000, i.e. included in the map 1010 entity.

  Method 1056 get entity. This method uses the parameter identifier to look up the entity 2000 within the map 1010 entity and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type entity.

  Method 1058 created item. This method associates type and descriptive information for an external entity with an identifier that is used to refer to that item in the auction system 1000. In the context of the auction system 1000, an item is a product or service that is bought and sold within the auction system 1000 by the entity 2000.

  Method 1060 items present. This method checks whether the item 3000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter is known to the auction system 1000, i.e. included in the map 1012 item.

  Method 1062 get item. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item 3000 in the map 1012 item and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type item.

  Method 1064 Create Item Auction. This method creates a programming object that displays the item auction 4000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in the map 1014 item auction.

  Method 1066 Item auction exists. The method checks whether the item auction 4000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter as a parameter is known to the auction system 1000, ie, included in the map 1014 item auction.

  Method 1068 Get Item Auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item auction 4000 in the map 1014 item auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of type item auction.

  Method 1070 Create composite reverse auction. This method creates a programming object that displays the composite reverse auction 5000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in the map 1016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 1072 Compound reverse auction exists. The method checks whether the composite reverse auction 5000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter as known as a parameter is known to the auction system 1000, ie, included in the map 1016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 1074 get composite reverse auction. The method uses the identification parameter to look up the composite reverse auction 5000 in the map 1016 composite reverse auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of type composite reverse auction.

  Programming object entity 2000 may display external entities and financial resources and items that these entities have informed auction system 1000. The programming object has the ability to transfer funds, or send a communication to initiate and confirm the transfer of funds, and to transfer ownership of the item or initiate and confirm ownership transfer It may include the ability to send communications.

  Programming object item 3000 may display external products and services that may be bought and sold through auction system 1000. These programming objects may include features that identify the entity that currently owns them.

  The programming object item auction 4000 is described below.

  The programming object composite reverse auction 5000 is described below.

  In alternative embodiments, the auction system 1000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 2: Bid)
For the exemplary embodiment, a bid identifies the auction that is being bid for, so that the item being bid, the amount of the bid, the entity that is bidding, the bid set that contains the bid, and the bid A programmatic object that identifies the time at which the expires.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have the following attributes:

  7010 bid amount. This represents the amount of the bid.

  7012 auction. This points to a programmatic object that displays the item auction 4000 on which the bid was placed.

  7014 buyer. This refers to the entity 2000 that bid.

  7016 bid set. This refers to a bid set 8000 that includes bids.

  7018 expired. This is the time when the bid expires. Note that when this point is reached, the bid 7000 object invokes its own method 7056 withdrawal if the bid has not yet been accepted.

Bidding can have the following methods:
7050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the bid amount, auction reference, buyer reference and bid set reference that are then assigned as corresponding attributes of the object.

  7052 acceptance. This method is invoked when a bid is accepted by the seller, that is, when the seller agrees to sell the item at the price displayed by the bid. The first function of this method is that by invoking the bid acceptance method for attribute 7016 bid set, other bids in that bid set can be withdrawn from the respective target auction.

  7054 Auction closed. This method is invoked when an auction is no longer available for any reason, either because the auction has been withdrawn by the seller, or someone else has won the auction. The main responsibility of this method is that bids can be removed from the bid set by invoking the attribute 7016 bid set auction close method.

  7056 withdrawn. This method is called to withdraw bids from the auction. It works by calling the programming object 7012 auction method 4060 withdrawal bid.

  Shows 7058 competition. This method allows the competition created by the bid set to be viewed by activating the 7016 bid set competition show method.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 3: Bid set)
In various embodiments, a bid set is a programming object that displays a set of bids owned by the same entity 2000, and that set of bids is all the remaining in the bid set when the satisfaction function is satisfied. It is related by a satisfaction function that allows bids to be withdrawn. Usually, the satisfaction function can only accept one bid, so items that are bid by the owning entity will have an exclusive alternative, ie the buyer wants only one of them.

  In various embodiments, the bid set 8000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 8010 name. This is a string that uniquely identifies the bid set within the auction system 1000.

  Attribute 8012 owner. This is a reference to the entity 2000 that owns the bid set 8000, that is, the entity 2000 that made the bid contained within the bid set 8000.

  Attribute 8014 bid. This is a set of bids currently included by bid set 8000.

  In various embodiments, the bid set 8000 may have the following method.

  Method 8050 initialization. This method accepts a name string and owner object reference as parameters, assigns 8010 name attributes, 8012 owner attributes, and creates an empty set for 8014 bid attributes.

  Method 8052 insertion bid. This method accepts a reference to a programmatic object of type bid 7000 and adds the reference to the set attribute 8014 bid.

  Method 8054 bid acceptance. This method is invoked when a bid within a set attribute 8014 bid is accepted, i.e., when a sale is performed under the terms of that bid. The method accepts a reference to an accepted bid 7000 as a parameter. The method then performs by invoking method 7056 withdrawal for all bids in set attribute 8014 except for accepted bids.

  Method 8056 Auction closed. This method is used when an auction is closed either because the item has been sold or because the item has been withdrawn and at least one bid 7000 tracked in the set attribute 8014 has been bid at that auction. Called. The method accepts the identification of the bid 7000 as a parameter and removes the bid from the set attribute 8014.

  Method 8058 get minimum gap bid. For each bid in bid set 8000, the method calculates the difference between the current offer price of the target auction and the bid price of that bid. This is the gap for bidding. The method compares the gap amount of all bids in the bid set and returns the bid with the smallest gap amount. If the bid set is empty, null is returned.

  Show method 8060 competition. This method shows the competition between the sellers created by this bid set. The method first presents the auctions closest to the buyer's bid and seller's ask by presenting the target auctions for the included bids as a list sorted by their bid gap. Each auction identification is a piece of information displayed in a list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for that item.

  In various embodiments, a bid set may have more attributes or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 4: Item auction)
In various embodiments, item auction 4000 is a programmatic object that displays a special item auction. It can have the following attributes:
Attribute 4010 name. This identification string allows the item auction 4000 to be located by the method 1068 get item auction as shown in FIG.

  Attribute 4012 items. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type item 3000 that displays the items sold through this auction.

  Attribute 4014 seller. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type entity 2000 that displays the entity that currently owns the item 3000 sold through this auction, as shown in FIG.

  Attribute 4016 bid queue stack. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type bid queue stack 6000 that displays the various bids received at the auction. The programmatic object bid queue stack 6000 is described separately below.

  Attribute 4018 Ask. This attribute displays the price that the seller of the item is currently seeking.

  In various embodiments, the item auction 4000 may have the following method.

  Method 4050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the identification string name, a reference to the programmatic object item, a reference to the programmatic object seller, and an amount that displays the initial offer price for the item. The method assigns these parameters to each of attribute 4010 name, 4012 item, 4014 seller, and 4018 ask. The method also creates a reference to the type bid queue stack that is assigned to an initialized or empty programmatic object, ie, attribute 4016 bid queue stack, of the type bid queue stack.

  Method 4052 Ask Ask. This method accepts an amount as a parameter and the amount is assigned to attribute 4018 ask. The attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6052 get top bid is retrieved to retrieve the current top bid, as shown in FIG. 5B, and the current top bid is then compared to the value of 4018 ask. The If the current top bid attribute 7010 bid amount, as shown in FIG. 2, is greater than or equal to the newly established value of attribute 4018 ask, the bid is also shown in FIG. Is accepted by invoking that method 7052 acceptance. One sale is thus performed for the amount specified by 4018 ask, and if there is a bid for further sales, further sales are performed. That is, either the funds are transferred directly or a communication is initiated to cause the transfer of funds in the amount from the buyer identified by the bid to the external entity displayed by the attribute 4014 seller. Whether the ownership of the external item indicated by the attribute 4012 item is directly transferred or communication is initiated to cause the transfer of that ownership to the buyer identified by the bid , Either.

  Method 4054 posted bid. The method accepts a programmatic object of type bid 7000 as shown in FIG. 2 as a parameter and identifies the entity to bid and the amount of the bid. If the bid amount is greater than or equal to the amount displayed by attribute 4018 ask, a sale is performed between seller 4014 and the buyer identified by the bid for the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. . This sale execution is accomplished by invoking bid 7000 object method 7052 acceptance, as also shown in FIG. Otherwise, the bid is passed to the attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6050 posted bid, as shown in FIG. 5B.

  Method 4056 market sell. This method indicates that seller 4014 wants to sell to the current highest bidder. The method is accomplished by first invoking the method 6052 get top bid of FIG. 5A of the attribute 4016 bid queue stack. A non-empty result means that at least one bid has been received for the item being sold, which is by default the highest bid. If a non-empty result is received, the sale of the item is accomplished between seller 4014 and the buyer identified by the bid for the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. This is accomplished by invoking bid 7000 object method 7052 acceptance, as shown in FIG.

  Method 4058 market buy. The method accepts as a parameter a reference to a programmatic object entity 2000, referred to herein as a buyer, who wants to buy the item 3000 identified by the attribute 4012 item, and attribute 4018 from the seller 4014 to the buyer. Causes the sale of item 4012 to be performed at the price specified by the ask. This is done by creating a bid 7000 object for the current offer price and then performing a method 7052 acceptance of the bid 7000, as shown in FIG.

  Method 4060 withdraw bid. This method accepts the identification of bid 7000 as a parameter, triggers method 4054 withdrawal bid for attribute 4016 bid queue stack, as shown in FIG. 5B, and drops the bid.

  Method 4062 withdrawal. This method is invoked to withdraw items from sale. The method invokes a method 6056 withdrawal auction, as shown in FIG. 5B, for the attribute 4016 bid queue stack.

  Method 4064 bid show. This method displays the current set of bids at the auction. The bids are displayed in a list so that the price structure from the highest price to the lowest price is clarified, and when a plurality of bids exist at the same price, the posting time is clarified. In other words, the same configuration as saved in the bid queue stack is revealed by the order of the restored list. With the identification of each bid available, the bid set of which the bid is a member can be retrieved by invoking the competition show method.

  In various embodiments, item auction 4000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 5A: Bid queue stack)
In various embodiments, the bid queue stack 6000 displays a set of bids received and not expired or withdrawn for items sold through the item auction 4000, as shown in FIG. A programmatic object. Each bid identifies the entity 2000 that bids, the amount that the bidder is willing to pay, and the expiration time for the bid. Bids are organized in two dimensions. First, each bid is placed in a queue that contains only other bids at the same price. Bids are ordered in each such queue by the time the bids are received. Second, the queues are arranged in a stack according to the bid price contained within each queue, with the queue containing the highest price bid at the top.

(Fig. 5B)
In various embodiments, the programmatic object bid queue stack 6000, as shown in FIG. 5A, may support the following method, as shown in FIG. 5B:
Method 6050 bid posted. This method accepts bid 7000 as a parameter, places it at the end of the queue containing other bids at that price point, and creates a queue if no queue exists.

  Method 6052 Get Top Bid. This method returns the first bid from the top non-empty queue in the stack, if any; returns zero if not.

  Method 6054 withdrawal bid. The method accepts the identification of bid 7000 as a parameter and removes it from the queue of bid queue stack programming objects that contain it, if any.

  Method 6056 withdrawal auction. This method invokes method 7054 auction closure for each bid 7000 in the bid queue stack.

  In an alternative embodiment, bid queue stack 6000 supports more or fewer methods.

(Figure 6: Compound reverse auction)
In various embodiments, the composite reverse auction 5000 is a programmatic object that defines the attributes and methods of the objects used to display the composite reverse auction.

  As described below, the composite reverse auction mainly consists of a set of bids at different item auctions (bid set 8000) and a method for causing the object to function as a reverse auction.

  Each of the item auctions on which bids were made allows bids to expire or be withdrawn. When one bid from the bid set 8000 of the composite reverse auction 5000 is accepted, the other is automatically withdrawn. This puts the item auctions on which bids are being made into competition with each other.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 5010 name. This attribute provides a convenient way to identify a particular composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5012 owner. This is a reference to an entity 2000 object that displays the entity that bids through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5014 bid set. This is a reference to a bid set 8000 that holds bids made through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 supports at least the following methods.

  Method 5050 initialization. This method accepts a string to be the name as a parameter and a reference to an entity 2000 object to be the owner. The method also creates an empty bid set 8000 for the attribute 5014 bid set.

  Method 5052 bid posted. This method accepts a bid 7000 object as a parameter, as shown in FIG. The method also adds the bid to the bid set 5014. The method also invokes an item auction method 4054 posted bid identified by the bid, as shown in FIG. Note that this trigger can result in the performance of a sale.

  Method 5054 market buy. This means that the owner wants to sell the item at the current offer price closest to the bid for the item in the composite reverse auction bid set. Because the buyer is bidding at different prices for each item in the bid set, these different prices normalize interest in the buyer's items. That is, any item that is bid is equally acceptable to the buyer of that price bid.

  This method accepts as a parameter an amount that represents a limit on market buying behavior. The limit is an indication of the maximum amount for the current bid that the buyer is willing to pay. The limits are necessary because the auction conditions in the composite reverse auction bid set determine when the buyer observes them and buys on the market and when his market buy request is received by the auction system. Because it can vary between. For example, an auction is therefore not available because the auction with the smallest bid / ask gap has been sold to another bidder. An auction in a composite reverse auction with the second smallest bid / ask gap can be substantially larger; if no limit is imposed and instead purchased from that auction, the buyer expects You can pay more than the news.

  The reason the limit is expressed as an amount for the current bid rather than as a total amount is because bids for different items in the bid set can be bids for different amounts. Thus, a single sum is not effective and the difference can be applied to each bid to determine the actual maximum amount.

  This method invokes a method 8058 get minimum gap bid as shown in FIG. 3 for that bid set. If the bid gap amount is greater than the limit received as a parameter, an error is returned. Otherwise, a new bid is created that matches the target auction offer price for the minimum gap bid, and is bid at the target auction, resulting in the accepted new bid, and the sale is performed accordingly.

  Method 5056 competitive show bid. This method shows the competition between sellers created by a composite reverse auction. The method displays the target auctions as a list sorted by bid gap so that the auction with which this buyer's bid and seller's ask are closest is presented first. The identification of each auction is part of the information presented in the list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for items.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 7: General continuous reverse auction)
In various embodiments, the integrated continuous double auction 9000 (SCDA) is a network of item auctions, also known as forward auctions, and composite reverse auctions, which are sold via item auctions. Establish competition between buyers who own complex reverse auctions for the items they sell and competition between sellers who own item auctions for their buyers' businesses. It is these two types of competition that make an auction a double auction.

  Each time a sale is executed or an item or bid is withdrawn, the SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) network is not erased but is reduced, so SCDA is continuous. That is, from the perspective of various buyers, when one item they bid on disappears because the item has been sold or withdrawn, they are bidding or other items to bid on remain. Therefore, SCDA continues. Similarly, withdrawing one bid from an item auction, either because the buyer purchased a competing item or the bid expired or was manually withdrawn, takes place at that item auction. Has no effect on other bids that have been made. They remain valid and further bids can also be received so that the item auction continues.

  SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) is called Comprehensive because SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) results from the combination of multiple item auctions and composite reverse auctions connected by auction bidders. .

  More precisely, an auction system 1000 that combines elements of type entity 2000, item 3000, item auction 4000, and composite reverse auction 5000 includes a plurality of integrated continuous double auctions (SCDA), In that case, the SCDA is a transitive set of item auctions and composite reverse auctions connected by an arc displaying bids.

  FIG. 7 shows an exemplary configuration of a general continuous double auction. The elements are as follows:

  Three examples of entity 2000 are shown with respect to the role of a buyer labeled “buyer”. These are buyer 402, buyer 412 and buyer 422.

  Three examples of entity 2000 are shown with respect to the role of the seller labeled “Seller”. These are seller 408, seller 418 and seller 428.

  Four examples of item auction 4000 are shown and labeled IA406, IA410, IA416, and IA426.

  Four examples of a composite reverse auction 5000 are shown and labeled CRA 404, CRA 414, CRA 420, and CRA 424.

  Arc 506 and arc 512 indicate that seller 408 has two examples of item auction 5400, here labeled IA 406 and IA 410.

  Arc 518 indicates that seller 418 has a single item auction 5400, here labeled IA 416.

  Arc 536 indicates that seller 428 has a single item auction 5400, here labeled IA 426.

  Arc 502 indicates that buyer 402 has a single example of compound reverse auction 5000, here labeled CRA 404, in a map attribute 2018 auction.

  Arcs 504, 508, and 510 indicate that CRA 404 has placed a bid on three examples of item auction 5400, labeled IA406, IA410, and IA426, respectively.

  Arc 520 indicates that buyer 412 has a single example of compound reverse auction 5000, here labeled CRA 414, in a map attribute 2018 auction.

  Arcs 514 and 516 indicate that CRA 414 has placed bids on two examples of item auction 5400, labeled IA 410 and IA 426, respectively.

  Arcs 528 and 532 indicate that buyer 422 has two examples of a continuous composite auction 5000, here labeled as CRA 420 and CRA 424.

  Arcs 528 and 532 indicate that buyer 422 has two examples of a continuous composite auction 5000, here labeled as CRA 420 and CRA 424.

  Arcs 522, 524, and 526 indicate that CRA 420 has bid on three examples of item auction 4000, labeled IA 410, IA 416, and IA 426, respectively.

  Arcs 530 and 534 indicate that CRA 424 has bid on two examples of item auction 4000, labeled IA 416 and IA 426, respectively.

  The ellipsis 560 indicates that there may be additional examples of an entity 2000 performing the role of a buyer not shown.

  The ellipsis 562 indicates that there may be additional examples of the composite reverse auction 5000 not shown.

  The ellipsis 564 indicates that there may be additional examples of item auctions 4000 not shown.

  The ellipsis 566 indicates that there may be additional examples of an entity 2000 performing the role of a seller not shown.

  Referring to FIG. 22, a flow diagram of a portion of an overall continuous double auction is depicted. Client entity computer system 2210 may be coupled to communication system 2220 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between client entity computer system 2210 and communication system 2220. Communication system 2220 may be coupled to auction system database 2230 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between communication system 2220 and auction system database 2230.

  Still referring to FIG. 22, this comprehensive continuous double auction may include conditional bidding on multiple disparate item auctions. The composite reverse auction resident in the auction system database 2230 includes a first conditional bid on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions and a second auction on a second of a plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set containing two conditional bids. The bid set begins at client entity computer system 2210 and is sent to auction system database 2230 via communication system 2220. The bid set and composite reverse auction defined above cause the process to proceed to block 2240. A bid set includes one or more conditional bids. If there is an item auction corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to block 2250. If there is an item corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to 2260. If the item associated with the existing item auction has not been withdrawn, the process proceeds to block 2270. If the buyer's conditions match the seller's conditions, the process proceeds to block 2280. At block 2280, when (i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is accepted as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously (ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid, The reverse auction ends. The process then proceeds to block 2290 where the traded item is withdrawn. The bid set includes a) at least one seller associated with a first auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, b) at least one seller associated with a second auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, and c). It is important to note that it looks like a seller who is bidding on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions or a second auction of a plurality of different item auctions.

(How SCDA wins Sakura bids using information disclosure and competition)
Sakura bids can always occur in a forward auction situation where the buyer must focus on one item at a time and make decisions very quickly. The premise of Sakura's bidding is that other people (Sakura who the honest buyer doesn't recognize as a cherry) are willing to bid higher than the buyer, so the buyer will have a "fair" market price It can be tricked into thinking that it is higher than the current bid price. This assumption breaks down within the SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) situation, as described below, which is advantageous to the buyer.

  First, there is competition for everything, and even for “unique” items like art. Most items have even more direct competition, such as offering exactly the same. Consider the example of a telescope. If I am interested in 10 telescopes and bidding on all of them, I will not be drawn into the bidding war in one of them. Rather, “the telescope must have features of special interest to other buyers and it makes no sense to me. He should buy.”

  Second, SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) gives buyers time to consider bidding and sources of information to make meaningful comparisons between items. The time and means to carry out a calm evaluation works very effectively on Sakura's behavior to induce panic bids.

  Third, the openness of SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) extends to showing bidders what their competitors are bidding on. If I bid on 10 telescopes and a person is willing to bid on only one of them, I can see it. I can generously think that the telescope has a special appeal for expensive bidders and can say that he should buy. Or I suspect that the anomalous bid is fraudulent, ignore it and bid only on an amount that I am willing to pay and that is fair in my judgment (SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) It is important to remember that the bids in) need not be higher than the previous bids). It can be seen that if a seller is stupid enough to bid for items sold by other sellers in order to conceal his actions, he himself becomes the owner of those items.

  Particular embodiments of the present invention will now be further described by the following non-limiting examples, which serve to illustrate in detail some of the various features. The following examples are included to facilitate the understanding of how embodiments of the present invention may be implemented. The following examples represent embodiments that have been found to work well in the practice of the invention and can therefore be considered to constitute a suitable mode for carrying out the embodiments of the invention. Should be understood. However, although various changes may be made in the disclosed exemplary embodiments, the same or similar results may still be obtained without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the invention. It should be noted.

  Accordingly, the examples should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention.

Example 1
Continuous Composite Double Auction (SCDA) provides many attributes of CDA (Continuous Double Auction) for auctioning non-identical items, and whether or not similar The subset ensures that buyers are competing with each other for buyers interested in the item at the same time buyers are competing with each other to buy the item. However, items for sale using SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) technology are generally considered to be individual, and buyers will assess their suitability and the price they are willing to pay. obtain. When items in competition for the buyer's business are not of substantially the same type, for example, if a particular buyer is considering buying either a lamp or a painting, or if the buyer is painting from two different artists SCDA technology is necessary and appropriate even if you are thinking of buying. However, individual considerations for items are many where buyers consider items that are generally of the same type that vary depending on predictable parameters such as color, degree of wear, or the presence or absence of certain optional features. In the case, it is unproductive for the efficiency and volume of sales generated by the auction system. For domains such as used books, DVDs, or cars with hundreds, thousands, or millions of such items, the need for individual considerations about the items is a major disadvantage.

  Standardized Continuous Double Auction (NCDA) is a computer-implemented auction system that allows similar but not identical items to be auctioned together. By applying standardization functions that can be customized to individual buyer and seller perspectives, NCDA allows buyer-related businesses to simultaneously compete all sellers of similar items with each other, for items being sold, Competition all potential buyers of similar items at the same time.

  Standardized Continuous Double Auction (NCDA) is a computer-implemented auction system that allows similar but not identical items to be auctioned together. By applying standardized features that can be customized to individual buyer and seller perspectives, NCDA allows buyer-related businesses to simultaneously compete with all sellers of similar items against each other and sell items that are being sold. All potential buyers of similar items will compete simultaneously.

  From the point of view of the buyer's standardization function, offers of equal sale are served on a first-come-first-served basis, just as the same offer that sells the same item is handled on a first-come-first-served basis in conventional CDAs. Equivalent buy offers in terms of seller items sold are served on a first-come-first-served basis, just as the same offer to buy the same item is handled on a first-come-first-served basis in a traditional CDA. The NCDA may not end with the closing of individual buy or sell transactions within the NACD. Therefore, it is continuous like conventional CDA. An important advantage of NCDA is that buyers are concerned with non-identical items being sold via NACD so that buyers can bid on the same items being sold via CDA without having to think individually. It allows bids to be made without thinking individually, and as a result, greatly improves efficiency and thereby greatly increases the amount of the final trading process.

  Components and mechanisms that implement various exemplary embodiments of an auction system that uses a standardized continuous double auction are described in detail within this section. Basic mechanisms such as trading and the Internet are not described in detail because they are well understood by those skilled in the field of computer science.

(Fig. 8: Auction system using communication network and client server system)
FIG. 8 shows an auction system 11000 running on a computer system 1110 that is coupled to a plurality of client computer systems 1140 via a communication network 1120. Communication network 1120 is generally the Internet. However, in alternative embodiments, the present invention may be utilized with other private and / or public communication networks. In general, each system 1110/1140 includes one or more processors, memory, non-volatile mass storage, and one or more input / output devices (eg, keyboard, cursor control, network interface, etc.). Including. Any of a number of servers available from a number of vendors can be used as the computer system 1110. Any of a number of desktops, notebooks, tablets, and handheld computers (including special purpose devices such as mobile phones) available from many vendors can be used as the client computer system 140. .

  The purpose of the communications network 1120 is to receive requests for and deliver responses from the auction system 11000 and its component objects. The use of such a communication network 1120 and client computer system 140 to present these requests and responses is well understood within the field of computer programming and will not be further described.

  In the illustrated embodiment, the auction system 11000 implements a standardized continuous double auction (NCDA) that allows similar but not identical items to be auctioned together. By applying standardization features that are customizable in terms of individual buyers and sellers, NCDA allows all buyers of similar items to simultaneously compete with each other for the buyer's business and similar to the items being sold. Competition all prospective buyers of the item at the same time.

  From the buyer's standardization perspective, equivalent sales offers are served on a first-come-first-served basis, just as the same offer that sells the same item is handled on a first-come-first-served basis in a traditional CDA. From the seller's perspective of the item being sold, the equivalent buy offer is served on a first-come-first-served basis, just as the same offer to buy the same item is handled on a first-come-first-served basis in a traditional CDA. NCDA (Standardized Continuous Double Auction) may not end with the closing of individual trades of buy or sell in NACD. Therefore, it is continuous like conventional CDA. An important advantage of NCDA is that buyers are concerned with non-identical items being sold via NACD so that buyers can bid on the same items being sold via CDA without having to think individually. This means that bids can be made without thinking individually, and as a result, greatly improves efficiency and thereby greatly improves the amount of the final trading process.

  Continuous Double Auction (CDA) is a fair and well-understood approach to trading commodities. However, as mentioned earlier, CDA can only be used if the items being traded are virtually the same. Thus, many types of items that can be intuitively viewed as merchandise such as used DVDs are not suitable for trading using CDA. This is because variations between specific products treat them as not the same. Buyers are not equally satisfied that any particular item in a particular movie title on DVD is the same price (eg, some are in good or bad condition, preferred format or not preferred) In the format or with or without benefits).

  Variations between specific products in such categories can be single or multiple, and can be simple or complex. For example, specific face value, wear, and unused coins are rated on a scale of 1 to 70. However, this measure is non-linear with respect to price. For example, very worn coins (coins that are “good” in an ordering system that was used until decades ago) receive a rating of 4. In this state, 1890 Morgan silver coins are worth about $ 11 in weight of silver. The same coin that is “unused” 64 sells for $ 150. Slightly glossy 65 is very rare and costs over $ 2500.

  In addition, the state of the coin (as opposed to the same type, year, and unused state) is one aspect of the variation, for example, all “4” 1962-D Washington quarters are interchangeable. It is believed that. On the other hand, examples of cars of the same year, make, and model have multiple parts and subsystems, with many attributes (exterior and interior colors, fabric / leather sheets, chrome plated or steel foil, etc.) For example, it varies depending on the state of the tire, engine, electrical system, exterior, interior, and window, and the total travel distance of the vehicle. It is quite difficult to find any two vehicles that are actually considered identical except when the car is new.

  An alternative (and complementary) mechanism-a standardization feature-allows the types of items that consumers can perceive as commodities to be presented together in an auction that looks almost the same as a traditional CDA Can be used to That is, bids in a bid set, such as used in SCDA (Composite Continuous Double Auction), can be actual bids on either conventional CDA or NCDA, and on individual item auctions. The standardization function and the resulting “standardized continuous double auction”, or NCDA's specific benefit, does not require the buyer to consider each item individually and bids on items posted within each NCDA Make it possible to do. For domains such as second-hand books, DVDs, or cars that have hundreds, thousands, or millions of such items within each NCDA, this greatly increases the efficiency of buying and selling items within the category. As a result, the volume of such sales is greatly increased.

  Standardization features characterize variations of items within a type, rather than having to individually price each item within a category, bidders bid on items based on this characterization It is a mechanism provided to represent the amount of money that is willing. More precisely, standardization maps from the “actual price, actual state” pair to the standardized price.

  The realization function performs the opposite mapping. The realization function maps the actual price from (standard price, actual state) pairs.

  The exclude function answers “yes” or “no” to the question “whether items in this state should be excluded from consideration or display for purchase”. For example, a particular buyer does not want a coin rated below 50.

  Sellers characterize items according to NCDA and related guidelines.

  The buyer selects or customizes a set (standardization function, realization function, exclusion function, standard state), thereby making a single bid linked to the set.

  Standardization, realization, and exclusion functions are specific to the type of item that they apply. In fact, individual bidders are not required to define the functions that define NCDA or even understand the internal mechanism of NACDN. Rather, such functions are generally defined by domain experts and presented in the form of a table with examples showing the effects of those functions. Not all bidders in NCDA use exactly the same functionality. The function is configured to allow the bidder to adjust certain parameters to suit individual preferences. Such adjustments allow the function to allow bidders to exclude items that have or do not have specific characteristics, or exclude items that are not within a specific sub-range for a specific price. Especially important.

  Consider collectable coins as an example. Among money collectors, they tend to be valued according to how rare they are. This is different for each type and coin of each era. For example, coins that have been used as ordinary currency have a wide range of available states, the most unused examples are rare, and sometimes do not exist. Other types of coins can only be issued in proof sets that are intended for collectors and are never actually used as currency. All examples of some ancient coins come from the same reservoir and can be substantially identical.

  However, even if there is no universal consensus for a given type of coin, the appropriate subcategory and the relative rarity of each coin is generally known. For example, a US “Indian Head” penny for a given year will probably fit the above normal currency profile, and the standardization function may be represented in the table as follows:

この表において、「除外ｙ／ｎ」および「プレミア％」の列における値は、各入札者によって変更され得る。「例」の列は、これらの変更に合うように自動的に更新される。示されているように、表は、入札者が、２０以上の評価をされたペニーを買うことをいとわないが、「エクセレント５０」のコインの２倍の額を「未使用６４」に対して支払い、「エクセレント５０」のコインの３０％減額分しか「ベリーグッド４０」に対して支払わないということなどを示している（「…」のある行は、この提示の簡潔さの目的で省力された表の領域を示す）。

In this table, the values in the “Exclusion y / n” and “Premier%” columns can be changed by each bidder. The “Example” column is automatically updated to accommodate these changes. As shown, the table shows that bidders are willing to buy a penny rated 20 or more, but double the amount of “Excellent 50” coins against “unused 64” This means that only 30% reduction of “Excellent 50” coins will be paid for “Berry Good 40” (lines with “…” are saved for the purpose of simplicity of this presentation) Table area).

  The rows of the table shown underlined and bold are the “standard” variables in the above table. All of the standardization functions identify that a particular variable is standard for the reasons described below.

NCDA from the buyer's perspective
Like normal CDA, at least three actions are available to buyers within NCDA.
1. Look at the market.
2. Place a buy order on the market.
3. Make a valid order until canceled.

(How buyers view NCDA)
There are three groups of elements to see in NCDA. That is, a pending sell order, a pending buy order, and a transaction history.

  For buyers, NCDA is presented as a virtual CDA with the above three groups of elements and is tailored to accommodate the standardization functions used by buyers.

(How buyers view pending sales orders)
Pending sell orders are presented by first applying the buyer's exclusion function to all currently available items in the category to see if there are items to be excluded. The items that were not excluded then determine the corresponding offer price for the item in the “standard” state from the seller according to the buyer's standardization function. Thus, for example, if 100 pennies of a particular type, unused origin, and per year are currently present in the auction, a list of all 100 with class characteristics will be sent to the buyer's computer, Apply the buyer exclusion feature to exclude any items that are in an unacceptable state. The actual price and actual status for the remaining coins being sold are standardized for each through the buyer's standardization function. For example, the theoretical price that the seller would have offered for an item in the “standard” state. If multiple items have the same price for their theoretical “standard”, the items are ordered within the price range on a first-come, first-served basis for each time the ask is presented.

  The result of this presentation process is a CDA tailored to the preferences expressed by a particular buyer. For example, coins in the “good 4” state using the standardization function described above are not shown. Because they are not interested in them. Note also that the elements in each price range can be of different dignity. What is the same is the standardized offer price, not the actual state or actual offer price. With this presentation as an improvement, the buyer can see the actual configuration of each queue and, if desired, examine the list for each individual coin in the queue.

(How buyers view transaction history)
Transaction history is presented to buyers through a similar filtering mechanism. That is, items that the buyer has excluded from interest are not shown at all, and price standardization based on the characteristics of the items that are actually sold is applied, resulting in relative selling prices.

  Thus, each item in NCDA's transaction history has an actual sales price, a standardized bid price from which the actual price was derived, and a standardization function itself.

  When the standardization function shown in the table above is used, for example, a penny in the state of “Excellent 50” sold for $ 10 is shown as being sold for $ 10. However, a penny sold to the buyer with a “very good 20” status of $ 2 using the same standardization function also has a “relative” price of $ 10. This is because the “standardized” price bid to yield an actual bid of $ 2 is $ 10.

  The result is that past sales of all grades of penny can be shown in a single graph. As an extension to this presentation, the viewer may “drill in” to see the details of any particular sale, at which point the actual price, status, etc. are also presented.

(How buyers view pending purchase orders)
It is important for buyers to effectively present a set of pending buy orders. This is because effectively presenting a set of pending buy orders causes buyers to compete. However, because of the fact that these pending buy orders are not for fixed prices, but rather consist of a set of (standardization function, realization function, exclusion function, standard state definition, normal state price). Furthermore, it is not possible to directly compare pending purchase orders. (The simplified version of this scheme requires that all buyers use the same standard definition and standard price, and under these circumstances, all pending bids are directly compared. It can be done because pending buy orders are for the same “standard” item, however, it is useful to allow buyers to have different “standard” definitions. This is because a single definition is not necessarily acceptable to all buyers, for example, one buyer wants only the coins of proof 70 and is therefore excellent used as “standard” in the above example. 50 coins cannot be accepted by other buyers.)
In order to see and compare pending bids from the perspective of future buyers, future buyers will need to select a set of (standardization function, realization function, standard state definition) and buyers will bid If so, the set associated with the buyer's bid may be used. The standard state is then tested to see if it was excluded by the viewing buyer's exclusion function, and if so, it is skipped. The “standard” definition of the bid is communicated to the viewing buyer's normalization function as an “actual state” parameter, resulting in a bid price corresponding to the definition of the viewing buyer's “standard”. (Note that if the definition of "standard" associated with the bids being compared is the same as the definition of the buyer's "standard", this is the identity transformation-no change. The result of the set of bid prices calculated against the “standard” definition of the buyer looking at is sorted first by price and then by time received within the group at the same price .

  A future buyer can see, filter and adjust to pending requests in the market, resulting in his own preference.

(Market buying order)
Market buying is done by applying the buyer's standardization function to all pending sell orders (asks) and performing purchases of items with a standardized minimum amount. If there are one or more items with the same standardized minimum amount, the item with the earliest posting time is selected (first-come-first-served basis as with a general CDR).

  For example, a limit of “does not exceed $ 20” is represented for a market buy, in which case $ 20 is also represented by a standardized condition. The reason for placing a limit on market buying is that the set of available items can vary between when the buyer is looking at NCDA and when the order is being executed. Thus, the buyer looks at the NCDA presented as described above and then places an order based on his expectation to buy the standardized minimum item that the buyer has seen. However, the item and all other items with the same standardized price can disappear before the buyer places an order. In this case, if no item remains within the standardized price constraints represented by the limit, the market buy order will simply be unsuccessful and the buyer may request a new buy based on the changed market conditions. Rethink whether you still want to get out.

(Buy order valid until canceled)
Buy orders that are valid until canceled are handled by first evaluating whether the standardization function and the identified price combine to match the offer price of any existing item. It is similar to a market buy order. Those that are not combined are simply kept in a table, and each such order consists of a normalization function, a standardized bid amount, plus the time the order was received.

  Note that there is no actual set of bid prices displayed by open bids. Instead, there is a set of bid prices corresponding to each combination variable within the item type. Some variables may be expressed as real numbers or free integers, which correspond to an infinite set of bid prices. In practice, however, this is not a problem. Because a set of valid bids can be quickly calculated for any particular example of item type, what the seller sells is such a particular example.

(NCDA from the perspective of the seller)
Like prior art CDAs, NCDA is symmetric with respect to sellers and buyers. Thus, there can be at least three actions available to the seller.

  1. Watch NCDA.

  2. Place a market sell order.

  3. Place a valid order at a specific price until canceled.

(How sellers view NCDA)
As with buyers, there are three groups of elements to see in NCDA. That is, pending sales orders, pending buy orders, and transaction history.

  For sellers, NCDA can also be presented as a virtual CDA with the above three groups of elements, but for comparison purposes, it is done differently than the buyer makes. This is because the buyer has a normalization function, which represents a view of the buyer's value, and the seller has an actual item with specific characteristics. Thus, the seller's interest is in looking at the market in terms of selling that particular item. This is accomplished as follows.

(How sellers view pending purchase orders)
Future sellers are interested in how pending buy orders relate to items that the seller wants to sell. Thus, the standardization function associated with each pending bid is applied to the actual item status of the seller, resulting in the price that the bidder actually pays for that item. These prices are grouped into queues of the same price, ordered according to the posting time, for presentation.

(How sellers view transaction history)
Looking at the transaction history is prepared for the seller in a manner very similar to that used for the buyer, but the transaction history was characteristic of the item being sold by this seller In some cases, the actual buyer standardization function is used to determine the price that the buyer would have paid for the item.

  For example, using the standardization function shown in the tabular form above, this seller has a penny in a “very good 40” state, and the transaction of interest is a “very good 30” sold for $ 4. Suppose that the penny is in the state. This means that the buyer actually bids $ 10 against a penny in an “Excellent 50” state, which is a “standard” case for this feature. Using the same function, the buyer pays $ 7 to the “very good 40” penny that the current seller has. Thus, even if an actual “Berry Good 30” penny is sold for only $ 4, the deal in advance is a relative price of $ 7.

  Using this approach, the seller can see the amount that a buyer who participated in a past transaction would have paid for the item that the seller is currently considering selling (note: any buyer If the standardization function excludes the current seller item, the transaction may be excluded from the comparison).

(How sellers view pending sales orders)
It is also important that future sellers can see seller competition. This is done by using a standardization function and a “standard” state, which is the state of the item that the viewing seller is selling.

(Market selling order)
When a seller places a market sell order, the sell order is evaluated against all pending bids and the highest pending bid is accepted. This evaluation applies the standardization function associated with each pending bid to a particular attribute of the item being sold to determine the actual bid price. If there are multiple outstanding bids at the highest actual bid price, the one with the earliest posting time is selected. Like market buy orders, market sell orders may specify a limit, but for market sell, the limit is the lowest actual bid amount accepted, not the highest.

(Sell order valid until canceled)
When a sell order is made that is valid until canceled, the sell order is first evaluated against pending bids. If this is not a sale execution, the order ("ask") is simply entered into a table, which is used to prepare the CDA perspective and a market sale is executed against the table. .

Referring again to FIG. 8, the auction system 11000 is implemented in an entity relationship manner with entities having attributes and methods. In an alternative embodiment, the auction system in various embodiments, auction system 11000, may have the following attributes:
The attribute 11010 entity is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the entities 12000 in the auction system 11000 and the entities 12000 having those names.

  The attribute 11012 item is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of items 13000 known in the auction system 11000 and items 13000 having those names.

  The attribute 11014 item standardized CDA is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of standardized continuous double auctions 14000 known in the auction system 11000 and standardized continuous double auctions 14000 having these names. is there.

  In various embodiments, the auction system 11000 may have the following methods.

  Method 11050 initialization. The method prepares the auction system 11000 for initial operation, including creating an empty map 11010 entity, an empty map 11012 item, and an empty map 11014 standardized CDA.

  Method 11052 creation entity. This method associates type and description information for an external entity with an identifier that is used to refer to that entity within the auction system 11000. In the context of the auction system 11000, the entity can be a person or a company, government, or similar organization and can own items 13000 that can be bought and sold using the auction system 11000.

  Method 11054 entity present. The method checks whether the entity 12000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter to the method is known to the auction system 11000, i.e. included in the map 11010 entity.

  Method 11056 get entity. This method uses the parameter identifier to look up the entity 12000 within the map 11010 entity and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type entity.

  Method 11058 created item. This method associates type and descriptive information for an external item with an identifier that is used to refer to that item in the auction system 11000. In the background of the auction system 11000, an item is a product or service that is bought and sold within the auction system 11000 by an entity 12000.

  Method 11060 items present. This method checks whether the item 13000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter is known to the auction system 11000, i.e. included in the map 11012 item.

  Method 11062 get item. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item 13000 in the map 11012 item and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type item.

  Method 11064 creates a standardized CDA. This method creates a programming object that displays a standardized continuous double auction 14000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in the map 1014 standardized CDA.

  Method 11066 Standardized CDA presence. This method checks whether the standardized continuous double auction 14000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 11000, ie included in the map 11014 standardized CDA. To do.

  Method 11068 get standardized CDA. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the standardized continuous double auction 14000 in the map 1014 standardized CDA and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of the type standardized continuous double auction.

  Programming object entity 12000 may display external entities and financial resources and items that these entities have informed auction system 1000. The programming object has the ability to transfer funds, or send a communication to initiate and confirm the transfer of funds, and to transfer ownership of the item or initiate and confirm ownership transfer It may include the ability to send communications.

  Programming object item 13000 may display external products and services that may be bought and sold through auction system 11000. These programming objects may include the ability to identify the entity that currently owns them. Each item description includes the elements required as input to the standardization function for the item type, and the standardization function calculates the value based on the description and function. For example, the coin type includes the country of issue, face value, year of manufacture, date of casting, and location of the foundry. The description includes the states evaluated at 1-70.

  The programming object that standardizes the continuous double auction 14000 is described below.

  In alternative embodiments, the auction system 11000 has more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Name-value list defining the state)
The state of an item is described by a list of {name, value} pairs, where the name is the name of the type of item being sold through the auction and the value describes the possible values of that attribute. . The value may itself be a list of {name, value} pairs, ie the list may include a nested list. For example:
{{Color, blue}; {size, large}
{Coin state 50}
{Interior, {{sheet material, leather}; {carpet color, gray}}}
(Standardization function)
The standardization function takes the actual price and actual state as input and generates a standardized price as a result. For example, it is used to generate comparable offer prices for items in different states with different offer prices.
Conversion example:
{Actual price = $ 7.00; Actual state = “Berry Good 40”} → Standard price = $ 10.00.
{Actual price = $ 30.00; Actual state = “Unused 65”} → $ 10.00.

(Realization function)
The realization function is the reverse of the standardization function. The realization function takes the standardized price and actual state as input and generates the actual price as a result. For example, this is used to determine the actual price that the bidder will pay for the actual item based on the bid expressed using the realization function and the standard price. Conversion example:
{Standard price = $ 10.00; actual state = “very good 40”} → actual price = $ 7.00.
{Standard price = $ 10.00; actual state = “unused 65”} → actual price = $ 30.00.

(Exclusion function)
The exclusion function obtains a list of name-values describing the state of the item, and returns a value of true if the state is excluded, and a value of false otherwise. Conversion example:
{Coin status = “good 4”} → true (ie, item is excluded)
{Coin status = "very good 40"}-> false (ie do not exclude items)
(Figure 9: Ask 16000)
In the illustrated embodiment, ask 16000 is a programmatic object that identifies a standardized continuous double auction 14000 (thus the type of item offered for sale), the amount being asked, the entity performing the ask, Ask 16000 is performed with respect to the standardization function associated with and the time when the ask expires.

In various embodiments, ask 16000 may have the following attributes:
16008 state. This is a list of name-value pairs that describe the status of the item, and if this ask is accepted, the item is sold to the buyer.

  16010 ask amount. This represents the amount to be paid in exchange for the type of item sold through a standardized continuous double auction where the ask is performed.

  16012 auction. This refers to a programmatic object that displays a standardized continuous double auction 14000 where the ask is being performed.

  16014 seller. This refers to the entity 12000 that performs the ask.

  16016 function. This refers to the standardization function 18000 associated with the ask.

  16018 expired. This is the time when the ask expires. Note that when this point is reached, the Ask 16000 object invokes its own method 16054 withdrawal if the Ask has not yet accepted.

  16020 reception time. This is the time when Ask was posted in the auction.

  Bidding can have the following methods.

  16050 initialization. The method takes as parameters the state, ask amount, auction reference, sell reference, function identification, and expiration time, which are then assigned as attributes of the corresponding object.

  Accepted 16052. This method is invoked when the ask is accepted by the buyer, that is, when the buyer agrees to buy the item at the ask price. This method results in or initiates an exchange of funds for ownership, including sales.

  16054 withdrawal. This method is called to withdraw an ask from the auction. This works by calling the ask to withdraw method 14062 of the programming object 16012 auction.

(Figure 10: Bid 17000)
For the exemplary embodiment, bid 17000 is the auction being bid (and thereby the item being bid), the amount of the bid, the entity that is bidding, the standardization function associated with the bid, and the bid expired. Is a programmatic object that identifies the time of day.

  In various embodiments, bid 17000 may have the following attributes:

  17010 standard bid amount. This represents the bid amount for the item in the “standard” state.

  17012 auction. This refers to a programmatic object that displays a standardized continuous double auction 14000 for which a bid has been placed.

  17014 buyer. This refers to the entity 12000 that bid.

  17016 Standardization function. This refers to the standardization function 18000 associated with bidding.

  17018 Realization function. If it is used to determine the actual price to pay for the actual item and the bid has not yet been accepted, the bid 17000 object invokes its own method 07054 withdrawal.

Bidding can have the following methods:
17050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the bid amount, auction reference, buyer reference and bid set reference that are then assigned as corresponding attributes of the object.

  Accepted 17052. This method is invoked when a bid is accepted by the seller, that is, when the seller agrees to sell the item at the price calculated by the bid, seller item and bid standardization function. This method results in or initiates an exchange of funds for ownership, including sales.

  17054 Auction closed. This method is called to withdraw bids from the auction. This method works by calling the programming object 10712 auction method 14060 withdrawal bid.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 11: Standardized continuous double auction 4000)
In various embodiments, the standardized continuous double auction 14000 is a programmatic object that defines the attributes and methods of the objects used to display the standardized continuous double auction.

  A standardized continuous double auction 14000 may have the following attributes:

  14010 names. This identifies the auction.

  14012 type. This identifies the type of item sold through the auction.

  14014 ask. This is a list of submitted asks (ie, a sell offer of the type of item sold through this auction at a particular price) that is neither expired nor accepted.

  14016 bids. This is a list of asks to be submitted (ie, a sell offer of the type of item sold through this auction at a price calculated using the associated standardization function and standard price), even if the list has expired, Not accepted.

The standardized continuous double auction 14000 has the following methods:
14050 initialization. The auction 14010 name string and the auction 14012 type string are received as parameters. Create an empty list 14014 ask and an empty list 4016 bid.

  Select 14052 Ask. This method takes a list of standardization functions and asks 16000 as shown in FIG. 9 as parameters. The method calculates a standardized offer price for each ask 16000 in the list by applying the standardization function 18000 to the state 16008 of the ask 16000. The method then follows the {standardized offer price, ask} pair result first according to the standardized offer price, then (in the case where there are multiple asks with the same standardized offer price) Are sorted in the order according to the attribute reception time 16020 of the corresponding ask 16000. Then the first element of this sorted list (the ask with the calculated standardized minimum at the earliest reception time if there are multiple asks with the same calculated standardized minimum) is I will reply.

  14054 bid selection. This method takes as parameters a list of name-value pairs describing the status of type 14012 items sold through a standardized continuous double auction 14000 and a list of bids 17000. For each element of the list of bids, as shown in FIG. 10, the method applies a bid realization function 17018 to the state and calculates the actual bid price. Bids are placed in a list of {actual bid price, bid} pairs, first the actual bid price in order of price, and then (in the case where there are multiple asks with the same actual bid price). On the other hand, each bid 17000 is sorted according to the attribute reception time 17024. Then the first element of this sorted list is returned (actual highest bid with the earliest reception time).

  14056 posting bid. The standard price total, entity 12000 object, standardization function, and expiration time are received as parameters. The method 14052 is invoked using the standardization function and list 14014 ask. If ask 16000 is returned, the standard price associated with the ask is compared to the amount of the standard price. If the price is equal to or less than the amount of the standard price, the sale is executed with the actual price ask amount 16010 of the returned ask 16000. (Note: the comparison is based on the standard price, the sale is based on the actual offer price.) Otherwise, the bid 17000 object has the standard price amount as the 17010 bid amount and the entity identification as the attribute 17014 buyer. Created using the standardization function as the attribute 17016 standardization function, the realization function as the attribute 17018 realization function, the expiration time as the attribute 17022 expiration, and the current time as the attribute 7024 reception time of the created bid 17000 Is done. The created bid 17000 object is added to the list attribute 14016 bid.

  14058 market buy. Accepts as parameters the amount of limit price and the standardization function to be used as the maximum total amount of standardized price paid for items in the standard state. The standardization function and the list 14014 ask are used to activate the selection of method 14052 ask. If the result is zero, an error is returned, indicating that there are no outstanding asks that can be satisfied through the market buying action. If the result is non-zero and the returned standardized price associated with the returned ask is equal to or less than the total amount of the standardized price limit, the sale is selected. Executed with the total actual price associated with the ask, otherwise, within the standardized amount of the specified limit, indicates that no pending ask is satisfactory via the market buying action An error is returned.

14060 buyer observation. The buyer's standardization function, realization function, exclusion function, and standard definition are accepted as parameters, and the three lists are presented adjusted:
The three lists are standardized pending orders (ask), standardized pending orders (bid), and standardized transaction history, as follows:
A standardized pending order (ask) is prepared as follows:
For each element in Listing 14014 Ask:
Buyer exclusion function 17020 is used to test which items should be excluded based on status. If excluded, the ask is removed from consideration and moves to the next item list.

  The buyer's standardization function is applied to the ask {state, ask for money} to generate a standardized price, which is paired with the ask to form the {standardized price, ask} pair.

  The set of {standardized price, ask} pairs is sorted from the lower standardized price amount to the higher amount, and if there are multiple pairs with the same standardized price, those items will depend on the ask attribute 16020 receipt time. Sorted.

A standardized pending purchase order (bid) is prepared as follows:
For each element of Listing 14016 bid:
A bid is excluded from consideration if the looking buyer's exclusion function excludes the “standard” definition for bids already made.

  Otherwise, the standard bid amount 17010 and standard state 17008 of the bid are communicated to the viewing buyer's standardization function (acting as a parameter on the actual price and actual state) and the {standard price, bid} pair Bring. (Note: If the standard condition associated with a bid happens to be the same as the buyer's standard condition, the standard price of the bid will not change).

  The list of {standard price, bid} pairs is sorted first according to price (highest to lowest price) and then according to the reception time within the same price group, and the list is presented to the viewing buyer in this order.

The transaction history is prepared as follows. First, items in the transaction history exclude any that are not of interest to the buyer according to the buyer's exclusion function. The buyer's normalization function is then applied to the remaining items to generate a price corresponding to each “standard” item. These prices are then presented to the buyer in order of transaction. (Note: Since prices are “standardized”, prices presented in this way may differ from the actual paid prices.)
14062 Ask Ask. It accepts as parameters the name-value list describing the state of the type 14012 of the item being sold, the offer price for that item, the entity 12000 object (item seller), the standardization function, and the expiration time. Activating the method 14054 bid selection and list 14016 bid. If the result of the 14054 bid selection is not zero and the actual bid price is equal to or exceeds the offered price, the sale is performed at the actual price. Otherwise, the new programmatic object type Ask 16000 may have a list of name-values for the attribute 16008 state shown in FIG. 10, the offer price for the attribute 16010 ask amount, and FIG. A reference to a standardized continuous auction that performs this operation for the indicated attribute 16012 auction, the entity 12000 object selling the item as the attribute 16014 seller shown in FIG. 9, the standardized function as the value of the attribute 16016 function, 9 is created using the expiration time for the attribute 16018 expiration shown in FIG.

  14064 market sales. Accepted as parameters are a list of name-values describing the status of the type 14012 of the item to be sold and the amount of the limit price to be used as the minimum price accepted for exchange with the type 14012 of the item to be sold. A method of conveying a list of name-value pairs describing the state of the item 14054 Select bids and list 14016 bids are a mixture of invoking and invoking. If zero is returned, an error is given, indicating that no bids can be accepted via the market selling operation. Otherwise, if the actual bid price of the returned element is equal to or exceeds the minimum price amount, the sale is performed at the actual bid price; Otherwise, an error is returned indicating that there are no outstanding bids that can be satisfied via the market selling action at or above the specified limit.

14066 Seller observation. Accept the seller's standardization function, realization function, and seller's item status as a specific name-value list. From the seller's point of view, the “standard” state is the actual state of the seller's item, so it is the “standard” state used for conversion or comparison. Three lists are prepared and presented: standardized pending orders (ask), standardized pending buy orders (bids), and standardized transaction history, as follows:
For each element in Listing 14014 Ask:
The seller's standardization function is applied to the ask's {Ask actual price, actual item status} to generate a standardized price (in this case, the “standard” status is the status of the seller's item being viewed) ). The result is paired with the ask to form the {standard price, ask} pair.

  The set of {standard price, ask} pairs is sorted from the lowest price to the highest price, and if there are multiple pairs with the same standard price, those items are the attribute 16020 of the ask shown in FIG. Sort by reception time.

A standardized pending purchase order (bid) is prepared as follows:
For each element of the list 14016 bid, the buyer's normalization function is applied to the actual item status of the seller, resulting in the amount that the buyer actually pays for this item. These prices are presented in order from highest to lowest, with bids resulting in the same actual prices sorted by time of receipt.

  The transaction history is prepared as follows. Each transaction stores {standardization function, standard state, standard bid} used by the buyer along with the transaction history. A standardization function is used to evaluate the amount that the buyer would have paid for the item in the actual state of the seller's item. These calculated prices are then presented in history (time) order.

  Referring to FIG. 23, a flowchart of a portion of a standardized continuous double auction is depicted. Client entity computer system 2310 may be coupled to communication system 2320 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between client entity computer system 2310 and communication system 2320. Communication system 2320 may be coupled to auction system database 2330 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between communication system 2320 and auction system database 2330.

  Still referring to FIG. 23, this standardized continuous double auction may include conditional bidding on multiple disparate item auctions. The composite reverse auction resident in the auction system database 2330 includes a first conditional bid on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions and a second auction on a second of a plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set containing two conditional bids. The bid set begins at client entity computer system 2310 and is sent to auction system database 2330 via communication system 2320. The bid set and composite reverse auction defined above cause the process to proceed to block 2340. A bid set includes one or more conditional bids. If there is an item auction corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to block 2350. If there is an item corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to 2360. If the item associated with the existing item auction has not been withdrawn, the process proceeds to block 2365. An item corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set is set by a buyer and / or a seller associated with the bid set If one (or more) parameters are met, the process proceeds to block 2370. If the buyer's conditions match the seller's conditions, the process proceeds to block 2380. At block 2380, when (i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is accepted as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously (ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid, The reverse auction ends. The process then proceeds to block 2390 where the traded item is withdrawn. The bid set includes a) at least one seller associated with a first auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, b) at least one seller associated with a second auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, and c). It is important to note that it appears to be a buyer bidding on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions or a second auction of a plurality of different item auctions.

(Example 2)
One problem remains with entities that frequently buy and sell items through an online auction mechanism. The problem is that the same entity is effectively replacing one item with another. For example, item A is “traded” for item B. In such a situation, there can be a major problem with performing one action before the other. For example, if item A was sold before buying item B, both item A and item B could not be used for a period of time and no version of the related item could be used There is a gap in ownership between entities. Conversely, if item B is purchased before item A is sold, the funds from selling item A cannot be used to buy item B, and in fact sell item A. The real amount brought by can not be accurately determined until actually sold, the possibility of unexpected debt, and other problems related to managing the ownership of two items at once Leave.

  Embodiments of the present invention facilitate a computer-implemented compound buy-sell auction, combining the functionality of an item auction with the functionality of a complex reverse auction. In various embodiments, the combination is performed within a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA). SCDA is a virtual market with a network of forward auctions, composite reverse auctions and composite buy-sell auctions. Within SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction), all buyers compete against each other for items sold by all sellers, and all sellers compete against each other for the business of all buyers. A compound buy-sell auction lets the same entity sell the same item through the item auction mechanism, buy the item through the compound reverse auction mechanism, and perform both actions within the same computer-implemented transaction.

Embodiments of the present invention are adapted to facilitate an online compound buy-sell auction (CBSA), which sells one item (“Sale Target Item”) and at the same time another item (“Buy”). Give the entity the ability to buy the target item "). In these embodiments, the CBSA may have one or more of the following characteristics:
The sale of the sales target item and the purchase of the buy target item are performed in a single transaction, so that both actions are performed successfully, or neither is performed at all.

  Even if the CBSA itself was either an item auction or a composite reverse auction, based on the perspective of the other objects that interact, the CBSA will convert the buyer, seller, forward auction, and composite reverse auction. CBSA effectively combines the functionality of an item auction with the functionality of a composite reverse auction in a way that interoperates within the context of a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA) consisting of auctions. These interactions are described below. As used herein, the term “forward auction” can mean at least any of the following: an item auction, a continuous double auction, a standardized continuous double auction, or other CBSA that serves as an item auction.

  The CBSA bid set allows the CBSA owner to bid on multiple candidate target buy items simultaneously, thereby allowing each forward auction owner who is bidding to be Compete against each other for business.

  Funds acquired from the target sale item are applied to the purchase of the target purchase item, so that the owner of the CBSA does not need to collect assets and own the target sale item and the target purchase item at the same time. Since the owner of the CBSA owns only the target sale item, he moves directly to owning only the target buy item and never owns both items at the same time. Similarly, CBSA owners do not have to suffer from the disadvantage of owning any item. (In other embodiments, ownership and payment may be adjusted separately from the performance of the CBSA, and the mere contractual intent regarding what items are bought and sold is determined by the performance of the CBSA. In these situations, the logistics of reconciliation to ownership payments and transfers is also eliminated because the CBSA owner does not need to support the responsibility of owning both the target sales item and the target purchase item at the same time. , Quite easily due to the contractual outcome of CBSA).

  Future buyer bids on sales target items occur concurrently with CBSA bids (via “difference bids”) on multiple candidate buy target items. Thus, the owner of the CBSA does not have to perform a sale of his sell target item before bidding on or buying the buy target item, but buying the target buy item before selling the target sale item. There is no need to do.

  A bid made by the owner of the CBSA on a buy target item is a “difference bid”. Difference bids are expressed in monetary amounts, which can be either positive or negative, and are added to the revenue that is expected to sell the sales target item, resulting in the actual amount of the bid. The amount of revenue for a prospective sales target item at any given time is determined by the amount of the top bid at that time, or $ 0.00 if there is no current bid, or The value is justified. This is because if the bid is accepted, receipt of the bid represents a contractual offer from the bidder to pay the indicated amount. When the differential bid was first posted, and (when the top bid was withdrawn, when a cheaper but pre-existing new top bid was published, or because the only existing bid was withdrawn, After that, each time the top bid for the sales target item changes, the newly calculated bid amount is propagated and performed by the owner of the CBSA. It is an effective bid amount for each difference bid.

  From the perspective of the prospective buyer of the sales target item, CBSA functions as a standard forward auction. That is, future buyers may bid on the target sale item, withdraw a previously posted bid, or perform a market purchase of the target sale item. If the bid so made is the top bid for the target item, this means that the newly calculated actual bid will be handled via each differential bid made by the CBSA owner. Propagated to future target purchase items. (This propagation can actually be implemented by dropping a previously valid bid and posting a new valid bid). The market buying action performed on the target selling item has the effect of raising the differential bid being made on the target buying item with the lowest ask / bid gap, so that the target buying item is now at the current offer price. Purchased at Then, the offer price of the target sales item is set accordingly, and as a result, when combined with the differential bid amount specified in the differential bid performed for the target purchase item of the candidate with the lowest gap amount, The price paid by the bidder for the target sale item matches the current offer price of the target buy item. The candidate target purchase item is then purchased and then the target sale item is sold. All within the same transaction.

  The owner of the CBSA may perform actions on the target sales item as if the CBSA is an item auction. That is, the owner of the CBSA can post the offered price or execute market selling behavior. However, the action of posting the suggested price is performed indirectly via the action of posting a differential bid to the candidate buy target item (see above). The offer price posted for a target sale item is the total price difference bid set in the composite reverse auction that it contains {from the current offer price of the candidate target purchase item in the bid for that candidate target purchase item. This is the minimum amount of the set obtained by subtracting the total difference price specified}. That is, the minimum amount that allows the owner of a CBSA to buy one of the candidate target buy items by adding the difference he specified to the amount is the effective offer price of the target sale item. Posted as. The market selling behavior for the target sales item is actually called market trading. This is because market selling behavior results in both a target sales item being sold and a candidate target purchase item being purchased. Market buying and selling is affected by combining the current top bid on the target selling item with the difference expressed for each candidate target buying item, with the price most likely to be the current offer price of each candidate target buying item. Determine the nearest net calculated bid. The candidate buy target item is said to have the smallest bid / ask gap. Next, the difference bid difference for the item with the smallest bid / ask gap is increased so that the difference matches the current offer price of the target purchase item, which in turn is the current offer price. The target sale item is sold at a high bid, and the differential bid is added to the revenue from selling the target sale item to provide payment to the seller of the target purchase item. Everything is in one transaction.

  From the perspective of the candidate buyer target item seller, the CBSA functions as a composite reverse auction. In other words, the owner of the CBSA may bid on a candidate buy target item and perform a market buying action (again, a market buying and selling action), which means that out of the future buying target items at the current offer price. It becomes one purchase of. However, bids posted through CBSA are differential bids. When a candidate target buy item seller accepts a differential bid, this also causes the CBSA to accept a top bid for the target sale item. The revenue from that sale is then added to the difference of the accepted differential bids, resulting in the funds needed to pay the seller of the target buy item. When the owner of the CBSA performs a market buying action (again, market buying and selling action), a differential bid with the smallest gap amount is determined, and the bid difference is increased, resulting in a difference amount. Matches the current offer price of the corresponding target buy item. Next, the target sale item is sold and the target purchase item is bought. All are part of the same transaction.

  The owner of the CBSA clearly sees the two components-the included auction for the target sale item and the included bid set for buying the target purchase item. Bids made within the bid set are differential bids as described above.

  Within this section, the components and mechanisms that implement the various exemplary embodiments of the composite buy and sell auction and how those multiple buy and sell auctions interact within the framework of the overall continuous double auction system. Described in detail. Basic mechanisms such as trading and the Internet that are well known to those skilled in the field of computer science are not described in detail.

(FIG. 12A: Auction system with communication network and client computer system)
FIG. 12A illustrates an auction system 21000 running on a computer system 2110 and coupled to a plurality of client computer systems 2140 via a communications network 2120 in accordance with various embodiments. Communication network 120 is typically the Internet. However, in alternative embodiments, the present invention may be implemented in other private and / or public communication networks. Typically, each system 2110/2140 includes one or more processors, memory, non-volatile mass storage, and one or more input / output devices (eg, keyboard, cursor control, network interface, etc.). Any one of the many servers available from many vendors can be used as the computer system 2110. Any one of handheld computers including special purpose devices such as many desktops, notebooks, tablets, and cell phones available from many vendors can be used as the client computer system 2140.

  The purpose of the communication network 2120 is to receive requests for and deliver responses from the auction system 21000 and its component objects. The use of such communication network 2120 and client computer system 140 to present these requests and responses is well understood within the field of computer programming and will not be further described.

For the illustrated embodiment, the auction system 21000 is implemented in an entity relationship manner with entities having attributes and methods. In alternative embodiments, the auction system 21000 is implemented in other ways. In various embodiments, the auction system 21000 may have the following attributes:
The attribute 21010 entity is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the entities 22000 in the auction system 21000 and the entities 22000 having these names.

  The attribute 21012 item is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the items 23000 known in the auction system 21000 and the items 23000 having these names.

  The attribute 21014 item auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of items 23000 known in the auction system 21000 and items 23000 having those names.

  The attribute 21016 composite reverse auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the composite reverse auction 25000 in the auction system 21000 and the composite reverse auction 25000 having these names.

  The attribute 21018 composite trading auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the composite trading auction 29000 in the auction system 21000 and the composite trading auction 29000 having these names.

  In various embodiments, the auction system 21000 may have the following methods.

  Method 21050 initialization. The method includes creating an empty map 21010 entity, an empty map 21012 item, an empty map 21014 item auction, an empty map 21016 composite reverse auction, and an empty map 21018 composite buy and sell auction. In contrast, an auction system 21000 is prepared.

  Method 21052 creation entity. This method associates type and description information for an external entity with an identifier that is used to refer to that entity in the auction system 21000. In the context of the auction system 21000, the entity can be a person or a company, government, or similar organization and can own items 23000 that can be bought and sold using the auction system 21000.

  Method 21054 entity present. The method checks whether the entity 22000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter to the method is known to the auction system 21000, i.e. included in the map 21010 entity.

  Method 21056 get entity. This method uses the parameter identifier to look up the entity 22000 within the map 21010 entity and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of the type entity.

  Method 21058 created item. This method associates type and descriptive information for an external entity with an identifier that is used to refer to that item in the auction system 21000. In the context of the auction system 21000, an item is a product or service that is bought and sold within the auction system 21000 by an entity 22000.

  Method 21060 items present. This method checks whether the item 23000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 21000, ie, included in the map 21012 item.

  Method 21062 get item. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item 23000 in the map 21012 item and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type item.

  Method 21064 Create Item Auction. This method creates a programming object that displays the item auction 24000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in the map 21014 item auction.

  Method 21066 Item auction exists. This method checks whether the item auction 24000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 21000, ie, included in the map 21014 item auction.

  Method 21068 get item auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item auction 24000 in the map 21014 item auction and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of type item auction.

  Method 21070 creates a composite reverse auction. This method creates a programming object that displays a composite reverse auction 25000 and uniquely associates it with an identifier received by the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in a map 21016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 21072 Complex reverse auction exists. This method checks whether the composite reverse auction 25000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 21000, ie, included in the map 21016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 21074 get composite reverse auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the composite reverse auction 25000 in the map 21016 composite reverse auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of the type composite reverse auction.

  Method 21076 creates a composite buy and sell auction. This method creates a programming object that displays the composite buy and sell auction 29000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received by the method as a parameter. That is, it is put into the map 21018 compound buy-auction.

  Method 21078 Compound buy and sell auction exists. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the composite buy and sell auction 29000 in the map 21018 composite buy and sell auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of type composite buy and sell auction.

  Method 21080 get compound buying and selling auction. This method checks whether the composite buy and sell auction 29000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter to the method is known to the auction system 21000, i.e. included in the map 21018 composite buy and buy auction. .

(FIG. 12B)
Programming object entity 22000 may display external entities and financial resources and items that these entities have informed auction system 21000. The programming object has the ability to transfer funds, or send a communication to initiate and confirm the transfer of funds, and to transfer ownership of the item or initiate and confirm ownership transfer It may include the ability to send communications. A programming object may have the following attributes: A programming object may have the following attributes:
Attribute name 22010. Used to identify entity 22000.

  Attribute account balance 22012. FIG. 7 illustrates financial resources that may be used on behalf of entity 22000 within a transaction. This amount is written on the lender when the entity sells, and entered on the debit when the entity purchases.

  Attribute item 22014. This is a map that identifies the set of items known to the auction system 21000 and owned by this entity 22000. Each such item is identified by its name.

  Attribute auction 22018. This is a map that identifies, by name, the set of forward, reverse, and composite buy and sell auctions owned by this entity.

  Programming object item 23000 may display external products and services that may be bought and sold through auction system 21000. These programming objects may include attributes and methods that identify the entity that currently owns them.

  The programming object item auction 24000 is described below.

  The programming object composite reverse auction 25000 is described below.

  The programming object composite buy and sell auction 29000 is described below.

  In alternative embodiments, the auction system 21000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 13: Bid 7000)
For the exemplary embodiment, bids are bids auctions (and thereby items being bid), the amount of bids, the entities that are bidding, the bid set that contains the bids, and the bids expire. It is a programmatic object that identifies the time when

  In various embodiments, a bid may have the following attributes:

  27010 bid amount. This represents the amount of the bid.

  27012 auction. This refers to a programmatic object that displays either an item auction 4000 or a buy / sell auction 9000 where a bid is placed.

  27014 buyer. This refers to bid entity 22000.

  27016 bid set. This refers to a bid set 28000 containing bids.

  27018 expired. This is the time when the bid expires. Note that when this point is reached, the bid 27000 object invokes its own method 27056 withdrawal if the bid has not yet been accepted.

Bidding can have the following methods:
27050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the bid amount, auction reference, buyer reference and bid set reference that are then assigned as corresponding attributes of the object.

  Accepted 27052. This method is invoked when a bid is accepted by the seller, that is, when the seller agrees to sell the item at the price displayed by the bid. The first function of this method is that by calling the bid acceptance method for attribute 27016 bid set, other bids in that bid set can be withdrawn from their respective target auctions.

  27054 Auction closed. This method is invoked when an auction is no longer available for any reason, either because the auction has been withdrawn by the seller, or someone else has won the auction. The main responsibility of this method is that bids can be removed from the bid set by invoking the auction closing method of the attribute 27016 bid set.

  27056 withdrawn. This method is called to withdraw bids from the auction. It works by invoking the method 24060 withdrawal bid of the programming object 27010 auction.

  27058 race show. This method allows the competition created by the bid set to be viewed by invoking the 27016 bid set competition show method.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 14: Difference bid 27500)
In an exemplary embodiment, differential bidding includes revenue from the sale of the item being sold by the containing compound auction, the auction being bid by which the item is bid, and the containing compound auction. A programmatic object that identifies the amount of the difference added to the amount and the time when the bid expires.

In various embodiments, a differential bid may have the following attributes:
Attribute 27510 Target auction. This points to a programmatic object that displays the bid auction. It can be any of several types of auctions, including an item auction 24000 or a combined buy and sell auction 9000 as shown here.

  BSA containing attribute 27512. This refers to a combined buying and selling auction 9000 in which a differential bid is posted.

  Attribute 27414 difference amount. This is the amount of sales from selling the target sales item to pay for the target buy item (item sold through the auction indicated by attribute 7510 target auction) if this differential bid is accepted. Identify the amount to add (either positive or negative).

  Attribute 27516 has expired. This is the time when the bid expires. Note that when this point is reached, if the bid has not yet been accepted, the differential bid 27500 object invokes its own method 27558 withdrawal.

Differential bidding has the following methods:
27550 initialization. The method takes as parameters the bid amount, auction reference, buyer reference, bid set reference, which are then assigned as objects of corresponding attributes.

  27552 get bid amount. This method calculates and returns the amount displayed by the differential bidding as follows. First, the FIG. 9 method 26052 get-top bid for the FIG. 16 attribute 29018 bid queue stack is activated. When the bid 7000 object is returned, the amount displayed by the attribute 7010 bid amount in FIG. 13 is added to the attribute 27514 difference, the bid amount is determined, and the bid amount is returned. If the differential bid 27500 object is returned by method 6052 get-top bid, method 27552 get bid is activated, resulting in an amount, which is then added to attribute 27514 difference to determine the bid amount; The bid amount is returned. When zero is returned by method 26052, the amount displayed by attribute 27514 is returned without modification as a bid amount.

  27554 acceptance. This method is invoked when the bid is accepted by the seller of the target auction 27510, i.e., the seller has agreed to sell the item at the price indicated by the differential bid. The main function of this method is to invoke acceptance of the FIG. 15 method 28054 bid of the BSA FIG. 16 attribute 29014 bid set including attribute 27512, so that other bids in that bid set are withdrawn from the respective target auction. obtain.

  27556 auction closed. This method is invoked either because the auction was withdrawn by the seller or someone else won the bid. The primary responsibility of this method is to invoke the closing of the method 28056 auction shown in FIG. 15 of the attribute 27016 bid set shown in FIG. 13 of the BSA including attribute 27512, so that the bid is bid set Can be removed.

  27558 withdrawal. This method is called to withdraw the differential bid from the auction. If the programming object displayed by the attribute 27010 auction shown in FIG. 13 is the type item auction of FIG. 4, then the item auction method 24060 bid withdrawal is invoked. If the programming object displayed by the attribute 27010 auction is the type multiple buy and sell auction 29000 shown in FIG. 16, then the multiple buy and sell auction method 29054 bid withdrawal is invoked.

  27560 show competition. This method invokes the BSA 27016 bid set method 28060 competition show included in attribute 27512 shown in FIG. 15, so that the competition created in that bid set can be viewed.

  Withdrawal of 27562 auction. When the target auction 27510 is withdrawn or fulfilled, it is activated by the target auction 27510. This method only invokes the withdrawal of the method 29068 auction shown in FIG.

  27564 Ask posted. This method posts a sell offer so that the sell offer can be viewed.

(Figure 15: Bid set)
In various embodiments, the bid set 28000 is a programming object that displays a set of bids owned by the same entity 22000, and the set of bids is all remaining in the bid set when the satisfaction function is satisfied. Is related by a satisfaction function that allows bids to be withdrawn. Usually, since the satisfaction function can only accept one bid, the items that are bid by the owning entity through this bid set are an exclusive alternative, i.e. the buyer is only one of them Want.

  In various embodiments, bid set 28000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 28010 name. This is a string that uniquely identifies the bid set within the auction system 21000.

  Attribute 28012 owner. This is a reference to the entity 22000 that owns the bid set 28000, ie, the entity 22000 that made the bid contained within the bid set 28000.

  Attribute 28014 bid. This is a set of bids currently included by bid set 28000. These bids can be programmatic objects of either type bid 27000 or differential bid 27500.

  In various embodiments, bid set 28000 may have the following method.

  Method 28050 initialization. This method accepts name strings and owner object references as parameters, assigns 28010 name attributes, 28812 owner attributes, and creates an empty set for 28014 bid attributes.

  Method 28052 insertion bid. This method accepts a reference to a programmatic object of type bid 27000 or differential bid 27500 of FIG. 14 and adds the reference to the set attribute 28014 bid.

  Method 28054 acceptance bid. This method is invoked when a bid within a set attribute 28014 bid is accepted, i.e., when a sale is performed under the terms of that bid. The method accepts as a parameter a reference to the accepted bid 27000 shown in FIG. 13 or the differential bid 27500 shown in FIG. The method is then withdrawn from method 7056 shown in FIG. 13 for all bids 7000 in set attribute 28014, except for accepted or differential bids, or shown in FIG. 14 in the set. This is accomplished by invoking the method 27558 withdrawal shown in FIG.

  Method 28056 Auction closed. This method is called when the auction is closed either because the item has been sold or because the item has been withdrawn, and is tracked in the set attribute 8014 at least as shown in FIG. One bid 7000 was bid at that auction. The method accepts the bid 27000 or the identification of the differential bid 27500 shown in FIG. 14 as a parameter and removes the bid or differential bid from the set attribute 28014.

  Method 28058 get minimum gap bid. For each bid 27000 shown in FIG. 13 or the differential bid 27500 shown in FIG. 14 in the bid set, the method can be used between the current offer price of the target auction and the bid price of that bid. Calculate the difference. This is the gap for bidding. The method compares the gap amount of all bids in the bid set and returns the bid with the smallest gap amount or the difference bid. If the bid set is empty, null is returned.

  Show method 8060 competition. This method shows the competition between the sellers created by this bid set. The method presents the auctions closest to the buyer's bid and the seller's ask first by presenting the included auction and target auctions for the differential bid as a list sorted by their bid gap. The Each auction identification is a piece of information displayed in a list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for that item.

  In various embodiments, a bid set may have more attributes or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 4: Item auction)
In various embodiments, item auction 4000 is a programmatic object that displays an auction for a particular item. It can have the following attributes:
Attribute 4010 name. This identification string allows the item auction 4000 to be located by the method 1068 get item auction.

  Attribute 4012 items. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type item 3000 that displays the items sold through this auction.

  Attribute 4014 seller. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type entity 2000 that displays the entity that currently owns the item 3000 sold through this auction, as shown in FIG.

  Attribute 4016 bid queue stack. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type bid queue stack 6000 that displays various bids or differential bids received at the auction. The programmatic object bid queue stack 6000 is described separately below.

  Attribute 4018 Ask. This attribute displays the price that the seller of the item is currently seeking.

  In various embodiments, the item auction 4000 may have the following method.

  Method 4050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the identification string name, a reference to the programmatic object item, a reference to the programmatic object seller, and an amount that displays the initial offer price for the item. The method assigns these parameters to each of attribute 4010 name, 4012 item, 4014 seller, and 4018 ask. The method also initializes the type bid queue stack or creates an empty programmatic object, a reference to the type bid queue stack is assigned to the attribute 4016 bid queue stack.

  Method 4052 Ask Ask. This method accepts an amount as a parameter and the amount is assigned to attribute 4018 ask. The attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6052 get top bid is called to retrieve the current top bid, which is then compared to the value of 4018 ask. If the current top bid attribute 7010 bid amount is greater than or equal to the newly established value of attribute 4018 ask, the bid invokes its method 7052 acceptance, as also shown in FIG. Is accepted by One sale is thus carried out for the amount specified by 4018 ask (if there is a bid for further sale, a further sale is carried out). That is, either the funds are transferred directly or a communication is initiated to cause the transfer of funds in the amount from the buyer identified by the bid to the external entity displayed by the attribute 4014 seller. Whether the ownership of the external item indicated by the attribute 4012 item is directly transferred or communication is initiated to cause the transfer of that ownership to the buyer identified by the bid , Either.

  Method 4054 posted bid. The method accepts a programmatic object of type bid 7000 or differential bid 7500 as a parameter and identifies the entity to bid and the bid amount. If the bid amount is greater than or equal to the amount displayed by attribute 4018 ask, a sale is performed between seller 4014 and the buyer identified by the bid for the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. . This sales performance is accomplished by invoking bid 7000 object method 7052 acceptance or differential bid 7500 object method 7554 acceptance. Otherwise, the bid is passed to the attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6050 posted bid.

  Method 4056 market sell. This method indicates that seller 4014 wants to sell to the current highest bidder. The method is accomplished by first invoking method 6052 get top bid on attribute 4016 bid queue stack. If a non-empty result is received (meaning that at least one bid has been received for the item being sold, the result being the maximum amount of such bid), the item's A sale is performed between seller 4014 and the buyer identified by bidding on the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. This is accomplished by invoking bid 7000 object method 7052 acceptance or differential bid 7500 object method 7554 acceptance, as shown in FIG.

  Method 4058 market buy. The method accepts as a parameter a reference to a programmatic object entity 2000, referred to herein as a buyer, who wants to buy the item 3000 identified by the attribute 4012 item, and attribute 4018 from the seller 4014 to the buyer. Causes the sale of item 4012 to be performed at the price specified by the ask. This is done by creating a bid 7000 object for the current offer price and then performing a method 7052 acceptance of the bid 7000.

  Method 4060 withdraw bid. This method accepts the identification of bid 7000 or differential bid 7500 as a parameter and triggers bid 7000 attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6054, or BSA attribute 9018 method 6054 withdrawal including bid 7500 attribute 7512, and the bid Withdraw.

  Method 4062 withdrawal. This method is invoked to withdraw items from sale. The method invokes a method 6056 withdrawal auction for the attribute 4016 bid queue stack.

  Method 4064 bid show. This method displays the current set of bids at the auction. The bids are displayed in a list so that the price structure from the highest price to the lowest price is clarified, and when a plurality of bids are displayed at the price, the posting time is displayed. In other words, the same configuration as saved in the bid queue stack is revealed by the order of the restored list. With the identification of each bid available, the bid set of which the bid is a member can be retrieved by invoking the competition show method. Note that bids can be either type bids 7000 or differential bids 7500.

  In various embodiments, item auction 4000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 5A: Bid queue stack)
In various embodiments, the bid queue stack 6000 is a programmatic object that displays a set of bids that have been received for items sold through the item auction 4000 or the composite buy and sell auction 9000 and that have not expired or been withdrawn. . Each bid may be either a type bid 7000 or a differential bid 7500. Each bid identifies the entity 2000 that bids, the amount that the bidder is willing to pay, and the expiration time for the bid. Bids are organized in two dimensions. First, each bid is placed in a queue that contains only other bids at the same price. Bids are ordered in each such queue by the time the bids are received. Second, the queues are arranged in a stack according to the bid price contained within each queue, with the queue containing the highest price bid at the top.

In various embodiments, the programmatic object bid queue stack 6000 may support the following methods:
Method 6050 bid posted. This method accepts bid 7000 or differential bid 7500 as a parameter, places it at the end of the queue containing other bids at that price point, and creates a queue if no queue exists.

  Method 6052 Get Top Bid. This method returns the first bid 7000 or differential bid 7500 from the top non-empty row in the stack, if any; returns zero if not.

  Method 6054 withdrawal bid. The method accepts, as a parameter, the identification of bid 7000 or differential bid 7500 and removes it, if any, from the queue of bid queue stack programming objects that contain it.

  Method 6056 withdrawal auction. This method invokes a method 7054 auction closure for each bid 7000 in the bid queue stack and a method 7556 auction closure for each differential bid 7500.

  In an alternative embodiment, bid queue stack 6000 supports more or fewer methods.

(Figure 6: Compound reverse auction)
In various embodiments, the composite reverse auction 5000 is a programmatic object that defines the attributes and methods of the objects used to display the composite reverse auction.

  As described below, a composite reverse auction mainly consists of a set of bids at different forward auctions (bid set 8000) and how the object functions as a reverse auction. These forward auctions can be any of the following types: item auctions, continuous double auctions, standardized continuous double auctions, or multiple buy and sell auctions.

Each of the item auctions on which bids were made allows bids to expire or be withdrawn. When one bid from the bid set 8000 of the composite reverse auction 5000 is accepted, the other is automatically withdrawn. This puts the item auctions on which bids are being made into competition. (Here, the satisfaction function of the bid set 8000 is that any bid in the bid set has been accepted, and in other embodiments, a different satisfaction function may be used and the available funds are exhausted. Indicates that it was done.)
In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 5010 name. This attribute provides a convenient way to identify a particular composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5012 owner. This is a reference to an entity 2000 object that displays the entity that bids through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5014 bid set. This is a reference to a bid set 8000 that holds bids made through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may support at least the following methods.

  Method 5050 initialization. This method accepts a string to be the name as a parameter and a reference to an entity 2000 object to be the owner. An empty bid set 8000 is created for the attribute 5014 bid set.

  Method 5052 bid posted. Accept bid 7000 as a parameter. Add the bid to the bid set 5014 and invoke the item auction method 4054 posted bid identified by the bid, or the corresponding bid posting method of other forward auction types. Note that this trigger can result in the performance of a sale.

  Method 5054 market buy. This means that the current offer price closest to the bid for the item in the composite reverse auction bid set is that the owner 5012 wants to buy the item. These different prices standardize interest in the buyer's items because the buyer is bidding at different prices for each item in the bid set. That is, any item that is bid is equally acceptable to the buyer of that price bid.

  This method accepts as a parameter an amount that represents a limit on market buying behavior. The limit is an indication of the maximum amount for the current bid that the buyer is willing to pay. The limits are necessary because the auction conditions in the composite reverse auction bid set determine when the buyer observes them and buys on the market and when his market buy request is received by the auction system. Because it can vary between. For example, an auction with the smallest bid / ask gap may be sold to another bidder, in which case the auction is therefore not available. If no limit is imposed, an auction in a composite reverse auction with the second smallest bid / ask gap may be substantially larger; if the buyer buys from that auction, the buyer will instead expect You pay more than you had.

  The reason the limit is expressed as an amount for that current bid rather than as a total amount is because bids for various items in the bid set can be bids for various amounts. Thus, a single sum is not effective and the difference can be applied to each bid to determine the actual maximum amount.

  This method invokes method 8058 get minimum gap bid for that bid set. If the bid gap amount is greater than the limit received as a parameter, an error is returned. Otherwise, a new bid is created that matches the target auction offer price for the minimum gap bid, and is bid at the target auction, resulting in the accepted new bid, and the sale is performed accordingly.

  Method 5056 competitive show bid. This method shows the competition between sellers created by a composite reverse auction. The method displays the target auctions as a list sorted by bid gap so that the auction with which this buyer's bid and seller's ask are closest is presented first. The identification of each auction is part of the information presented in the list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for items.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 16: Combined buying and selling auction)
In various embodiments, the composite buy and sell auction 29000 is a programmatic object that defines the attribute and method objects used to display the composite buy and sell auction. A combined buy and sell auction has the following attributes:
Attribute 29010 name. This attribute provides a convenient way to identify a particular composite reverse auction 29000 object.

  Attribute 29010 owner. A reference to an entity 22000 object that displays the entity, which bids through the bid set 8000 shown in FIG. 15, referenced by the attribute 29014 bid set, and sells the item 23000 displayed by the attribute 9016 item. .

  Attribute 29014 bid set. This is a reference to the bid set 28000 object shown in FIG. 14, which holds the differential bids made through this composite buy and sell auction 29000 object.

  Attribute 29016 items. This is a programmatic object of type item 23000 and displays the target sales item sold through this buy and sell auction 29000 object.

  Attribute 29018 bid queue stack. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type bid queue stack 26000 that displays the various bids received for the target sales item sold through this compound buy and sell auction.

  The attribute 29020 ask is valid. Shows true when the current offer price is calculated, which happens when the 29014 bid set is not empty. Indicates false when there are no bids for future buy target items. The offer price for the target sale item must be derived from the bid on the target purchase item, so it is displayed.

  Attribute 29002 Ask. This is the current offer price for the target sales item (attribute 9016 item). Note that this attribute is calculated rather than set directly (see below). 29902 ask displays the minimum amount that a future buyer can pay for a target sale item, and at the same time, the owner of the compound sale auction uses the amount of revenue from that sale plus the difference he has identified, Allows you to purchase one of them.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object compound buy and sell auction 29000 supports the following methods.

Method 29050 initialization. This method accepts as parameters the name of the identification string, a reference to the entity 2000 to be the owner of the attribute 29010, and a reference to the programmatic object item 23000 to be the attribute 29016 item. Method 29050 initialization creates an empty bid set 28000, shown in FIG. 15, that should be attribute 29014 bid set. Method 29050 initialization creates a reference assigned to an initialized or empty programmatic object of type bid queue stack 6000 shown in FIG. 5, ie, attribute 29018 bid queue stack, and 9020 ask valid is set to false. Set method 29052 Posting difference bid. This method is invoked by the owner of a compound trading auction and places a bid on a target buy item being sold through another auction. Method 29052 relates to the “buy” part of “buy and sell”.

Accepts the following as parameters:
1. A reference to a programmatic forward auction object. This is an auction where differential bidding is conducted. Note that this can be any type of forward auction in which bids are placed, eg, item auctions, continuous double auctions, standardized continuous double auctions or other multiple buy and sell auctions.

  2. The difference amount. This amount can be either positive or negative, with a negative amount greater than the composite trade item owner must pay for the future target buy item on which this bid is being placed. Indicates that the target sale item is expected to be sold, and a positive amount is being bid by the owner of the compound sale item, giving additional funds to the funds received by selling the target sale item This means that you are expecting to buy future target buy items.

  3: Expiration time.

  A differential auction using the parameter auction object as the attribute 27510 target auction shown in FIG. 14, this composite buying and selling auction as the BSA including the attribute 27512, the parameter difference as the attribute 27514 difference, and the parameter expiration time as the attribute 27516 expiration. create. Method 29056 compute ask is activated, attribute 29002 ask is set, and attribute 29020 ask valid is set to true. The created difference bid is added to the bid set 29014. Activate the forward auction method posted bid identified by the differential bidding attribute 27510 target auction shown in FIG. Note that this trigger can result in a bid being received if the differential bid has a valid and valid bid price that exceeds the current offer price of the target buy item. In this case, the target sale item is sold, and the difference is added to the sales revenue and used to pay for the purchase of the target purchase item. Thereby, the composite buying and selling auction is completed.

  Method 29054 Withdrawal difference bid. This method accepts the identification of the differential bid 27500 as a parameter, activates the attribute 26018 bid queue stack method 26054 withdraw bid, communicates the bid identification as a parameter, and withdraws the bid.

  Method 29056 Calculate Ask. Determine the minimum amount to be asked for the target sales item and buy a candidate target buy item. If the 29014 bid set is empty, method 29056 sets 29020 Ask Valid to false. Otherwise, for each active bid in the 9014 bid set, the difference (attribute 27514 active amount) is subtracted from the current offer price of the 27510 target auction, resulting in the required ask amount for that target auction. The minimum amount of such required ask amount between the set of differential bids within the 29014 bid set becomes a new value for 29002 ask, and 29020 ask is set to true.

  Method 29058 Market buying and selling. This method accepts the limit as a parameter. If the attribute 29018 bid queue stack is empty, an error is returned that there is no bid for the sale of the target sales item. If the attribute 29014 bid set is empty, an error is returned that no bids have been placed on the candidate target purchase item. Otherwise, the method performs acceptance of the highest bid made on the target sell item and accepts the offer price of the candidate target buy item for which a differential bid exists in the 29014 bid set within the same transaction. Execute. In the differential bidding, the gap between the effective bid of the differential bidding and the suggested price of the candidate target purchase item is minimal. If there are two such differential bids with the same minimum gap, the item that is the longest available at the current price is selected as the target buy item. However, if the gap is greater than the amount represented by the limit parameter, an error is returned that the market buying and selling operation could not be performed within the specified limit.

  Method 29060 posted bid. Called by (or instead of) a future buyer of the target sales item, accepting as an parameter the object of the bid 27000 shown in FIG. 13 or the difference bid 27500 shown in FIG. Each of the attributes of 27510 is this buy / sell auction, and thus a bid for the target sell item of this buy / sell auction. If the amount of the bid is equal to or exceeds the current effective offer price of the target item for sale, the bid is accepted and the top competitor in bid set 29014 will receive the bid for that top competitor. Buy using the sales revenue plus the difference required to pay the current offer price. (The top competitor's bid in bid set 29014 is between the effective bid amount of the differential bids made for bids in bid set 29014 and the current offer price of each candidate target buy item. Bid with the smallest gap).

  Method 29062 withdrawal bid. The bid identification of either a bid 27000 object as shown in FIG. 2 or a differential bid 7500 object as shown in FIG. 14 is accepted as a parameter. If the identified bid is not in the 29018 bid queue stack, an error is returned. Otherwise, the bid is removed from the 29018 bid queue stack. If the bid to be removed was the top bid in the 29018 bid queue stack, then the remaining highest bid, or $ 0 .0 if the 29018 bid queue stack is currently empty. 00 must be used and the effective bid price for each differential bid in bid set 29014 must be recalculated. As each is recalculated, previously valid bids are withdrawn and new bids are posted to each target auction 7510 for each differential bid.

  Method 29064 market buy. This method is invoked by or on behalf of an entity that wants to buy the target sales item. This method receives the amount of money that acts as a limit as a parameter. If bid set 29014 is true, a valid offer price for the target sale item cannot be determined and an error is returned that market buying cannot be performed. Otherwise, if the effective offer price of the target sales item (attribute 29002 ask) exceeds the limit parameter, an error is returned that the market buy cannot be performed within the specified limit. Otherwise, the top competitor in the bid set 9014 (the competitor with the smallest gap between the currently active bid and the current offer price) will purchase by performing market buying behavior on it. . Funds from accepting this 29062 market purchase are used to pay for the target purchase item in combination with the corresponding differential bid difference.

  Method 29066 competitive show bid. This method shows the competition between buyers created by the item auction aspect of the buy and sell auction. This method lists pending bids for 29016 in order from highest to lowest. For each bid, the number of other bids in the same bid set is also shown. (This exposes potential cherry bidders, because cherry bidders generally do not bid on other competitive items). An identification of each bid is also provided, resulting in a bid 27000 method 27058 competition show as illustrated in FIG. 13, or a differential bid 27500 27560 competition show as shown in FIG. Launched and let future buyers further evaluate the competition.

  Method 29068 Ask posting. This method accepts the differential bid identification and the current amount as parameters. The identified differential bid is part of the 29014 bid set, and the amount is the new offer price on the target auction 27510 for that differential bid as shown in FIG. This method is called because the new offer price of the target auction 27510 can be a new valid offer price for the target sales item. Method 29056 compute ask is invoked to perform this redetermination.

  Method 29070 Auction withdrawal. The method accepts as a parameter the identification of the differential auction of the target auction 27510 shown in FIG. 14 withdrawn. The identified differential bid is part of the 29014 bid set. The reason this method is invoked is that the withdrawal of the target auction 27510 can result in a new valid offer price for the target sales item. Method 29056 compute ask is invoked to perform this redetermination.

  Method 29072 Market Sell. Called when the owner of a target auction 27510 as shown in FIG. 14 performs a market selling action at that auction and one of the bids in the 29014 bid set of this composite auction is the top bid of that auction. It is. That is, one of the bids in the 29014 bid set has won the auction where the bid is being placed. The method receives the identification of the differential bid 27500 as a parameter, and the differential bid is part of the 29014 bid set. The top bid of the 29018 bid queue stack is accepted and the sales amount from this sale is added to the difference, ie, the identified difference bid attribute 27514 difference, and the resulting funds are used to identify the target bid for the identified difference bid Pay for purchases of 27510 items.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object compound trade auction 29000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

(Figure 17: Comprehensive continuous double auction with compound buying and selling auction)
In various embodiments, the integrated continuous double auction 10000 (SCDA) is a network of forward auctions (item auction, continuous double auction, standardized continuous double auction), composite reverse auction, and composite buy and sell auction. The compound buying and selling auction acts as both a forward auction and a compound reverse auction. A forward auction establishes a competition between buyers who own a composite reverse auction for items sold through the forward auction. A composite reverse auction establishes competition between sellers who own item auctions for the business of buyers who own composite reverse auctions. It is these two types of competition that make SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) a double auction.

  The compound sales auction acts as a combination of an item auction and a compound reverse auction. Thus, a composite auction is an item auction in that the composite auction allows the owner of the composite auction to sell the item, and multiple bidders bidding on the item compete with each other to buy it. To fulfill the role of The composite buy and sell auction also serves as a composite reverse auction, in which the composite buy and sell auction bids multiple item auctions (some of which can now be the composite buy and sell auction itself). That allows the sellers of those items to compete with each other for the business of the owners of the composite auction.

  Each time a sale is made or an item or bid is withdrawn, SCDA is continuous because the network with SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) is not eliminated but reduced. That is, from the perspective of various buyers, when an item that the buyer is bidding disappears because the item has been sold or withdrawn, other items that the buyer is bidding or can bid on remain, As a result, SCDA continues. Similarly, withdrawal of an item from an item auction, either because the buyer purchased it, the bid expired, or was manually withdrawn does not affect other bids that are taking place at that item auction . They remain valid and further bids can be received as well, so that the item auction continues.

  Since SCDA connects multiple forward auctions, composite reverse auctions, and composite buy and sell auctions with buyer and seller actions (bidding and ask, respectively), SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) is called comprehensive. .

  More precisely, the auction system 21000 combines elements of a type entity 22000, an item 23000, an item auction 24000 (with other forward auctions), a composite double auction, and a composite buy and sell auction, Includes a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA), in which case the SCDA is a transitive set of forward auctions and composite reverse auctions connected by an arc displaying bids.

  FIG. 17 shows an exemplary configuration of a general continuous double auction. The elements are as follows:

  Three examples of entity 22000 are shown in the role of a buyer labeled “Buyer”. These are seller 602, seller 604, seller 606, and seller 608.

  Four examples of item auction 4000 are shown and labeled IA502, IA504, IA506, and IA508.

  Four examples of a composite reverse auction 25000 are shown and labeled CRA 302, CRA 304, CRA 306, and CRA 308.

  One example of a combined buy and sell auction 29000 is shown and labeled BSA400.

  Arc 652 and arc 654 indicate that seller 602 has two examples of item auction 4000, here labeled IA 502 and IA 504.

  Arc 656 indicates that seller 604 has a single item auction 24000, here labeled IA506.

  Arc 658 indicates that seller 606 has a single composite buy and sell auction 29000, here labeled BSA 400.

  Arc 660 indicates that seller 608 has a single item auction 24000, here labeled IA508.

  Arc 252 indicates that buyer 202 has a single example of a composite reverse auction 25000, here labeled CRA 302, in a map attribute 22018 auction.

  Arcs 352 and 354 indicate that CRA 302 has bid on two examples of item auctions 24000 labeled IA 502 and IA 504, respectively.

  Arc 254 indicates that buyer 204 has a single example of a composite reverse auction 25000, here labeled CRA 304, in a map attribute 22018 auction.

  Arcs 356 and 360 indicate that CRA 304 has placed bids on two examples of item auctions 24000, labeled IA 502 and IA 508, respectively.

  Arc 358 indicates that CRA 304 has placed a bid on one example of a combined buy and sell auction 29000 labeled BSA 400.

  Arcs 452, 454, and 456 indicate that BSA 400 includes three examples of item auction 4000, ie, differential bid 24500 in its attribute 29014 bid set that displays bids for IA 504, IA 506, and IA 508. Indicates.

  Arcs 256 and 258 indicate that buyer 206 has two examples of composite reverse auction 25000, here labeled as CRA 306 and CRA 308.

  Arcs 362 and 368 indicate that CRA 306 has placed bids on two examples of item auctions 24000, labeled IA 502 and IA 508, respectively.

  Arc 364 shows that CRA 306 has placed a bid on one example of a combined buy and sell auction 9000 that is labeled BSA 400.

  Arc 366 indicates that CRA 308 has placed a bid on one example of compound buy and sell auction 29000 labeled BSA 400.

  The ellipsis 702 indicates that there may be additional examples of entity 22000 acting as a buyer, not shown.

  The ellipsis 704 indicates that there may be additional examples of a composite reverse auction 25000 not shown.

  The abbreviation 708 indicates that there may be additional examples of the composite buy and sell auction 29000 not shown.

  The ellipsis 710 indicates that there may be additional examples of an entity 22000 acting as an item auction not shown.

  Ellipsis 712 indicates that there may be additional examples of entity 22000 performing the role of a seller not shown.

  Referring to FIG. 24, a flow diagram of a portion of a compound trading double auction is depicted. Client entity computer system 2410 may be coupled to communication system 2420 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between client entity computer system 2410 and communication system 2420. Communication system 2420 may be coupled to auction system database 2430 such that processing tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between communication system 2420 and auction system database 2430.

  Still referring to FIG. 24, this composite buy and sell double auction may include conditional bidding on multiple disparate item auctions. The composite reverse auction resident in the auction system database 2430 includes a first conditional bid on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions and a second auction on a second of a plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set containing two conditional bids. The bid set begins at client entity computer system 2410 and is sent to auction system database 2430 via communication system 2420. The bid sets and composite reverse auctions defined by them cause the process to proceed to block 2440. A bid set includes one or more conditional bids. If there is an item auction corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to block 2450. If there is an item corresponding to one (or more) of the conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to 2460. If the item associated with the existing item auction has not been withdrawn, the process proceeds to block 2465. In this particular embodiment, one or more of the buyer, seller, and / or auction house believes that the price of the purchased item must exceed the price of the sold item, and if so, The process proceeds to block 2470. If the buyer's conditions match the seller's conditions, the process proceeds to block 2480. At block 2480, when (i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is accepted as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously (ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid, The reverse auction ends. The process then proceeds to block 2490 where the traded item is withdrawn. The bid set includes a) at least one seller associated with a first auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, b) at least one seller associated with a second auction of a plurality of disparate item auctions, and c). It is important to note that it appears to be a buyer bidding on a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions or a second auction of a plurality of different item auctions.

(Example 3)
Problems remain that sometimes affect entities buying items through the auction mechanism. The problem is that if the same entity needs or wants to purchase multiple related items, possibly from separate sellers, but the buyer can buy them all on the right terms, The buyer does not want to buy any of those items. In such a situation, there may be an obvious problem with buying any item prior to buying another item or other items. For example, if items A and B are purchased and item A is purchased before buying item B and it is found that item B is not available or not available at the appropriate price It can be a case. In that case, the buyer is left without item B and keeps item A, which may not be easy to resell to make up his purchase price and transaction costs. If item B is purchased before item A, of course, the reverse is also true, and if two or more related items have to be purchased, the same is true for any purchase order swap. is there.

  In certain domains, such as travel contracts, these deals have either ownership or at least sales authority over all relevant items needed to create a proper package trip Has been partly processed by Union agencies. An example of this is buying a package trip through a travel agent, where a single purchase results in airfare and accommodation in a single purchase. However, this existing approach is limited in several aspects. First, if the sellers work independently of each other, or if each seller does not necessarily even realize that the item that the seller is selling is included in the package desired by the future buyer. Existing approaches do not allow future buyers to define their own packages to consist of items sold by different sellers. Second, even when such federated packages are offered, sellers generally do not compete with other packages appropriate for individual buyers via a reverse auction mechanism. Intrinsic market competition between separately available packages that do not compete directly with each other for the buyer's business is much weaker and therefore less profitable for the buyer. Indirectly, rather than being explicit, the inherent market competition does not benefit the seller. That's because it doesn't assist sellers to compete effectively and efficiently.

  Embodiments of the present invention facilitate a computer-implemented compound buy-buy auction where future buyers collect several purchases in an all-or-nothing unit and bid on them as a whole, or Allows a simple technique to perform market buying behaviors. In various embodiments, the present invention is suitable for practical use within a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA).

  Embodiments of the present invention facilitate complex buy-buy auctions (CBBA) and give entities the ability to define package auctions, where they are already sold through forward auctions when creating a package auction. It is defined to include multiple items, and the forward auction may include item auctions, continuous double auctions, standardized continuous double auctions, etc., each probably owned by a separate seller. Next, as if the market buying operation is a single auction, the owner of the CBBA may bid on the CBBA or perform a market buying operation on the CBBA. In addition, bidding on CBBA may be conducted through a composite reverse auction, so that the set of individual sellers who own items being bid through CBBA will receive other such packages within the composite reverse auction. Compete with sellers of other items including. This happens even if the owners of such packaged items do not need to be aware that their items are being bid through CBBA or multiple reverse auctions. Each seller simply looks at the bids made on their items, accepts their bids at their discretion, posts and adjusts the offer price for those items, or performs market selling actions, Sell items at the current highest bid.

  CBBA has one or more of the following characteristics:

  The CBBA is defined to include a forward auction target set. The goal of CBBA is to win all of the auctions in this target set with a single combined price. For example, the target set of auctions included by CBBA may consist of a specific round-trip airfare from Portland to Hawaii and a rental fee for a specific condo in Hawaii during the period of stay.

  Thus, each bid made at CBBA represents the price paid to win all auctions, i.e., the winning bid for CBBA is equal to the sum of the winning bids for the individual items. For example, if the airfare is sold for $ 1000 and the weekly rental fee is sold for $ 2000, the price paid for the exemplary CBBA is $ 3000.

  The CBBA presents an offer price that is the sum of the current offer price of the component's target auction. In the above example, if the airfare offer price is $ 1000 (before sale) and the weekly rental fee is $ 2000, the offer price offered by CBBA is $ 3000.

If a bid is placed in CBBA, this results in a bid being made in each component's target auction, and in its pricing, if any seller accepts a bid in the component auction, All other auction offer prices are combined, and all items can be purchased as part of the same transaction that single seller accepts bids. Following the above example, a $ 2500 bid is placed on the CBBA, which is placed on the $ 500 bid for the airfare (current offer price $ 1000) and the weekly rental fee. It can be a $ 1500 bid (current offer price $ 2000). Thus, the bid placed on this CBBA is $ 500 below the total amount required to buy all of the items at the current offer price, but this shortage of all $ 500 will be done for each component item. The full amount will be reflected in the bid. This also has the following effects:
If the offer price of one item in the target set is lowered by $ N, valid bids for all other items in the target set are raised by $ N. For example, if a condominium seller reduces the offer price by $ 100 from $ 2000 to $ 1900 in the example above, this is (no action by either the CBBA owner or the airfare seller) The bid for the airfare will automatically be $ 600 and the bid for the airfare will remain at $ 1500. This is because lowering the offer price for any item will reduce the gap between the current offer at CBBA and the sum of the current offer prices. The bids offered for each item reflect the total gap between the current CBBA bid for the target item and the sum of the current offer price, so when that gap is narrowed, the effective bid for other items Bids go up by the amount that the gap is narrowed.

  Similarly, if the offer price of one item in the target set is raised by $ N, the effective bid for all other items in the target set is lowered by $ N. In the example, if the airfare seller raises the price to $ 1100, the bid for the airfare will remain $ 500, but the bid for the condominium will be lowered to $ 1400 and $ 600 for each item. It becomes a bid / ask gap.

  If a bid on CBBA is raised or lowered by $ N, the bid amount made for each of the component items is raised or lowered by $ N. Again, this is because the bid for each item reflects the total gap between the CBBA bid amount and the current bid price bid for the target item, and raising or lowering the CBBA bid is not allowed. , Reduce or increase the gap.

  Purchases of all target purchase items are performed in a single transaction, so that all such purchase behavior is either successfully performed or not performed at all. In the above example, either a ticket for travel by a specific plane and a rental contract for a specific condo during a specific week are either purchased, or neither airfare nor rental is purchased.

  The CBBA owner treats CBBA as an item auction from the buyer's point of view. That is, the owner can either bid on CBBA or perform a market buying operation. The latter will pay the current offer price for each item in the target set.

  Bids for CBBA may be made in a composite reverse auction. Other bids within such a composite reverse auction may be made against other CBBAs or any forward auction. For any composite reverse auction, the market buying operation may be performed in a composite reverse auction that includes bidding on CBBA.

  This section describes the components and mechanisms that implement the various exemplary embodiments of the compound buy-buy auction and how those compound buy-buy auctions interact within the framework of the overall continuous double auction system. Will be described in detail. Basic mechanisms such as trading and the Internet, well known by those skilled in the field of computer science, are not described in detail.

  FIG. 18A: Auction system with communication network and client computer system.

  FIG. 18A illustrates an auction system 31000 running on a computer system 3110 and coupled to a plurality of client computer systems 3140 via a communications network 3120 in accordance with various embodiments. Communication network 120 is typically the Internet. However, in alternative embodiments, the present invention may be implemented in other private and / or public communication networks. Typically, each system 3110/3140 includes one or more processors, memory, non-volatile mass storage, and one or more input / output devices (eg, keyboard, cursor control, network interface, etc.). Any one of the many servers available from many vendors can be used as the computer system 3110. Any one of a number of desktops, notebooks, tablets, and handheld computers (including special purpose devices such as mobile phones) available from many vendors may be used as the client computer system 3140.

  The purpose of the communication network 3120 is to accept requests for and deliver responses from the auction system 1000 and its component objects. The use of such communication network 120 and client computer system 140 to present these requests and responses is well understood within the field of computer programming and will not be described further.

For the illustrated embodiment, an auction system 31000 is implemented in an entity relationship manner, where entities have attributes and methods. In alternative embodiments, the auction system 31000 is implemented in other ways. In various embodiments, the auction system 31000 may have the following attributes:
The attribute 31010 entity is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the entities 32000 in the auction system 31000 and the entities 32000 having those names.

  The attribute 31012 item is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the items 23000 known in the auction system 31000 and the items 33000 having those names.

  The attribute 31014 item auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of items 33000 known in the auction system 31000 and items 33000 having those names.

  The attribute 31016 composite reverse auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of the composite reverse auction 35000 in the auction system 31000 and the composite reverse auction 35000 having these names.

  The attribute 31018 compound buy-buy auction is a map that establishes a one-to-one correspondence between the names of compound buy-buy auction 39000 in the auction system 31000 and compound buy-buy auction 39000 having these names. .

  In various embodiments, the auction system 31000 may have the following methods.

  Method 31050 initialization. The method includes creating an empty map 31010 entity, an empty map 31012 item, an empty map 31014 item auction, an empty map 31016 composite reverse auction, and an empty map 31018 composite buy-buy auction. The auction system 31000 is adjusted for operation.

  Method 31052 creation entity. This method associates type and description information for an external entity with an identifier used to refer to that entity within the auction system 31000. In the context of the auction system 31000, the entity can be a person or a company, government, or similar organization and can own items 33000 that can be bought and sold using the auction system 31000.

  Method 31054 entity present. The method checks whether the entity 32000 identified by the identifier received as a parameter to the method is known to the auction system 31000, i.e. included in the map 31010 entity. Method 21056 get entity. This method uses the parameter identifier to look up the entity 32000 in the map 31010 entity and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of the type entity.

  Method 31058 created item. This method associates type and description information for an external entity with an identifier used to refer to that entity within the auction system 31000. In the background of the auction system 21000, an item is a product or service that is bought and sold within the auction system 31000 by an entity 32000.

  Method 31060 items present. This method checks whether the item 33000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 31000, ie, included in the map 31012 item.

  Method 31062 get item. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item 33000 in the map 31012 item and, if a mapping exists, return a reference to the associated programming object of the type item.

  Method 31064 Create Item Auction. This method creates a programming object that displays the item auction 34000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in the map 31014 item auction.

  Method 31066 Item auction exists. This method checks whether the item auction 34000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 31000, ie, included in the map 31014 item auction.

  Method 31068 get item auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the item auction 34000 in the map 31014 item auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of type item auction.

  Method 31070 creates a composite reverse auction. This method creates a programming object that displays a composite reverse auction 35000 and uniquely associates it with an identifier received by the method as a parameter, ie, puts it in a map 31016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 31072 Complex reverse auction exists. This method checks whether the composite reverse auction 35000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 31000, ie, included in the map 31016 composite reverse auction.

  Method 31074 Get composite reverse auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the composite reverse auction 35000 in the map 31016 composite reverse auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of the type composite reverse auction.

  Method 31076 creates a composite buy-buy auction. This method creates a programming object that displays a composite buy-buy auction 39000 and uniquely associates it with the identifier received in the method as a parameter. That is, it is put into the map 31018 compound buy-and-buy auction.

  Method 31078 Compound buy-buy auction exists. This method determines whether the compound buy-buy auction 39000 identified by the identifier received by the method as a parameter is known to the auction system 31000, i.e. included in the map 31018 compound buy-buy auction. To check.

  Method 31080 Get Compound Buy Buy Auction. This method uses the identification parameter to look up the compound buy-buy auction 39000 in the map 31018 compound buy-buy auction and, if a mapping exists, returns a reference to the associated programming object of type compound buy-buy auction.

  Referring to FIG. 18B, programming object entity 32000 may display external entities and financial resources and items that these entities have informed auction system 31000. The programming object has the ability to transfer funds, or send a communication to initiate and confirm the transfer of funds, and to transfer ownership of the item or initiate and confirm ownership transfer It may include the ability to send communications. A programming object may have the following attributes:

  Attribute name 32010. Used to identify entity 2000.

  Attribute account balance 32012. This attribute indicates a monetary resource that may be used on behalf of entity 32000 within the transaction. This amount is written on the lender when the entity sells, and entered on the debit when the entity purchases.

  Attribute item 32014. This is a map that identifies the set of items known to the auction system 31000 and owned by this entity 2000. Each such item is identified by its name.

  Attribute auction 32018. This is a map that identifies, by name, sets of forward, reverse, and compound buy-buy auctions owned by this entity.

  Programming object item 33000 may display external products and services that may be bought and sold through auction system 31000. These programming objects may include attributes and methods that identify the entity that currently owns them.

  The programming object item auction 34000 is described below.

  The programming object composite reverse auction 35000 is described below.

  The programming object compound buy-buy auction 39000 is described below.

  In alternative embodiments, the auction system 31000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

Figure 19: Bid 37000
For the exemplary embodiment, a bid is defined as the auction being bid, the item being bid, the amount of the bid, the entity that is bidding, the bid set that contains the bid, and the time when the bid expires. An identifying programmatic object.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have the following attributes:

  37010 bid amount. This represents the amount of the bid.

  37012 auction. This refers to a programmatic object that displays either an item auction 4000 or a bid-buy auction 9000 bid.

  37014 buyer. This refers to the bid entity 32000.

  37016 bid set. This refers to a bid set 38000 containing bids.

  37018 expired. This is the time when the bid expires. Note that when this point is reached, the bid 37000 object invokes its own method 7056 withdrawal if the bid has not yet been accepted.

Bidding can have the following methods:
37050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the bid amount, auction reference, buyer reference and bid set reference that are then assigned as corresponding attributes of the object.

  7052 acceptance. This method is invoked when a bid is accepted by the seller, that is, when the seller agrees to sell the item at the price displayed by the bid. The first function of this method is that by invoking the bid acceptance method for attribute 7016 bid set, other bids in that bid set can be withdrawn from the respective target auction.

  7054 Auction closed. This method is invoked when an auction is no longer available for any reason, either because the auction has been withdrawn by the seller, or someone else has won the auction. The main responsibility of this method is that bids can be removed from the bid set by invoking the attribute 7016 bid set auction close method.

  7056 withdrawn. This method is called to withdraw bids from the auction. It works by calling the programming object 37010 auction method 4060 withdraw bid.

  Show 37058 competition. This method allows the competition created by the bid set to be viewed by invoking the 37016 bid set competition show method.

  In various embodiments, a bid may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

FIG. 3: Bid Set In various embodiments, the bid set 8000 is a programming object that displays a set of bids owned by the same entity 2000 when the satisfaction function is satisfied. It is related by a satisfaction function that allows all remaining bids in the bid set to be withdrawn. Normally, the satisfaction function can only accept one bid, so items that are bid by the owning entity through this bid set will be an exclusive alternative, ie the buyer wants only one of them.

  In various embodiments, the bid set 8000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 8010 name. This is a string that uniquely identifies the bid set within the auction system 1000.

  Attribute 8012 owner. This is a reference to the entity 2000 that owns the bid set 8000, that is, the entity 2000 that made the bid contained within the bid set 8000.

  Attribute 8014 bid. This is a set of bids currently included by bid set 8000.

  In various embodiments, the bid set 8000 may have the following method.

  Method 8050 initialization. This method accepts a name string and owner object reference as parameters, assigns 8010 name attributes, 8012 owner attributes, and creates an empty set for 8014 bid attributes.

  Method 8052 insertion bid. This method accepts a reference to a programmatic object of type bid 7000 and adds the reference to the set attribute 8014 bid.

  Method 8054 bid acceptance. This method is invoked when a bid within a set attribute 8014 bid is accepted, i.e., when a sale is performed under the terms of that bid. The method accepts a reference to the accepted bid 7000 as a parameter. The method then performs by invoking method 7056 withdrawal for all bids 7000 in set attribute 8014 except for accepted bids.

  Method 8056 Auction closed. This method closes the auction either because the item was sold or because the item was withdrawn and at least one bid 7000 that was a bid at that auction was found in the set attribute 8014. Called when The method accepts the identification of the bid 7000 as a parameter and removes the bid from the set attribute 8014.

  Method 8058 get minimum gap bid. For each bid 7000 in the bid set, the method calculates the difference between the current offer price of the target auction and the bid price of that bid. This is the gap for bidding. The method compares the gap and differential bids of all bids in the bid set and returns the bid with the smallest gap amount. If the bid set is empty, null is returned.

  Show method 8060 competition. This method shows the competition between the sellers created by this bid set. The method presents the auctions closest to the buyer's bid and seller's ask first by presenting the target auctions for the included bids as a list sorted by their bid gap. Each auction identification is part of the information presented in the list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for the item.

  In various embodiments, a bid set may have more attributes or fewer attributes and / or methods.

FIG. 4: Item Auction In various embodiments, the item auction 4000 is a programmatic object that displays a special item auction. It can have the following attributes:
Attribute 4010 name. This identification string allows the item auction 4000 to be located by the method 1068 get item auction.

  Attribute 4012 items. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type item 3000 that displays the items sold through this auction.

  Attribute 4014 seller. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type entity 2000 that displays the entity that currently owns the item 3000 sold through this auction.

  Attribute 4016 bid queue stack. This is a reference to a programmatic object of type bid queue stack 6000 that displays the various bids received at the auction. The programmatic object bid queue stack 6000 is described separately below.

  Attribute 4018 Ask. This attribute displays the price that the seller of the item is currently seeking.

  In various embodiments, the item auction 4000 may have the following method.

  Method 4050 initialization. This method takes as parameters the identification string name, a reference to the programmatic object item, a reference to the programmatic object seller, and an amount that displays the initial offer price for the item. The method assigns these parameters to attribute 4010 name, 4012 item, 4014 seller, and 4018 ask, respectively. The method also creates an initialized or empty programmatic object for the type bid queue stack, and a reference to the type bid queue stack is assigned to the attribute 4016 bid queue stack.

  Method 4052 Ask Ask. This method accepts an amount as a parameter and the amount is assigned to attribute 4018 ask. The attribute 4016 bid queue stack method, 6052 get top bid in FIG. 5B, is invoked to retrieve the current top bid, which is then compared to the value of 4018 ask. If the current top bid attribute 7010 bid amount is greater than or equal to the newly established value of attribute 4018 ask, the bid is accepted by invoking its method 7052 acceptance. One sale is thus carried out for the amount specified by 4018 ask (if there is a bid for further sale, a further sale is carried out). That is, either the funds are transferred directly or a communication is initiated to cause the transfer of funds in the amount from the buyer identified by the bid to the external entity displayed by the attribute 4014 seller. Whether the ownership of the external item indicated by the attribute 4012 item is directly transferred or communication is initiated to cause the transfer of that ownership to the buyer identified by the bid , Either.

  Method 4054 posted bid. This method takes a programmatic object of type bid 7000 as a parameter and identifies the entity to bid and the amount of the bid. If the bid amount is greater than or equal to the amount displayed by attribute 4018 ask, a sale is performed between seller 4014 and the buyer identified by the bid for the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. . This sales performance is accomplished by invoking method 7052 acceptance of bid 7000 object. Otherwise, the bid is passed to the attribute 4016 bid queue stack method 6050 posted bid.

  Method 4056 market sell. This method indicates that seller 4014 wants to sell to the highest current bidder. The method is accomplished by first invoking the method 4052 get top bid in FIG. 5B of the attribute 4016 bid queue stack. If a non-empty result is received (this means that at least one bid has been received for the item being sold; the result is the highest such bid), the sale of the item is the seller 4014 and the buyer identified by the bid for the amount identified by attribute 4018 ask. This accomplishment is performed by invoking method 7052 acceptance of bid 7000 object.

  Method 4058 market buy. This method takes as a parameter a reference to a programmatic object entity 2000, referred to herein as a buyer, who wants to buy the item 3000 identified by the attribute 4012 item, and from the seller 4014 to the buyer attribute 4018. Causes the sale of item 4012 to be performed at the price specified by the ask. This is done by creating a bid 7000 object for the current offer price and then performing a method 7052 acceptance of the bid 7000.

  Method 4060 withdraw bid. This method takes the identification of the bid 7000 as a parameter and invokes the bid 7000 attribute 4016 bid queue stack, FIG. 5B, method 6054, to withdraw the bid.

  Method 4062 withdrawal. This method is invoked to withdraw items from sale. The method invokes the method 6056 withdrawal auction of FIG. 5B against the attribute 4016 bid queue stack.

  Method 4064 bid show. This method presents a set of current bids at the auction. The bids are presented in a list so that the price structure from the highest to the lowest becomes clear, and when multiple bids exist at the same price, the posting time of the bids is made clear. In other words, the same configuration as saved in the bid queue stack is revealed by the order of the restored list. With the identification of each bid available, the bid set of which the bid is a member can be retrieved by invoking the competition show method. The bid is either a type bid 7000 or a difference bid 7500 bid.

In various embodiments, item auction 4000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.
FIG. 5A: Bid Queue Stack In various embodiments, the bid queue stack 6000 is received for items sold through the item auction 4000 or the compound buy-buy auction 9000 of FIG. 18 and has not expired or been withdrawn. A programmatic object that displays a set of bids. Each bid may be one of a type bid 7000 that identifies an entity 2000 to bid, an amount the bidder is willing to pay, and an expiration time for the bid. Bids are organized in two dimensions. First, each bid is placed in a queue that contains only other bids at the same price. Bids are ordered in each such queue by the time the bids are received. Second, the queues are arranged in a stack according to the bid price contained within each queue, with the queue containing the highest price bid at the top.
FIG.
In various embodiments, the programmatic object bid queue stack 6000 may support the following methods:
Method 6050 bid posted. This method takes a bid 7000 as a parameter, puts it at the end of the queue containing other bids at that price, and creates a queue if no queue exists.

  Method 6052 Get Top Bid. This method returns the first bid 7000 from the top non-empty queue in the stack, if any; returns zero if not.

  Method 6054 withdrawal bid. The method receives as an parameter the identification of bid 7000 and removes it from the queue of bid queue stack programming objects that contain it, if any.

  Method 6056 withdrawal auction. This method invokes method 7054 auction close for each bid 7000 in the bid queue stack.

  In an alternative embodiment, bid queue stack 6000 supports more or fewer methods.

FIG. 6: Composite Reverse Auction In various embodiments, the composite reverse auction 5000 is a programmatic object that defines the attributes and methods of objects used to display a composite reverse auction.

  As described below, a composite reverse auction mainly consists of a set of bids at different forward auctions (bid set 8000) and a method for making an object function as a reverse auction. These forward auctions can be at least any of the following types: item auctions, continuous double auctions, or standardized continuous double auctions.

Each of the forward auctions where a bid was made allows the bid to expire or be withdrawn. When one bid from the bid set 8000 of the composite reverse auction 5000 is accepted, the other is automatically withdrawn. This makes the forward auctions on which the bids are being placed compete with each other (including the auctions that are bid indirectly through the complex buy-buy auctions that are bid directly from the compound reverse auction). (Where the satisfaction function of the bid set 8000 is that any bid in the bid set has been accepted; in other embodiments, for example, indicating that the available funds have been exhausted, etc. Different satisfaction functions can be used.)
In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have the following attributes:

  Attribute 5010 name. This attribute provides a convenient way to identify a particular composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5012 owner. This is a reference to an entity 2000 object that displays the entity that bids through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  Attribute 5014 bid set. This is a reference to a bid set 8000 that holds bids made through this composite reverse auction 5000 object.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 supports at least the following methods.

  Method 5050 initialization. This method takes a string to be a name as a parameter and a reference to an entity 2000 object to be the owner. The method also creates an empty bid set 8000 for the attribute 5014 bid set.

  Method 5052 bid posted. This method receives a bid 7000 as a parameter. The method adds the bid to the bid set 5014. The method also invokes the item auction method 4054 posted bid identified by the bid, or a corresponding posted bid method of other forward auction types. Note that this trigger can result in the performance of a sale.

  Method 5054 market buy. This means that the owner 5012 wants to buy the item whose current offer price is closest to the bid for the item in the composite reverse auction bid set. Because buyers are bidding at different prices for each item in the bid set, these different prices normalize interest in the buyer's items. That is, any item that is bid is equally acceptable to the buyer of that price bid. This method receives as a parameter an amount that represents a limit on a market buying action. The limit is an indication of the maximum amount for the current bid that the buyer is willing to pay. The limits are necessary because the auction conditions in the composite reverse auction bid set determine when the buyer observes them and buys on the market and when his market buy request is received by the auction system. Because it can vary between. For example, an auction is therefore not available because the auction with the smallest bid / ask gap may have been sold to another bidder. An auction in a composite reverse auction with the second smallest bid / offering price gap can be substantially larger; no limit is imposed; instead, the buyer expects if he buys from that auction You can pay more than you.

  The reason the limit is expressed as an amount for the current bid rather than as a total amount is because bids for different items in the bid set can be bids for different amounts. Thus, a single sum is not effective and the difference can be applied to each bid to determine the actual maximum amount.

  This method invokes method 8058 get minimum gap bid for that bid set. If the bid gap amount is greater than the limit received as a parameter, an error is returned. Otherwise, a new bid is created that matches the target auction offer price for the minimum gap bid, and is bid at the target auction, resulting in the accepted new bid, and the sale is performed accordingly.

  Method 5056 competitive show bid. This method shows competition between sellers created by a composite reverse auction. The method presents the target auction as a list sorted by bid gap, with the auction closest to the buyer's bid and the seller's ask being presented first. The identification of each auction is part of the information presented in the list and can be used to observe bidder-bidder competition for items.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object composite reverse auction 5000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

Figure 20: Combined buy-buy auction 39000
In various embodiments, the compound buy-buy auction 39000 is a programmatic object that defines the attributes and methods of the objects used to display the compound buy-buy auction.

The general order in which multiple buy-buy auction methods are invoked is:
Method 39050 initialization is invoked to create a buy-buy auction.

  Method 39052 Add Target Auction is invoked more than once to establish which auction is in the target set.

  A method 39058 posted bid is invoked to bid against a set of target auctions. This results in success or failure (buy all items).

  It can have the following attributes:

  Attribute 39010 name. This attribute provides a convenient way to identify a particular composite reverse auction 39000 object.

  Attribute 39010 owner. This is a reference to an entity 32000 object that displays the entity that is using this compound buy-buy auction to buy a set of items.

  Attribute 39014 Target auction. This displays the target set for auction 34000. That is, the purpose of this compound buy-buy auction is to allow items that are sold through all of the auctions in this target set to be bought in a single transaction.

  Attribute 39016 Ask. This is the current offer price for this buy-buy auction. This attribute is computed on the computer rather than being set directly (see below). 39016 ask displays the total current offer price of the target auction.

  Attribute 39018 bid. If the 39020 bid validity is true, display the amount of bids made to buy all items through the auction at the 39014 target auction; otherwise not specified.

  The attribute 39020 bid is valid. True if Method 9056 Post Bid is activated and a bid is posted in this Buy-Buy Auction; otherwise it is false.

  Attribute 39022 bidding branch. A set of bids 37000 that are generated and posted at the auction identified in the 39014 target auction.

In various embodiments, the programmatic object compound buy-buy auction 39000 supports at least the following methods:
Method 39050 initialization. This method accepts as parameters the identification string name and a reference to the entity 32000 object that will become the owner of attribute 39010. The method creates an empty set 39014 target auction. The method also creates an empty set 39022 bid branch.

  Method 39052 Additional Target Auction. The owner 39010 accepts as a parameter the identification of a forward auction that the owner wants to add to the 39014 target auction. That is, he hopes to include the items sold through the auction in the set that this buy-buy auction purchases if successful. Within the transaction, this method adds the auction to the 39014 target auction and then invokes the method 39054 calculation ask.

  Method 39054 Calculate Ask. Within the transaction, determine the lowest amount that must be paid to buy all items in the target auction set 39014 target auction at the current offer price, and set the attribute 39016 ask to this amount.

  Method 39056 bifurcation bidding. If the attribute bid validity 39020 is false, an error is returned. If not, perform the following within a single transaction: First, determine the difference between attribute 39016 ask and attribute 39018 bid; this difference is the bid / ask gap for this buy-buy auction. For each auction in the target set 39014 target auction, create a bid for the current offer price amount for that auction, subtract the bid / ask gap just calculated for this buy-buy auction and post the bid And then place it in the 39022 bid branch. If the calculated bid / ask gap is zero, each of the posted bids can all be accepted within the current transaction.

  Method 39058 posted bid. An amount is accepted as a parameter, and this amount represents the total amount that the entity 32000 identified by the owner of attribute 39012 is willing to pay for the entire set of items sold through the target set of the auction. Within the transaction, set 39020 bid valid to true, set 39018 bid to the parameter amount, and invoke method 39056 branch bid.

  Method 39060 market buy. Accepting the amount as a parameter acts as a limit on the amount paid. Within the transaction: Activate the 9054 calculation ask. If 9016 ask is equal to or lower than the limit parameter, method 9058 posted bid is triggered and passes an amount equal to 39016 ask as a parameter. This results in a successful purchase of all items in the target set.

  Method 39062 withdraw bid. Within a transaction, do the following: Invoke the method 37056 withdrawal shown in FIG. 19 for all bids in the 39022 bid branch. The attribute 39020 bid validity is set to false.

  Method 39064 Ask posting. This method accepts bid 37000 identification and amount as parameters as shown in FIG. The amount is a new offer price for the target auction 7012 of the bid. This method is invoked because a new offer price at auction 7012 can result in a new offer price 9016 ask. Within a single transaction: Method 39054 compute ask is invoked followed by method 39056 branch bid. This results in a successful composite buy-buy auction. That is, it results in buying all of the target items.

  Method 39066 Auction withdrawal. This method accepts the identification of a bid 37000 as a parameter as shown in FIG. 19, and the auction identified by the bid's auction 37002 attribute has been withdrawn. Since the set of target auctions is now incomplete, this complex buy-buy auction will not function properly unless the owner 39902 adds an alternative auction and places a new bid. Thus, the method 39066 auction withdrawal all performs the following within a single transaction. It sets 39020 bid valid to false. Then, for each bid 37000 in the 39022 bid branch, invoke method 37056 withdrawal.

  In various embodiments, the programmatic object compound buy-buy auction 39000 may have more or fewer attributes and / or methods.

  FIG. 21: Comprehensive continuous double auction with compound buy-buy auction.

  In various embodiments, the comprehensive continuous double auction 310000 (SCDA) is a network of forward auctions (item auctions, continuous double auctions, and standardized continuous double auctions), composite reverse auctions, and composite buy-buy auctions. . A forward auction establishes competition between buyers who own a composite reverse auction for items sold through the forward auction. A composite reverse auction establishes competition between sellers who own item auctions for the business of buyers who own composite reverse auctions. It is this two-way competition that makes SCDA a double auction.

  A network with SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) will be reduced each time a sale is made or an item or bid is withdrawn, but will not be deleted, so SCDA will continue. That is, from the point of view of various buyers, when one item they are bidding on is sold or withdrawn and disappears, other items they are bidding or can bid on SCDA will continue. Similarly, if a bid is withdrawn from an item auction because the buyer has purchased a competitive item, or the bid has expired or was manually withdrawn, other bids being made at that item auction No effect; they remain valid and the item auction continues as more bids can be received as well.

  SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) is called General. This is because it results from multiple forward auctions, multiple reverse auctions, and multiple buy-buy auction combinations connected together by buyer and seller behavior (bidding and ask, respectively).

  Multiple buy-buy auctions within the SCDA (Comprehensive Continuous Double Auction) network, where future buyers collect several purchases into an all-or-nothing unit and bid against them, or against them As a whole, it acts as a simple method for executing a market buying operation.

  More precisely, an auction system 1000 that combines elements of type entity 2000, item 3000, item auction 4000 (and other forward auction types), composite reverse auction 5000, and composite buy-buy auction 39000, It includes multiple integrated continuous double auctions (SCDA), where SCDA is a transitive closure of forward auctions and composite reverse auctions connected by an arc displaying bids. The compound buy-buy auction 39000 extends the transitional closure of bids. That is, a bid made in CBBA extends transitional closure through the bids it generates, as displayed by its attribute 39902 bid branch.

  FIG. 21 shows an exemplary configuration of a general continuous double auction. The elements are as follows:

  Three examples of entity 2000 are shown in the role of a buyer labeled “Buyer”. These are buyer 202, buyer 204, and buyer 3206.

  Four examples of entity 2000 are shown in the role of a seller labeled “Seller”. These are seller 602, seller 604, seller 606, and seller 608.

  Five examples of item auction 4000 are shown labeled IA502, IA504, IA506, and IA508 and IA510.

  Four examples of a composite reverse auction 5000 are shown labeled CRA 302, CRA 304, CRA 306, and CRA 308.

  Two examples of a compound buy-buy auction 39000 are shown labeled BBA 402 and BBA 404.

  Arc 652 and arc 654 indicate that seller 602 has two examples of item auction 4000, here labeled IA 502 and IA 504.

  Arc 656 indicates that seller 604 has a single item auction 4000, here labeled IA506.

  Arc 658 indicates that seller 606 has a single composite item auction 4000, here labeled IA508.

  Arc 660 indicates that seller 608 has a single item auction 4000 that is now labeled IA 510.

  Arc 252 indicates that buyer 202 has a single example of compound reverse auction 5000, here labeled CRA 302, in its map attribute 2018 auction.

  Arcs 352 and 354 indicate that CRA 302 is bidding on two examples of item auction 4000, labeled IA 502 and IA 504, respectively.

  Arc 254 indicates that buyer 204 has a single example of compound reverse auction 5000, here labeled CRA 304, in its map attribute 2018 auction.

  Arcs 356 and 358 indicate that CRA 304 is bidding on two examples of compound buy-buy auction 39000, here labeled BBA 402 and BBA 404.

  Arc 360 indicates that CRA 304 is bidding on one example of item auction 4000 labeled IA 510.

  Arcs 452 and 454 indicate that compound buy-buy auction BBA 402 includes two examples of item auctions, labeled IA 502 and IA 504, respectively, in its target set 39014 target auction.

  Arcs 456 and 458 indicate that compound buy-buy auction BBA 404 includes two examples of item auction 4000 in its target set 39014 target auction, labeled IA 502 and IA 508, respectively.

  Arcs 256 and 258 indicate that the buyer has two examples of a composite reverse auction 5000, here labeled CRA 306 and CRA 308.

  Arcs 362 and 364 indicate that CRA 306 is bidding on two examples of item auction 4000, labeled IA 506 and IA 510, respectively.

  Arc 368 indicates that CRA 308 is bidding on one example of item auction 4000 that is labeled IA 508.

  The ellipsis 702 indicates that there may be additional examples of the entity 2000 operating in the role of a buyer, not shown.

  The ellipsis 704 indicates that there may be additional examples of the composite reverse auction 5000, not shown.

  The ellipsis 708, although not shown, indicates that there may be additional examples of a composite buy-buy auction 39000.

  The ellipsis 710 indicates that there may be additional examples of the item auction 4000, not shown.

  The ellipsis 712 indicates that there may be additional examples of entities 2000 operating in the seller role, not shown.

  Referring to FIG. 25, a flow diagram of a portion of a compound buy-buy auction is illustrated. Client entity computer system 2510 may be coupled with communication system 2520 such that process tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between client entity computer system 2510 and communication system 2520. Communication system 2520 may be coupled with auction system database 2530 so that process tasks, queries, etc. may be passed between communication system 2520 and auction system database 2530.

  Still referring to FIG. 25, this compound buy-buy auction has conditional bids at multiple heterogeneous item auctions. The composite reverse auction resident in the auction system database 2530 includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of a plurality of different item auctions and a second in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set that includes conditional bids. The bid set begins at client entity computer system 2510 and is sent via communication system 2520 to auction system database 2530. The bid set, and the composite reverse auction defined thereby, advances the process to block 2540. A bid set includes one or more conditional bids. If there is an item auction corresponding to one (or more) conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to block 2550. If there is an item corresponding to one (or more) conditional bids in the bid set, the process proceeds to block 2560. If the item associated with the existing item auction has not been withdrawn, the process proceeds to block 2565. In this particular embodiment, the buyer believes that the total price of the item to be bought should be minimized, and if so, the process proceeds to block 2570. If the buyer's conditions meet the seller's conditions, the process proceeds to block 2580. The composite reverse auction is performed at block 2580 where i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is accepted as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid. When done. The process then proceeds to block 2590 where the traded item is withdrawn. Again, the bid set is a) at least one first seller associated with a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions, b) at least one associated with a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. It is important to note that it is visible to the second seller of the customer and c) a buyer bidding at the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. is there.

(Definition)
The term “program” and / or the phrase “computer program” refers to a computer system (eg, a program and / or computer program is a subroutine, function, procedure, object method, object implementation, executable application, applet, servlet, A sequence of instructions designed for execution in source code, object code, shared libraries / dynamic load libraries and / or other sequential instructions designed for execution on a computer or computer system) Is meant to mean.

  The term “substantially” is intended to mean that the majority of what has been specified is not necessarily complete. The term “approximately” is intended to mean at least close to a given value (eg, within 10%). The term “generally” is intended to mean at least close to a given state. The term “coupled” is intended to mean connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. As used herein, the term “proximate” is intended to mean close, adjacent close and / or matched; a specific function and / or result (if any) Includes spatial situations that can be implemented and / or achieved. The term “deploying” is intended to mean designing, building, shipping, attaching and / or operating.

  The terms “first” or “one” and the phrase “at least first” or “at least one” are singular unless it is clear from the essential text of this document that it means otherwise. Or intended to mean more than one. The terms “second” or “another” and the phrase “at least a second” or “at least another” are singular unless it is clear from the essential text of the document that it means something else. Or intended to mean more than one. Unless expressly stated to the contrary in the essential text of this document, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” and not an exclusive “or”. . In particular, the condition “A or B” is satisfied by any of the following: A is true (or exists) and B is false (or does not exist), A is false (Or not present) and B are true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present). The terms “indefinite article a” and / or “indefinite article an” are used for grammatical presentation and simply for convenience.

  The term “plurality” is intended to mean two or more than two. The term “arbitrary” is intended to mean all applicable members of a set or at least a subset of all applicable members of the set. The phrase “any integer from which it can be deduced” is intended to mean an integer between the corresponding numbers listed herein. The phrase “any range from which it can be inferred” is intended to mean any range within such a corresponding number. The term “means” is intended to mean hardware, firmware and / or software for achieving a result when the term “for” follows. The term “step”, when followed by the term “for”, means (sub) methods, (sub) processes and / or (sub) routines for achieving the listed results. Is intended.

  The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “has”, “having” or Any other variation thereof is intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, article, or device that includes a list element is not necessarily limited to only those elements, but is listed in such a process, method, article, or device list. It may include other elements that are not or not unique. The terms “consisting” (consisting of) and / or “composing” (consisting of) enumerate the listed methods, devices or configurations. Intended to mean closed language that is not subject to inclusion of procedures, structures and / or components other than those described, provided that auxiliary equipment, appendages and / or Excludes impurities When the term “essentially” is listed together with the term “consisting of” (consisting of) and / or “constituting” (consisting of consisting of) Unspecified procedures, configurations and / or which do not substantially affect the basic novel features of the listed methods, apparatus and / or configurations Only the minute inclusion, listed methods, is intended to mean a modified closed words to open the device and / or configuration.

  Unless defined otherwise, technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this specification belongs. In case of conflict, the present specification, including definitions, will control.

(Conclusion)
The described embodiments and examples are illustrative only and not limiting. Although embodiments of the present invention may be implemented separately, embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into the systems with which they are associated. All embodiments of the invention disclosed herein may be made and used without undue experimentation in light of the disclosure. Although the best mode of the present invention conceived by the present inventor is disclosed, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to this. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited by the theoretical statements (if any) listed herein. Individual steps of embodiments of the present invention need not be performed in the disclosed manner and need not be combined in the disclosed order, and may be performed in any and all manners, and / or Can be combined in any order.

  It is to be understood that various substitutions, modifications, additions and / or rearrangements of features of embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit and / or scope of the concepts underlying the present invention. Can be understood by those skilled in the art. All the disclosed elements and features of each disclosed embodiment are the same as the disclosed elements and features of all other disclosed embodiments, except where such elements or features are mutually exclusive. Can be combined or substituted. The spirit and / or scope of the concepts underlying the present invention, as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents, cover all such substitutions, modifications, additions and / or rearrangements. To do.

  The appended claims are intended to be used unless such limitation is explicitly recited in a given claim using the phrases “means for” and / or “step for”. , Not to be construed as including means plus functional limitations. The semi-generic embodiments of the present invention are precisely described by the attached independent claims and their equivalents. Particular embodiments of the present invention are distinguished by the appended dependent claims and their equivalents.

  The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification are included to depict specific embodiments of the invention. The clearer concepts of the embodiments of the present invention, the components combined with the embodiments of the present invention, and the operation of the system provided in the embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in the drawings (the same reference number is more than one). It will be apparent by reference to the exemplary and thus non-limiting embodiment shown in the figure, where the same elements are designated. Embodiments of the present invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the following description presented herein. It should be noted that the shapes shown in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 shows a state diagram of an auction system that may be executed by a computer program and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a state diagram for bidding in the auction system of FIG. 1 and displays an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows a state diagram of a bid set in the auction system of FIGS. 1 and 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows a state diagram of an item auction in the auction system of FIGS. 1, 12 and 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5A shows a state diagram of the bid queue stack in the auction system of FIGS. 1, 12 and 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5B shows further details of the bid queue stack of FIG. 5A and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 shows a state diagram of a composite reverse auction in the auction system of FIGS. 1, 12 and 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 shows a state diagram of a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA) in the auction system of FIG. 1, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 shows a state diagram of an auction system that may be executed by a computer program and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 shows a state diagram of asks (offers to sell at a specific price) in the auction system of FIG. 8, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 shows a state diagram of a bid (offer to buy at a specific standardized price) in the auction system of FIG. 8 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 11 shows a state diagram of a standardized continuous double auction in the auction system of FIG. 8 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12A shows a state diagram of an auction system that may be implemented with a computer program and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12B shows further details of the auction system of FIG. 12A and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 13 shows a state diagram for bidding in the auction system of FIG. 12A, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 shows a state diagram of the differential bidding in the auction system of FIG. 12 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 15 shows a state diagram of a bid set in the auction system of FIG. 12, and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 16 shows a state diagram of a compound buy-sell auction in the auction system of FIG. 12 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 17 shows a state diagram of a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA) in the auction system of FIG. 12, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 18A shows a state diagram of an auction system that may be implemented with a computer program and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 18B shows further details of the auction system of FIG. 18A, shows a state diagram, and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 19 shows a state diagram of bidding in the auction system of FIG. 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 20 shows a state diagram of a compound buy-buy auction in the auction system of FIG. 18 and displays an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 21 shows a state diagram of a comprehensive continuous double auction (SCDA) in the auction system of FIG. 18 and displays one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 22 shows a flowchart of a withdrawal condition process that may be implemented by a computer program as part of a comprehensive continuous double auction, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 23 shows a flowchart of a standardization process that may be implemented by a computer program as part of a standardized continuous double auction, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 24 shows a flow diagram of a buy-sell process that may be implemented by a computer program as part of a compound buy-sell auction, displaying one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 25 shows a flow diagram of a buy-buy process that may be implemented by a computer program as part of a compound buy-buy auction and displays one embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (74)

A method comprising participating in a comprehensive continuous double auction having a conditional bid at a plurality of different item auctions, the method comprising: a composite reverse auction being a first of the plurality of different item auctions; Defined by a bid set comprising a first conditional bid at an auction and a second conditional bid at a second auction of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions, i) the first condition from the bid set A bid is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) terminated when the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid;
The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. At least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. A method that is visible to at least one member selected from the group.   The bid set is a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; b) associated with the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. C) to all three of the buyers bidding at the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. The method of claim 1, which is visible.   The method of claim 1, wherein when a seller accepts a bid defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   The method of claim 1, wherein when a buyer responds to an ask defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions includes a public continuous double auction.   The method of claim 1, wherein the participating includes operating a comprehensive continuous double auction, wherein the comprehensive continuous double auction includes closing one of the plurality of disparate item auctions.   The method of claim 6, further comprising updating at least one other bid set.   The method of claim 1, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to sell at least one item in the general continuous double auction.   The method of claim 8, further comprising updating at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions.   The method of claim 8, further comprising terminating one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions by accepting a bid.   The method of claim 1, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to buy at least one item in the general continuous double auction.   The method of claim 11, further comprising updating the bid set. An electronic medium comprising a computer or machine readable program element that is translatable to implement the method, the method comprising:
Participating in a comprehensive continuous double auction having conditional bidding in multiple heterogeneous item auctions,
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When finished,
The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of disparate item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of disparate item auctions. At least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. An electronic medium visible to at least one member selected from the group. An apparatus comprising a computer network including at least one auction server, at least one seller client and at least one buyer client,
The at least one auction server, the at least one seller client and the at least one buyer client participate in a comprehensive continuous double auction having conditional bids in a plurality of different item auctions;
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When finished,
The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of disparate item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of disparate item auctions. At least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. A device that is visible to at least one member selected from the group. A data structure comprising a bid set that at least partially defines a composite reverse auction, the bid set being a first conditional bid in a first auction of a plurality of dissimilar item auctions, and the plurality of bids Including a second conditional bid at a second of the different item auctions,
The composite reverse auction includes i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid. Will be terminated when
The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. At least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. A data structure visible to at least one member selected from the group. An apparatus for transmitting or receiving a signal embodying a computer program product comprising computer program means adapted to perform the steps of participating in a continuous double auction when the program is executed on a computer comprising: The step is
Participating in a continuous double auction includes participating in a comprehensive continuous double auction having conditional bidding in a plurality of different item auctions, wherein the compound reverse auction is the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set including a first conditional bid at a first auction of the first and a second conditional bid at a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions, i) from the bid set The first conditional bid is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) is terminated when the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid, A) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions; At least one second seller associated with the second auction of the different item auctions; and c) the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the plurality of different item auctions. A device for transmitting or receiving signals visible to at least one member selected from the group consisting of buyers bidding in the second auction.   A computer program as claimed in claim 16, embodied on a computer readable medium. A method comprising participating in a standardized auction having conditional bids in a plurality of different item auctions, comprising:
The conditional bidding includes price standardization as a function of at least one attribute;
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the way is finished.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. At least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method is visible to at least one member selected from the group.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. At least one second seller associated with, c) a buyer bidding at the first auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions, or the second auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions. The method of claim 18, which is visible to all three.   The method of claim 18, wherein when a seller accepts a bid defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   The method of claim 18, wherein when a buyer responds to an ask defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   The method of claim 18, wherein the conditional bidding includes price standardization as a function of at least two disparate attributes.   The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions comprises a public continuous double auction.   The method of claim 18, wherein the participating includes operating a comprehensive continuous double auction, the comprehensive continuous double auction including closing one of the plurality of disparate item auctions.   26. The method of claim 25, further comprising updating at least one other bid set.   The method of claim 18, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to sell at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   28. The method of claim 27, further comprising updating at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions.   28. The method of claim 27, further comprising terminating one of the plurality of dissimilar item auctions by accepting a bid.   The method of claim 18, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to buy at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   32. The method of claim 30, further comprising updating the bid set. An electronic medium comprising a computer or machine readable program element that is translatable to implement the method, the method comprising:
Participating in a standardized auction having conditional bidding in multiple dissimilar item auctions,
Conditional bidding includes price standardization as a function of at least one attribute,
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the electronic medium is finished. An apparatus comprising a computer network including at least one auction server, at least one seller client and at least one buyer client,
The at least one auction server, the at least one seller client and the at least one buyer client participate in a standardized auction having conditional bids in a plurality of heterogeneous item auctions;
The conditional bidding includes price standardization as a function of at least one attribute;
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When finished, the device. A data structure comprising a bid set defining at least a partially standardized auction, the bid set being a first conditional bid in a first auction of a plurality of dissimilar item auctions, and the plurality A second conditional bid at a second auction of
The bid set includes price standardization as a function of at least one attribute;
A standardized auction consists of: i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid A data structure that is terminated when An apparatus for transmitting or receiving a signal embodying a computer program product comprising computer program means adapted to perform a step of participating in a standardized auction when the program is executed on a computer comprising: The step is
Participating in a continuous double auction includes participating in a standardized auction having conditional bidding in a plurality of different item auctions, the conditional bidding being a function of at least one attribute Including a price standardization, wherein the composite reverse auction is a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions and a second auction in a second of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions. Defined by a bid set including two conditional bids, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set A device that sends or receives a signal that is terminated when it is withdrawn as a remaining bid.   36. A computer program as described in claim 35 embodied on a computer readable medium. A method comprising participating in a compound buy-sell auction having a conditional bid for multiple dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on selling one or more other items in another auction. The method
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the way is finished.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. A group of at least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. 38. The method of claim 37, visible to at least one member selected from.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. At least one second seller associated with, c) a buyer bidding at the first auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions, or the second auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions. 38. The method of claim 37, visible to all three.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein when a seller accepts a bid defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein when the buyer responds to an ask defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein the other auction is an open continuous double auction.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions includes a public continuous double auction.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein the participating includes operating a comprehensive continuous double auction, and the comprehensive continuous double auction includes closing one of the plurality of disparate item auctions.   45. The method of claim 44, further comprising updating at least one other bid set.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to sell at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   The method of claim 46, further comprising updating at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions.   47. The method of claim 46, further comprising terminating one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions by accepting a bid.   38. The method of claim 37, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to buy at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   50. The method of claim 49, further comprising updating the bid set. An electronic medium comprising a translatable computer or machine readable program element to implement the method, the method comprising:
Participating in a compound buy-sell auction having conditional bids for a plurality of dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on selling one or more other items in another auction;
The composite reverse auction includes a conditional bid of a first auction of the first of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid of a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the electronic medium is finished. An apparatus comprising a computer network including at least one auction server, at least one seller client and at least one buyer client,
Conditions for a plurality of disparate items that are substantially contingent on the at least one auction server, the at least one seller client, and the at least one buyer client selling one or more other items in another auction. Participate in a compound buy-sell auction with bids,
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When finished, the device. A data structure comprising a bid set that at least partially defines a composite buy-sell auction, the bid set being a first conditional bid in a first auction of a plurality of dissimilar item auctions; and Including a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions;
The compound buy-sell auction includes: i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is A data structure that is terminated when it is withdrawn as a bid. An apparatus for transmitting or receiving a signal embodying a computer program product comprising computer program means adapted to perform the step of participating in an auction when the program is executed on a computer comprising:
Participating in an auction participates in a compound buy-sell auction having a conditional bid for multiple dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on selling one or more other items in another auction. The composite reverse auction is a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions, and a second auction in the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set including a second conditional bid, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set A device that sends or receives a signal that is terminated when it is withdrawn as a remaining bid.   55. A computer program as described in claim 54 embodied on a computer readable medium. A method comprising participating in a compound buy-buy auction having conditional bids for a plurality of dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on buying one or more other items in another auction. The method
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the way is finished.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. A group of at least one associated second seller and c) a buyer who bids in the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions or the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. 57. The method of claim 56, visible to at least one member selected from.   The bid set includes: a) at least one first seller associated with the first auction of the plurality of different item auctions; and b) the second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. At least one second seller associated with, c) a buyer bidding at the first auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions, or the second auction of the plurality of foreign item auctions. 57. The method of claim 56, visible to all three parties.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein when a seller accepts a bid defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein when a buyer responds to an ask defined by the first conditional bid, the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein the another auction is a public continuous double auction.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions includes a public continuous double auction.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein the participating includes operating a comprehensive continuous double auction, and the comprehensive continuous double auction includes closing one of the plurality of disparate item auctions.   64. The method of claim 63, further comprising updating at least one other bid set.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to sell at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   66. The method of claim 65, further comprising updating at least one of the plurality of heterogeneous item auctions.   66. The method of claim 65, further comprising terminating one of the plurality of disparate item auctions by accepting a bid.   57. The method of claim 56, wherein the participating comprises agreeing to accept an obligation to buy at least one item in a general continuous double auction.   69. The method of claim 68, further comprising updating the bid set. An electronic medium comprising a computer or machine readable program element convertible to perform the method, the method comprising:
Participating in a compound buy-buy auction having a conditional bid for a plurality of dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on buying one or more other items in another auction;
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When the electronic medium is finished. An apparatus comprising a computer network including at least one auction server, at least one seller client and at least one buyer client,
Conditions for a plurality of disparate items that are substantially contingent on the at least one auction server, the at least one seller client, and the at least one buyer client buying one or more other items in another auction. Participate in a compound buy-buy auction with bidding,
The composite reverse auction includes a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions and a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a set, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is withdrawn as the remaining bid When finished, the device. A data structure comprising a bid set that at least partially defines a composite buy-buy auction, wherein the bid set is a first conditional bid in a first auction of a plurality of dissimilar item auctions; and Including a second conditional bid in a second auction of the plurality of different item auctions;
The compound buy-sell auction includes: i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set is the remaining bid A data structure that is terminated when it is withdrawn as. An apparatus for transmitting or receiving a signal embodying a computer program product comprising computer program means adapted to perform the step of participating in an auction when the program is executed on a computer comprising:
Participating in an auction participates in a compound buy-buy auction having a conditional bid for multiple dissimilar items that are substantially contingent on buying one or more other items in another auction. The composite reverse auction is a first conditional bid in a first auction of the plurality of different item auctions, and a second auction in the plurality of different item auctions. Defined by a bid set including a second conditional bid, i) the first conditional bid from the bid set is recognized as a winning bid, and substantially simultaneously ii) the second conditional bid from the bid set A device that sends or receives a signal that is terminated when it is withdrawn as a remaining bid.   74. A computer program as described in claim 73 embodied on a computer readable medium.

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