COMMODITY EXCHANGE FOR PRE-PURCHASING COMMODITIES AND TRADING FUTURE RIGHTS TO RECEIVE COMMODITIES

摘要

A commodity exchange system enables trading and redemption of contracts of commodities with enhanced user experiences and functionalities. A user may pre-purchase a quantity of a commodity (e.g., gasoline) by purchasing a contract of the commodity at a currently traded price of the contract, which provides the user future rights to receive a quantity of the commodity at a strike price (which may be zero). The users may sell (or short sell/underwrite) these contracts through the commodity exchange system. The owner of a contract redeems the contract to obtain the commodity by transacting with a commodity supplier at the strike price, and original seller of the contract or an underwriter associated therewith pays the difference between a spot (market) price and the strike price upon redemption of the contract.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a contract for a commodity, the method comprising:
maintaining in a data store information describing a contract for a commodity, the contract entitling an owner of the contract to redeem the contract to obtain a specified amount of the commodity from a merchant business establishment at a strike price, the contract further obligating an original seller of the contract or an underwriter associated therewith to pay a difference between a spot price and the strike price upon redemption of the contract, where the spot price is a current market price of the amount of commodity upon redemption; receiving a notification that the owner of the contract redeemed the contract to obtain the specified amount of the commodity from a merchant business establishment; responsive to the notification, facilitating payment of the difference between the spot price and the strike price to at least one of the owner of the contract and the merchant business establishment; and charging the difference between the spot price and the strike price to the original seller of the contract or the underwriter associated therewith.