Icap Services North America LLC

Geoffrey Bernard

William Riggio

Steven Cooper

An electronic trading system and method are disclosed for implementing an electronic trading protocol that permits buyers and sellers to 'negotiate in the middle' or 'NIM' i.e., to negotiate the purchase and sale of an item (e.g., securities) at a price between or equal to the best current bid and offer prices for the item through the submission of an initial NIM order and one or more NIM counteroffer orders. In a preferred embodiment, each NIM session may comprise two phases, a NIM private phase and a NIM public phase. During the NIM private phase, the initial NIM order is presented only to the trader on the opposite side of the market with the highest ranked order based on price and time priority. During the NIM public phase, the initial NIM order is presented to all traders on the opposite side of the market with pending orders at the best market price. The trader who submitted the initial NIM order is preferably granted authority to determine whether or not a public phase for the NIM should be allowed.

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Manhasset, NY, United States of America

Geoffrey Bernard