Trading-Process Characteristics of Electronic Auctions

Auctions are consolidated market institutions with formal process rules. They determine the range of processes that traders are allowed to conduct and need to be specified during electronic auction construction. This paper claims that trading process specifications do not need to start from scratch when a new auction system is built or an existing one is adapted to changed traders' needs. Trading process specification can rather start from templates of process rules so that rules just have to be selected and configured in order to specify the required auction type. This paper outlines that idea for a small family of auction types-the Closed, Japanese, Open and Double Auction. It provides a common rules set for these types. specifies each type through a selection of rules and relates types to each other in an auction taxonomy in order to show the common process characteristics they have.