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1. The subject matter of the simultaneous transactions is unrestricted except for the situation where traders at two banks are attempting to negotiate the same pair of currencies at the same time with each other For example referring briefly to FIG 1 assume a trader using terminal T111 at Bank sends an RFQ involving the U S dollar and Japanese yen to Bank Y As long as the request has been received by Bank Y and at least has been placed in the incoming calling queue in one or more trader terminals more may have hap pened such as the call may be answered any future communication other than the original one between these two banks concerning the same two currencies will be inhibited Thus if terminal T111 is engaged in communication with terminal T311 no terminal at Bank X can be used to initiate conversation with any terminal at Bank Y which relates to the same currency pair Similarly no terminal at Bank Y can be used to initiate conversation with any terminal at Bank X which relates to the currency pair Thus both outgoing RFQs from a party the initiation of the request and incoming RFQs from a counter party the reception of the request are blocked These features will be discussed at length be low Referring now to FIG 3 when a trader initiates an RFQ 16 the trader selects a destination bank he may also select a specific trader terminal but he must always identify the bank and he identifies the currency pair for w2. 908 7 In the following step the traders at the receiving bank are notified by placing the received RFQ in the incom ing call queue panel of the bank s terminals 46 As in the case where the RFQ is initiated rather than received normal communication between the banks is allowed 47 for the present RFQ At the conclusion of the conversa tion 48 the currency pair is de registered 49 It is important to note that the registration of cur rency pairs occurs at the bank node and thus the regis tration of a currency pair affects all of the trading termi nals connected to the bank node Thus as briefly de scribed above when a first trader at Bank X for exam ple trader using terminal T111 initiates an RFQ di rected at Bank Y for a specified currency pair a second trader at Bank X will be prevented from using the other terminals at Bank X to send an RFQ to Bank Y concern ing the same currency pair Specifically following FIG 3 when the second trader at Bank X attempts to initiate the RFQ a common look up table maintained at the bank node processor and accessible to all the bank s trader terminals is checked for the prior registration of the currency pair As long as the initial request to Bank Y has not been concluded the currency pair will be registered the second conversation will automatically be terminated and a message indicating this will be displayed on the second traders terminal Similarly any trader at Bank Y will
3. and prior to beginning the post deal activities the system de regis ters the currency pair 36 Although FIG 3 concerns only the flow of an initiated RFQ it will be seen below that the system de registers the currency pair following the conclusion of a conversation where the currency pair was registered as a result of an incoming or re ceived request for quote It should also be understood as shown in FIG 3 that the currency pair will be de registered after any type of conclusion of conversation including those not involv ing the making of a deal Referring now to FIG 4 when a request for an RFQ is received by a terminal at a particular bank node 41 the bank node processor s look up table is immediately checked to see if the currency pair involved in the re quest has been registered for the banks involved in the potential trading communication 17 If the currency pair has been registered then a duplicate call message is sent to the originating bank 43 This duplicate call message will be received by the originating bank and will result in a message being displayed at the originat ing terminal along with the freezing of the conversation panel In the exemplary embodiment no message is displayed at the receiving bank s terminals Note that the received RFQ is not even displayed in the incoming call queue panel If however the currency pair in the RFQ has not been registered the system immediately registers it 26 5 258
4. and registering steps form a single atomic operation 20 25 35 45 55 65 12 12 In a computer network system allowing for the simultaneous communication between computer termi nals at a requesting and destination bank location for the purpose of entering a transaction for the exchange of currency a method for automatically controlling the access of terminals comprising the steps of receiving a request for quote RFQ from a request ing bank the RFQ identifying a currency pair to be the subject of a transaction communication ascertaining whether the identified currency pair has been registered for a trading communication with the requesting bank if the currency pair has been registered then sending a duplicate call message to the requesting bank and if the currency pair has not been registered then registering the currency pair placing the request in the incoming call queue allowing for normal transaction communication between the banks and de registering the currency pair at the conclusion of the transaction communication 13 A method as recited in claim 12 wherein the as certaining and registering steps form a single atomic operation
5. be prevented from sending an RFQ to Bank X concerning the same currency pair Thus referring to FIG 3 once again when the second trader at Bank Y attempts to initiate the RFQ Bank Y s bank node processor will find that the currency pair has already been registered In this case the registration will have taken place as a result of the reception of the initial RFQ from Bank X The second trader at Bank Y will thus be unable to send the RFQ Of course the same principles apply where one of the traders who is a party to the original transaction at tempts to initiate a second conversation with a different trader at the counter party s bank For example if the original RFQ originator at Bank X attempts to gain access to a second trader at Bank Y for example to try to receive more than one bid from the same source he will be refused access since when he tries to initiate the second call the bank node processor will indicate to his terminal that the currency pair has been previously registered as a result of his initial call between Bank X and Bank Y Race conditions for example where two traders at Bank X attempt to reach a trader at Bank Y at substan tially the same moment are taken into account in the present system to insure that two trading conversations concerning the same currency pair do not occur Spe cifically the steps 17 and 26 shown in FIG 3 wherein the bank node processor checks for a prior registration and th
6. between a pair of banks and where each trading conversation concerns the exact 0 15 20 25 35 45 55 60 65 2 same currency pair Generally banks do not wish to be in a situation where traders in the same bank are bidding against each other This situation can happen quite by accident such as where two pairs of traders are un knowingly engaged in a trading conversation involving the same currency pair Alternatively stereo trading may occur when a single trader knowingly engages in a trading conversation with two different traders at the same bank at the same time and concerning the same currency pair SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the method aspects of the present invention duplicate trading conversations involving the same bank or other identifiable principal and the same currency pair or other specific subject matter are avoided by automatically controlling access to the ter minals used to conduct such trading conversations In the particular example of a foreign exchange trading transaction between banks the trading system automati cally determines whether a trading communication currently exists between the initiating and destination banks which involves the selected currency pair and inhibits a second communication between the initiating and destination banks involving the selected currency pair To that end the selected currency pair and destina tion bank is preferably re
7. conversation with the other bank Although the bank node processor does not list the currency pair as registered when it tries to send the the proces sor would subsequently receive a duplicate call message since the destination bank has registered the pair however the duplicate call message 15 not re ceived from the destination bank in step 28 the initi ated reaches its destination and is placed in the incoming call queue panel on the terminals of the desti nation bank Normal communications are then allowed to occur between the party and counter party Normal communications include a variety of options which are not relevant to the understanding of the present inven tion Briefly they can include answering the call mak ing offers making counter offers and sending messages Normal communication continues until the trading conversation is concluded 34 This too may occur in several ways First a deal may be reached but also one of the parties may terminate the conversation by hang ing up or the time may expire in which one of the parties was supposed to engage in an action If the conversation concludes in the making of a deal the parties reaching an agreement and binding themselves to it there are typically some post deal activities such as recording the deal that must be completed However in the trading system the parties are obligated once the deal is made Therefore immediately after this point
8. the city nodes may be located in any city and the city nodes may be connected in any combination necessary to facilitate the routing of calls from city to city and from bank node to bank node For example the city nodes may be located in the cities indicated in FIG 1 wherein city node C1 is located in Tokyo city node C2 in New York city node C3 in Zurich and city node C4 in Lon don The route over which messages are routed is invisible to the traders using the trading terminal For example a foreign exchange trader using the trading terminal T111 in Bank X in Tokyo can communicate with a foreign trader using the termina T311 at Bank Y in Zurich The message from Bank X to Bank Y initiates at terminal T111 is routed through the Bank X bank node B11 and then through the Tokyo city node C1 Upon receipt of the message at Bank Y it gets routed to the Zurich city node then to the Bank Y bank node B31 and finally to 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 the trading terminal T311 The path that the message takes between the Tokyo and Zurich C4 city nodes is entirely up to the decision making function of the network For example the message may go through New York C2 only or London C3 only or both New York and London before reaching Zurich There are a variety of messages and communications which can occur between traders however the most fundamental is a communication regarding the negotia tion of the sale or
9. TIES IF ANY SEND DUPLICATE CALL MESSAGE TO ORIGINATING TERMINAL 5 258 908 1 DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF DUPLICATE TRADING TRANSACTIONS OVER A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates generally to a computer based trading system for trading transactions over a communications network and more particularly to a method and apparatus for detecting and inhibiting any attempt to initiate a second trading communication which duplicates with an ongoing trading communica tion involving the same principals and the same subject matter CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS For a more comprehensive view of what is presently regarded as the best mode of practicing the invention and its intended environment reference should be made to the following commonly assigned to U S patent applications filed concurrently herewith Financial Exchange System Having Automated Recovery Rollback of Unacknowledged Orders U S Ser No 608 643 Activation of Dormant Bank Node Processor U S Pat Ser No 608 644 Terminal for Automated Trading System having Streamlined User Interface U S Ser No 608 645 The following documents published by Quotron Sys tems Inc describe various aspects of a trading system which embodies many aspects of the present invention and which is available for commercial use under the trademark F X Trader Quotron F X Trader System Overview W
10. TION FIG 3 BANK AND A CURR PAIR ATOMIC LOCK 17 26 SELECTED FOR A TRADING CONVERSATION WITH REGISTER CURRENCY PAIR FOR VERSATION BETWEEN BANKS 4 UNLOCK SEND RFQ TO DESTINATION BANK 27 PAIR REGISTERED AS A RESULT OF INITIATING A RFQ 7 CALL MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM PRINT MESSAGE 34 DUPLICATE CALL ALLOW NORMAL IN PROGRESS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN 23 THE TERMINALS AT THE ORIGINATING AND DESTINATION BANKS 21 CONVERSATION TERMINATED 29 CONCLUSION OF CONVERSATION WAIT FOR PRINT MESSAGE 36 22 USER TO DUPLICATE CALL CLEAR PANEL IN PROGRESS RE REGISTER CURRENCY PAIR 41 CONVERSATION TERMINATED COMPLETE POST DEAL ACTIVITIES IF ANY 32 DE REGISTER CURRENCY PAIR PRINT MESSAGE REQUEST DENIED CALL ALREADY IN PROGRESS 19 U S Patent Nov 2 1993 Sheet 4 of 4 5 258 908 FIG 4 LOCK DI MATA ie 26 HAS THE SELECTED CURRENCY PAIR FOR A TRADING CONVERSATION WITH THE ORIGINATING BANK NODE BEEN ter foes REGISTER CURRENCY PAIR FOR VERSATION BETWEEN BANKS NOTIFY USER BY PLACING RFQ IN INCOMING CALL 46 ALLOW NORMAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN 47 THE TERMINALS AT THE ORIGINATING AND DESTINATION BANKS 43 48 CONCLUSION OF CONVERSATION 49 RE REGISTER CURRENCY PAIR COMPLETE POST DEAL ACTIVI
11. United States Patent n9 Hartheimer et al UI UN E US005258908A Patent Number 5 258 908 Nov 2 1993 Date of Patent 11 45 54 75 73 21 22 51 52 58 56 DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF DUPLICATE TRADING TRANSACTIONS OVER A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK Inventors Richard Hartheimer Morris Plains N J Michael Coleman Sydney Australia Chris Klepka Parsippany N J Geoffrey Poole Sydney Australia Assignee Foreign Exchange Transaction Services Inc Long Island City N Y Appl No 608 642 Filed Nov 2 1990 A secs 06 7 52 iia 364 408 364 401 364 800 364 DIG 1 235 379 235 380 Field of Search 364 408 200 800 401 235 379 380 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 077 665 12 1991 Silverman et al 364 408 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Quotron F X Trader System Overview 1990 Quo tron Systems Inc Quotron F X Trader User Manual 1990 Quotron Systems Inc Quotron Systems Inc Interactive Demo Script with copies of display screens as shown in Lisbon Por tugal Spring Summer 1989 Primary Examiner Donald McElheny Jr Assistant Examiner Gita D Shingala Attorney Agent or Firm Robbins Berliner amp Carson 57 ABSTRACT A computer network system for simultaneously com municating between computer terminals at various bank locations for the purpose of ent
12. at an initiating bank loca tion and a destination bank location for the purpose of executing a respective plurality of transactions for the exchange of respective currency pairs a method for automatically controlling the access of terminals com prising the steps of selecting a currency pair automatically ascertaining whether a trading commu nication currently exists between the initiating and destination bank locations which involves the se lected currency pair inhibiting a second trading communication between the initiating and destination bank locations involv ing the selected currency pair and registering the selected currency pair in a look up table at the initiating bank each time the initiating bank initiates a transaction communication with the destination bank involving the selected cur rency pair 2 A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the ascertaining step comprises the step of checking the look up table at the initiating bank to determine whether the selected currency pair has been regis tered 3 A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of de registering the currency pair at the conclusion of the trading communication 4 In a computer network system allowing a plurality of simultaneous trading communications between re spective computer terminals at an initiating bank loca tion and a destination bank location for the purpose of executing a respective plurality of transactions for t
13. d by the first bank node The time it takes for messages to be sent depends primarily on the route that the city network provides and the speed with which the messages travel through the city network The messages between the two bank nodes do not necessarily have to travel the same route It is important to note that in a race situation the elec tronic race may result in one trading conversation be tween the two banks However the race will never result in two simultaneous trading conversations re garding the same currency pair between the same two banks While the invention has been shown and described with reference to a presently preferred embodiment it is understood by those skilled in the art that numerous changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention For example the invention is applicable to any com munications network used to conduct trading transac tions of any kind Thus the traders may not be banks or the banks described above can deal through third parties such as brokers Here the principals will use trading terminals at broker nodes rather than bank nodes Also the subject matter of the trading conversa tion can be practically anything that a trading market exists for such as bonds or precious metals for example We claim 1 In a computer network system allowing a plurality of simultaneous trading communications between re spective computer terminals
14. ed in the destinations bank s look up table and which is still in progress and thus is not de registered in the destination bank s look up table By this means even in the un likely event that duplicate conversations were initiated simultaneously by traders at both banks and thus there would not be any duplicate pending transactions regis tered when the conversations were initiated both con versations would be automatically detected at their respective destination banks and thus could be inhibited before any potentially duplicate negotiations were per mitted to take place 5 258 908 3 accordance with the apparatus aspects of the vention each look up table is preferably contained within a bank node processor connected to all terminals associated with a given bank and each terminal is pro vided with means to read and update the look up table at its associated bank node whenever a particular in coming or outgoing trading conversation is initiated or terminated and to inhibit the initiation of any outgoing trading conversation which it determines is a duplicate of another conversation already in progress In accor dance with another apparatus aspect of the invention the terminal includes both means to transmit a duplicate call message to a bank which initiates an incoming trad ing conversation which it determines is a duplicate call and means to terminate an outgoing trading conversa tion upon receipt of a duplica
15. en registers the currency pair if no registration is found an atomic uninterruptable operation Thus both of these operations must be completed with regard to one RFQ before the following RFQ is oper ated on One way to visualize this is to imagine a box sur rounding the steps the dotted line shown in FIG 3 The box has one entry namely the path between the initiation of the RFQ and the step determining whether the currency pair is registered and two exits one fol lowing the determination that the currency pair has been registered and the other being after a previously unregistered pair has been registered Once an initial 10 5 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 8 RFQ is being processed by the checker function the box is locked and the bank node processor cannot begin to process any other RFQ until the box in unlocked The only way to unlock the box is for the original RFQ to be disposed of in some way either by determining that the currency pair has been registered or by regis tering it if it has not been registered If these functions were not atomic then potentially a second RFQ could pass through the checking step prior to the bank node performing the registering step 26 in response to a first RFQ It should be understood that there is only one check and register function in each bank node processor and that all RFQs initiated and received by that bank node must be processed by t
16. ering a transaction for the exchange of currency of a selected currency pair provides a method for preventing a trading communica tion involving a selected currency pair between two banks wherein there is already a trading communication in progress between the two banks involving the same currency pair 13 Claims 4 Drawing Sheets Bas BANK Ki in 1311 4 2 5 258 908 Sheet 1 of 4 Nov 2 1993 U S Patent Old 0000 _ A O 900 009 e Oe oe Lemoore o PR meen peewee eww om wwe wwe ees eee Sheet 2 of 4 5 258 908 Nov 2 1993 U S Patent bb 06 01 16 01 67 01 67 01 1188 18 AHI 3890 92 997 62 677 98 65 971 5 971 asn da9 asn da9 Adr asn Adr asn SSIYIOYA TIVO AVA Z 05001 N3A ASN VOB n3a asn IXWY 2 87 01 08 01 67 01 87 01 21 108 7 0 943193135 vzan N3H9 2285 0LI9 0 0 lt 97 91 019 91 119 6049 l 3H9 0SN w3a asn n3a asn lt U S Patent Nov 2 1993 Sheet 3 of 4 5 258 908 INITIATE RFQ SELECT A DESTINA
17. g the access of terminals com prising the steps of selecting a currency pair automatically ascertaining whether a trading commu nication currently exists between the initiating and destination bank locations which involves the se lected currency pair inhibiting a second trading communication between the initiating and destination bank locations involv ing the selected currency pair and inhibiting the transaction communication at each of the initiating and destination banks wherein the initiating bank initiates a trading communication with the destination bank involving the selected currency pair at substantially the same time as the destination bank initiates a trading communication with the initiating bank involving the selected cur rency pair 8 A method as recited in claim 7 wherein each bank performs an initiating registration of the trading communica tion involving the selected currency pair between the initiating and destination banks upon the initia tion of a trading communication and a receiving registration of the trading communica tion involving the selected currency pair between the initiating and destination banks upon the recep tion of a trading communication 9 A method as recited in claim 8 wherein the inhibiting step only inhibits both trading commu nications where each bank receives a request for trading communication prior to registering its initi ating trading communication 10 In a com
18. gistered in an associated look up table maintained at the initiating bank before any transaction communication with a destination bank involving the selected currency pair 15 initiated and is de registered at the conclusion of the trading communi cation In that case the system is able to determine whether a duplicate conversation is already in progress merely by checking in the relevant look up table entries to see whether the selected currency pair and counterparty is currently registered in an associated look up table Preferably the selected currency pair and counter party for each trading conversation currently in progress is registered not only at the initiating bank but also at the destination bank In any event it is advanta geous to check the look up tables at both banks associ ated with a new trading conversation To that end before a request for quote is communicated to its desig nated recipient the initiating bank checks its look up table for any duplicate trading conversation which it might have previously initiated and thus was registered in the initiating bank s look up table and which is still in progress and thus is not de registered in the initiating bank s look up table upon receipt of the request at the destination bank the destination bank checks its own look up table for any other trading conversation which the destination bank might have previously initiated with the initiating bank and thus was register
19. he exchange of respective currency pairs a method for automatically controlling the access of terminals com prising the steps of selecting a currency pair 20 25 30 35 45 60 65 10 automatically ascertaining whether a trading commu nication currently exists between the initiating and destination bank locations which involves the se lected currency pair inhibiting a second trading communication between the initiating and destination bank locations involv ing the selected currency pair and registering the selected currency pair in a look up table at the destination bank each time the destina tion bank receives a request for a transaction com munication from the initiating bank involving the selected currency pair 5 A method as recited in claim 4 wherein the ascertaining step comprises the step of checking the look up table at the destination bank to deter mine whether the selected currency pair has been registered 6 A method as recited in claim 4 further comprising the step of de registering the currency pair at the conclusion of the trading communication 7 In a computer network system allowing a plurality of simultaneous trading communications between re spective computer terminals at an initiating bank loca tion and a destination bank location for the purpose of executing a respective plurality of transactions for the exchange of respective currency pairs a method for automatically controllin
20. he single check and register func tion Obviously this prevents the check and register function from being done in parallel In the race condi tion previously described one of the RFQs must be processed before the other The first one processed will be sent to the destination bank but the second one will be stopped This is true even where the requests are initiated at exactly the same moment in time Since the check and register is a serial atomic operation one of the RFQs must be processed first Another race condition is considered by the system to avoid duplicate trading conversations Namely where two banks Bank X and Bank Y for example simulta neously or nearly simultaneously initiate RFQs to each other for the same currency pair In this case when each bank node checked its table to see if the currency pair had been registered it would not find the currency pair to be registered since neither bank node has re ceived the RFQ from the other bank Thus each bank node would be able to send out the RFQ However as the RFQ is received by each bank the check function of each bank s bank node processor will find that the cur rency pair has already been registered and thus will send a duplicate call message back to the originating bank Therefore neither of the RFQs will result in a trading conversation The same result may occur whenever two banks are trying to request a quote from each other regarding the same currency pa
21. hich he requests a quote Once the RFQ is initiated the system determines whether the identified currency 5 258 908 5 pair is currently the subject of a transaction conversa tion between the originating bank and the destination bank 17 In an exemplary embodiment the system ac complishes this by doing a table look up and seeing whether the currency pair has been registered for the current pair of banks wishing to engage in communica tion For example if a trader at Bank X wishes to engage in a trading conversation with a trader at Bank Y re garding the U S dollar and Japanese Yen he initiates the process by inputting the destination bank and the selected currency pair at his terminal The trader s ter minal at Bank X will then initiate a table look up at its associated bank node processor to determine whether the U S dollar and Japanese Yen currency pair has been registered for a trading conversation between Bank X and Bank Y If the currency pair has already been registered this indicates that the currency pair is the subject matter of an outgoing request from the originating bank or an incoming request from the destination bank The cir cumstances under which a currency pair can become registered will be apparent after reading the entire spec ification After determining that the currency pair has been registered the next step 18 is to determine whether the registration was the result of a prior initiated RFQ ora prio
22. inter 1989 90 Quotron F X Trader Beta Version User Manual Spring 1990 Quotron F X Trader Beta Version System Admin istration Manual Spring 1990 Copies of the foregoing documents are included as part of this application and are hereby incorporated by refer ence BACKGROUND ART A typical transaction in the foreign exchange trading industry involves two exchange traders i e from dif ferent banks who enter into a communication for the purpose of trading currency at an agreed upon ex change rate measured at an agreed upon time Transac tions such as these are initiated by a trader who for example sends a request for quote RFQ to a second trader at another bank The first and second traders can then negotiate the rate at which the currency pair which makes up the subject matter of the negotiations is to be exchanged Presently foreign trading transactions occur over relatively conventional means such as the telephone or relatively newer means such as a comput er based communication network Although the relative merits of the prior art systems may be arguable as to their effectiveness for communi cation each of the prior art systems allow an undesir able trading scenario to take place Namely the prior art systems allow for trading conversations to occur in stereo Stereo is a term of art describing the situa tion where two different trading conversations are tak ing place at the same time
23. ir and the RFQ from a first bank is initiated prior to its receiving the RFQ from the second bank Note that if the RFQ is received before an RFQ is initiated the received RFQ has priority in the atomic check and register function and will block out the initi ated RFQ When the RFQ is initiated before the RFQ from the second bank is received and the initiated RFQ has not yet been received by the second bank before it sends out its RFQ there is an electronic race between the bank nodes and the transmission of the signals Namely the bank that sends its RFQ first will get back a message that a duplicate call is in progress since the currency pair is registered in the second bank When it receives this message the conversation is terminated thus de registering the currency pair for that bank node of the first bank Meanwhile a terminal at the second bank node is trying to send an RFQ to the first bank If the sent RFQ is checked by the first bank node proces sor before it can de register the currency pair then a message is sent back to the terminal at the second bank node and the conversation is terminated thus neither of the bank nodes were successful in entering into a trad ing conversation with the second bank However if the first bank node processor can clear and de register the currency pair before it checks the RFQ sent from the second bank node the RFQ will be accepted into 5 258 908 9 the incoming call queue maintaine
24. purchase of currency Briefly in an exemplary system the trading conversation is initiated by one trader requesting a quote RFQ from another trader The other trader has a variety of options the first of which includes whether he will even answer the RFQ Other options include responding with a quote or sending written messages back to the requesting party The conversation is ended by either making a deal or refusing a deal and hanging up Referring now to FIG 2 an exemplary trading termi nal screen is shown having a plurality of panels An indicative rates panel 11 is provided and contains elec tronically updated indicative trading rates for selected currency pairs wherein a currency pair is the two types of currency which are to be involved in the potential transaction Example of currencies are the U S dollar USD the Great Britain pound GBP the Deutsch German mark DEM the Japanese yen JPY and the French franc FRF An incoming call queue panel 12 is also provided This panel prioritizes and displays the incoming calls arriving at the bank node to which the trading terminal is connected Calls may also be sent to a particular trader in which case this too is indicated in the incom ing call queue panel The remaining panels are conver sation panels 13 It is in these panels that conversations between traders take place The six conversation panels allow each trader to simultaneously conduct six trading transactions
25. puter network system allowing for the simultaneous communication between computer termi nals at an initiating and destination bank location for the purpose of entering a transaction for the exchange of currency a method for automatically controlling the access of terminals comprising the steps of initiating a request for quote RFQ by selecting a destination bank and a currency pair 5 258 908 11 ascertaining whether the selected currency pair has been registered for the a transaction communica tion with the selected destination bank if the selected currency pair has been registered then automatically ending the transaction communica tion and displaying a message on the terminal indi cating that the RFQ cannot be sent if the selected currency pair has not been registered then registering the currency pair sending the RFQ to the destination bank ascertaining whether a duplicate call message has been received from the destination bank if the duplicate call message has been received then automatically ending the transaction communica tion and displaying a message on the terminal indi cating the same if the duplicate call message has not been received then allowing the transaction communication be tween the originating bank and the destination bank to proceed and de registering the currency pair at the conclusion of the transaction communication 11 A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the as certaining
26. r received RFQ If the registration was the result of a prior initiated RFQ the next step 19 is to print a mes sage on the originators terminal In an exemplary em bodiment the message can read Request Denied Call Already in Progress The result of reaching this step is that the conversation or potential conversation between the two banks is terminated 21 and the conversation panel in which the conversation was to take place leaves the user only one option 22 that being to clear the panel If it is determined that the registration of the cur rency pair was the result of receiving a RFQ the next step 23 is also to print a message on the originator s terminal In an exemplary embodiment the message can read Duplicate Call In Progress Here also the con versation is automatically terminated 21 and the con versation panel in which the conversation was to take place merely presents the duplicate call message and permits the user to clear the panel 22 The key is that under both of the above conditions the conversation is automatically terminated It should be apparent to a person skilled in the art that any mes sages can be generated in response to the above condi tions The messages defined in the above described embodiment simply convey additional information to the trader as to why the conversation was terminated If at the step of determining whether the currency pair has been registered 17 it is found that the c
27. te call message from the destination bank BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of a presently preferred embodiment taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is a system level schematic representation of a city network system having bank nodes connected thereto FIG 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exem plary display screen of the trading system having a plurality of windows disposed therein FIG 3 is a flowchart illustrating the method of colli sion detection when processing an outgoing request for quote and FIG 4 is a flowchart illustrating the method of colli sion detection when processing an incoming request for quote DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring initially to FIG 1 an exemplary network of trading terminals is shown The network comprises a plurality of city nodes C1 to C4 each connected to at least one bank node B11 to B4M Each bank node is in turn connected to at least one trading terminal T111 to T3MN The bank and city nodes generally provide a routing network and supervisory functions to allow a trading terminal connected to one bank node to commu nicate with a trading terminal or trading terminals connected to another bank node The detail of the net work structure is not important to an understanding of the present invention Suffice it to say that
28. urrency pair has not been registered then the system immedi ately registers the pair in the next step 26 In an exem plary system this is accomplished by conventional means such as registering the currency pair in a table or stack corresponding to the particular pair of originat ing and destination banks In the following step 27 the RFQ is actually sent to the destination bank The effect at the destination bank is that the RFQ request is placed in the incoming call queue panel of each terminal at the destination bank or terminal if a specific terminal is specified The originating bank s system then determines whether the destination bank has sent the originating bank a dupli 20 25 30 35 40 45 55 60 65 6 cate call message 28 The conditions under which this message is sent from a destination bank will be consid ered below in conjunction with FIG 4 If the duplicate call message has been received by the originating bank then the process proceeds to display an appropriate message 29 on the terminal screen the conversation is automatically terminated 31 and the conversation panel merely permits the user to clear the panel for use by another conversation Further the currency pair is de registered 32 Note that the cur rency pair is only de registered at the bank which initi ated the Thus if this bank were to once again initiate an RFQ to the same bank it would not be able to open a
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