A system conducts anonymous negotiations and supports indications of
interest in trading stock. The system includes a database for storing
public orders received from a public stock trading system; and a server
for receiving hidden orders from a plurality of users and for conducting
anonymous negotiations between first and second users with the hidden
orders. The server repeatedly accesses the database to determine a match
of any one of the hidden orders with any one of the public orders, and to
execute a pair of orders selected from the hidden orders and the public
orders. The system also transmits indications of interest (IOIs) into a
trading environment using the server for processing a trading order from
a first user and for maintaining a profile of a user. The profile
includes a current IOI setting for controlling transmission of the IOI
from the user. The server responds to a toggle command from the first
user to control transmission of the IOI opposite to the current IOI
setting. The server responds to the IOI setting being set to allow
transmission by transmitting the IOI of the first user associated with
the trading order.