Apparatus and methods for automatically executing a trade of an item between a market participant who issues a request for a quote for an item and a market participant who responds to the request are provided. In some embodiments, an automatic trade may be conditioned upon the acknowledgement, by the participant who issues the request, of an obligation to execute the trade. In some embodiments, the invention may include one or more modules for receiving the request, receiving a quote, receiving a responsive number of units of the item to be traded, decrementing a time interval in which the participant who issues the request is required to trade, and, if that participant does not trade within the time interval, trading on behalf of that participant.