Order matching system

An electronic order matching system matches buy and sell orders for a security on a stock market, a commodity on commodity market or matching other types of electronically traded financial instruments such as futures contracts.

Electronic order matching was introduced in the early 1980s in the United States to supplement open outcry trading (for example the then Mid West Stock Exchange (now the Chicago Stock Exchange) launched the "MAX system, becoming one of the first stock exchanges to provide fully automated order execution" in 1982).