a securities trading system utilizes distributed data processing effected by a central processing station and a plurality of processing consoles all tied to a common network . the central station includes several computation sequences that can be used to compute the autocorrelation distribution function of any one security price to predict the probable price variation increment within a contract consummation interval , the cross correlation between various securities to determine any pattern of offsetting trades , and a reconciliation sequence to effect the securities transactions within the price variation increment . the autocorrelation and cross correlation sequences can be transferred for processing in one of the consoles , thereby allowing for a distributed processing arrangement of a plurality of securities patterns , and the computation results can be displayed on the console monitor that is interested in the particular security . a price increment selected for a particular level of probability is included in each buy and sell offer and if the offers intersect a transaction is consummated . the ratios of the buy and sell increments are then used to distribute the price overlap .