The present invention is systems and methods for matching desired purchases and sales of mis-matched items, such as goods, services, financial instruments, and property interests.
Frequently, it is desirable to purchase or sell items with particular traits that may not commonly be found in the open market. Examples of such items include financial instruments, such as Non-Deliverable Forward Spreads (NDFSs), Forward Rate Agreements (FRAs), and Treasury/Agency Bond Swaps, and property interests, such as time-share rights in vacation properties and airplanes. An NDFS is a contract to buy one currency on a near date and sell another at a predetermined forward time on a far date, where the contract is settled at the maturity time by means of a cash settlement in U.S. Dollars as defined by the difference between the contract price and the benchmark price (or index) that is applicable for that maturity date. An FRA is an agreement to borrow or lend currency on a particular near date in the future for a predetermined time until a particular far date.
As a more particular example, in the case of a Forward Rate Agreement, a first party may have a near date of October 13th, a far date of October 27th, an amount of five million units of appropriate currency, and a price of 112 total points (i.e., 1.12%), and may desire to minimize the risk associated with that agreement by making a risk-offsetting agreement. A second party may desire to buy an FRA with a near date of October 13th, a far date of October 15th, an amount of five million units of the appropriate currency, and a price of 16 total points, and a third party may desire to buy an FRA with a near date of October 15th, a far date of October 27th, an amount of five million units of the appropriate currency, and a price of 96 total points. In this scenario, it would be desirable to be able to match the buying and selling requirements of each of the parties so that the desired transactions could be completed.
Similarly, consider the case of time-share rights in a vacation property. A first party may own the rights to possession of the property from July 1st through July 15th, and may desire to sell the rights to that property as a single block. A second party may desire to purchase only the rights in that property for the period from July 1st through July 7th, and a third party may desire to purchase only the rights in that property for the period from July 8th through July 15th. In such a scenario, neither the second party nor the third party may be willing to purchase the rights in the property for the entire period from July 1st through July 15th because it is for more time than each desires. Also, in this scenario, the first party may by unwilling to initially sell the rights in the property to either the second party or the third party because of a fear that the rights in the property for the remaining time may hence go unsold. Thus, because the desires of the parties are unmatched, none of the parties can complete the transaction in the property.
Obviously, the examples used to illustrate the matching difficulties in transferring items that are discussed above are fairly simple, and more complex scenarios could be contemplated by one of ordinary skill in the art, for example, such as a hypothetical case where a set of a dozen mis-matched purchases and sales of FRAs are desired. In such more complex scenarios, the principles of the present invention set forth below are equally applicable.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide systems and methods for matching desired purchases and sales of mis-matched items.