A method and system for an automated trading network that continuously collects
invisible, anonymous, binding orders and indications of interest to buy and sell
specific equity securities at variable, passively determined prices and, then,
executes trades based on these collected orders and indications. In general, the
binding orders are collected from retail broker-dealers and the binding indications
are collected from institutions. The variable, passively determined, non-discrete
prices can be linked to the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO) for each security,
or some other prevailing market indicator, at the time a trade is executed. In
an embodiment of the method and system, marketable retail orders which match with
one or more collected institutional indications, are routed from a Dynamic Order
Router (DOR) at each broker-dealer to a Central Order-Match Box (COMB) to be executed
against the one or more matched collected institutional indications. The COMB also
manages most other aspects of transactions in the method and system and continuously
executes trades against the collected institutional indications at improved prices
relative to the NBBO.