US Patent 8156036 Methods and systems related to trading engines

At least one aspect comprises a method comprising: (a) receiving electronic data describing a trading order from a market participant; (b) associating the trading order with one or more target brokers, (c) selecting with a processing system one or more first trading algorithms from a plurality of available stored algorithms for execution of the trading order; (d) commencing with the processing system execution of the trading order via the one or more first trading algorithms; (e) evaluating with the processing system quality of execution, during the execution, of the trading order via the one or more first trading algorithms; and (f) if the evaluated quality of execution compares unfavorably to a threshold of acceptability, switching with the processing system the execution of the trading order to one or more second trading algorithms, wherein the processing system comprises one or more processors.