Formally specifying an automated trade execution system
Abstract An automatic trade execution system is a software component that produces a sequence of trades out of a received buy and sell order sequence. The system must strictly follow predefined rules of priority setting, price determination, and quantity fixing. To ensure the achievement of this correctness property during system development and as a starting point for later verification, a formal specification of the system's behavior is necessary. This article presents the formal specification of a selected trade execution system applying the technique of trace specifications.