Abstract: A system and method are provided for settlement and delivery of cash settled futures contracts overlying open-ended mutual fund shares with optional delivery of mutual fund shares when physical settlement is elected. On the last date of the contract, a party which has an open position in the contract tenders the clearing organization a request to elect optional physical settlement of a specified number of shares of the mutual fund in additional to the standard cash settlement of those contracts. The clearing organization, upon acceptance and when it is certain of the requestor's final position in the futures contract, processes the election request against the requestor's final position and possibly submits an order on behalf of the requestor to the investment company which manages the mutual fund to purchase or redeem shares of the open-ended mutual fund in a quantity roughly the size of the requestor's final contract position.

Abstract: A system and method for operating an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument are provided in which a request is made for a Trading Center to conduct an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument. If requirements are met, the Trading Center transitions from an Open Trading State (OTS) to a SNAP Auction State (SAS), excludes from the auction any order which explicitly requests exclusion, includes in the auction any remaining Resting Orders, includes in the auction certain new orders which arrive before the auction ends, activates and includes currently dormant orders, takes a snapshot of displayed buying/selling interest and attempts to include in the auction any available buying/selling interest in other Trading Centers which must be satisfied, computes the auction price, sends external Satisfaction Orders, attempts to match all responses to Satisfaction Orders and all internal orders included in the auction, and transitions back from the SAS to the OTS.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for settlement and delivery of cash settled futures contracts overlying open-ended mutual fund shares with optional delivery of mutual fund shares when physical settlement is elected. On the last date of the contract, a party which has an open position in the contract tenders the clearing organization a request to elect optional physical settlement of a specified number of shares of the mutual fund in additional to the standard cash settlement of those contracts. The clearing organization, upon acceptance and when it is certain of the requestor's final position in the futures contract, it processes the election request against the requestor's final position and possibly submits an order on behalf of the requestor to the investment company which manages the mutual fund to purchase or redeem shares of the open-ended mutual fund in a quantity roughly the size of the requestor's final contract position.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for intentionally delaying an execution of an executable instruction by determining if a current executable instruction is received from a predefined source for which all executable instructions are to be intentionally delayed. When so, the system sets a sequence time associated with the instruction equal to a receipt time plus a delay time. The system saves the instruction in an intentional delay queue for future execution. When the current executable instruction is received from a source that is not the predefined source, the system determines if a condition for immediate processing of the current executable instruction is present. When so, the system executes the instruction immediately. Otherwise, it performs an intentional delay determination that determines whether the current executable instruction has been intentionally delayed. When the current executable instruction has been intentionally delayed, the system executes the instruction immediately.

Abstract: A system and related method are provided for interleaving undelayed and intentionally delayed executable instructions that are executable by a processor of a system having a memory. The method comprises utilizing the processor to execute programmed instructions for: receiving, by a message handling process (MHPa), a triggering signal triggering the MHPa to an active state. In response to the MHPa being triggered to the active state, the MHPa determines if a delayed message queue (DMQa) is empty. When the DMQa is empty, the system determines if an immediate message queue is empty. When not, a current message is set to be a top message in the IMQa. When the delay criteria of the current message do not require an intentional delay, the system executes the executable instructions of the current message, and when they do, the message is placed in the DMQa.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for intentionally delaying an execution of an executable instruction by determining if a current executable instruction is received from a predefined source for which all executable instructions are to be intentionally delayed. When so, the system sets a sequence time associated with the instruction equal to a receipt time plus a delay time. The system saves the instruction in an intentional delay queue for future execution. When the current executable instruction is received from a source that is not the predefined source, the system determines if a condition for immediate processing of the current executable instruction is present. When so, the system executes the instruction immediately. Otherwise, it performs an intentional delay determination that determines whether the current executable instruction has been intentionally delayed. When the current executable instruction has been intentionally delayed, the system executes the instruction immediately.

Abstract: A system and method for operating an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument are provided in which a request is made for a Trading Center to conduct an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument. If requirements are met, the Trading Center transitions from an Open Trading State (OTS) to a SNAP Auction State (SAS), excludes from the auction any order which explicitly requests exclusion, includes in the auction any remaining Resting Orders, includes in the auction certain new orders which arrive before the auction ends, activates and includes currently dormant orders, takes a snapshot of displayed buying/selling interest and attempts to include in the auction any available buying/selling interest in other Trading Centers which must be satisfied, computes the auction price, sends external Satisfaction Orders, attempts to match all responses to Satisfaction Orders and all internal orders included in the auction, and transitions back from the SAS to the OTS.

Abstract: A system and method for operating an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument are provided in which a request is made for a Trading Center to conduct an on-demand auction for a Financial Instrument. If requirements are met, the Trading Center transitions from an Open Trading State (OTS) to a SNAP Auction State (SAS), excludes from the auction any order which explicitly requests exclusion, includes in the auction any remaining Resting Orders, includes in the auction certain new orders which arrive before the auction ends, activates and includes currently dormant orders, takes a snapshot of displayed buying/selling interest and attempts to include in the auction any available buying/selling interest in other Trading Centers which must be satisfied, computes the auction price, sends external Satisfaction Orders, attempts to match all responses to Satisfaction Orders and all internal orders included in the auction, and transitions back from the SAS to the OTS.